The men's

horizontal bar The horizontal bar, also known as the high bar, is an apparatus used by male gymnasts in artistic gymnastics. It traditionally consists of a cylindrical metal (typically steel) bar that is rigidly held above and parallel to the floor by a syste ...

competition was one of eight events for male competitors in

artistic gymnastics Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates ...

at the 1980 Summer Olympics in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

. The qualification and final rounds took place on July 20, 22 and 25th at the Luzhniki Palace of Sports. There were 65 competitors from 14 nations, with nations competing in the team event having 6 gymnasts while other nations could have to up to 3 gymnasts. The event was won by

Stoyan Deltchev Stoyan Deltchev ( bg, Стоян Делчев, born in Plovdiv, July 3, 1959) is a Bulgarian gymnast and Olympic champion. He competed at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow where he received a gold medal in ''horizontal bar'' and a bronze medal ...

of Bulgaria, the nation's first medal in the horizontal bar. The Soviet Union took silver (

Alexander Dityatin Aleksandr Nikolaevich Dityatin (russian: Александр Николаевич Дитятин, born 7 August 1957) is a retired Soviet/Russian gymnast, three-time Olympic champion, and ''Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR''. Winning eight m ...

) and bronze (

Nikolai Andrianov Nikolai Yefimovich Andrianov (russian: Никола́й Ефи́мович Андриа́нов; 14 October 1952 – 21 March 2011) was a Soviet and Russian gymnast. He held the record for men for the most Olympic medals at 15 (7 gold medals, ...

), reaching the podium for the first time since 1968. Japan's three-Games gold medal streak ended, with no Japanese gymnasts competing due to the American-led boycott.

Background

This was the 15th appearance of the event, which is one of the five apparatus events held every time there were apparatus events at the Summer Olympics (no apparatus events were held in 1900, 1908, 1912, or 1920). Two of the six finalists from 1976 returned: bronze medalist

Henri Boerio Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry. People with this given name ; French noblemen :'' See the 'List of rulers named Henry' for Kings of France named Henri.'' * Henri I de Montm ...

of France and Ferenc Donath of Hungary. Japan had dominated the apparatus for decades, but would not compete in 1980 due to the American-led boycott. The reigning (1979) world champion, American Kurt Thomas, was also out due to the boycott. The Soviet Union, which had failed to medal in the apparatus the last two Games, had a strong team that looked likely to end that drought.

of Bulgaria, fourth at the 1979 world championships, was the strongest contender against the Soviets. Brazil made its debut in the men's horizontal bar. Hungary made its 13th appearance, tying the United States (absent from the parallel bars event for the first time since the inaugural 1896 Games) for most of any nation.

Competition format

Each nation entered a team of six gymnasts or up to three individual gymnasts. All entrants in the gymnastics competitions performed both a compulsory exercise and a voluntary exercise for each apparatus. The scores for all 12 exercises were summed to give an individual all-around score. These exercise scores were also used for qualification for the apparatus finals. The two exercises (compulsory and voluntary) for each apparatus were summed to give an apparatus score. The top 6 in each apparatus participated in the finals, except that nations were limited to two finalists each; others were ranked 7th through 65th. Half of the preliminary score carried over to the final.Official Report, vol. 3, p. 313.

Schedule

All times are

Moscow Time Moscow Time (MSK, russian: моско́вское вре́мя) is the time zone for the city of Moscow, Russia, and most of western Russia, including Saint Petersburg. It is the second-westernmost of the eleven time zones of Russia. It has b ...

(

UTC+3 UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours later than the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, a time with this offset would be wri ...

)

Results

Sixty-five gymnasts competed in the compulsory and optional rounds on July 20 and 22. The six highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on July 25. Each country was limited to two competitors in the final. Half of the points earned by each gymnast during both the compulsory and optional rounds carried over to the final. This constitutes the "prelim" score.

References

Official Olympic Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gymnastics at the 1980 Summer Olympics - Men's horizontal bar Men's horizontal bar Men's 1980 Men's events at the 1980 Summer Olympics