Gymnastics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's parallel bars
Introduction The men's parallel bars competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The qualification and final rounds took place on August 27, 29 and September 1 at the Olympiahalle. There were 112 competitors from 26 nations (with 1 of the 113 gymnasts not starting in this apparatus); nations entering the team event had 6 gymnasts while other nations could have up to 3 gymnasts. Japan reached the height of its success in the event this year: putting four men into the six-man final and sweeping the medals. Sawao Kato earned Japan's third consecutive gold medal in the parallel bars, tying Switzerland for most golds all-time; Kato would break that tie in 1976 with his second (and Japan's fourth) gold medal. Shigeru Kasamatsu took silver while Eizo Kenmotsu earned bronze.
Background This was the 13th 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). Four of the six finalists from 1968 returned: gold medalist Akinori Nakayama of Japan, silver medalist Mikhail Voronin of the Soviet Union, bronze medalist Viktor Klimenko of the Soviet Union, and fifth-place finisher Eizo Kenmotsu of Japan. Nakayama had also won the 1970 world championship, with Voronin and Kenmotsu tied for second.Liechtenstein, New Zealand, and North Korea each made their debut in the men's parallel bars. The United States made its 12th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the inaugural 1896 Games.
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. (One gymnast who entered the all-around competition did not perform on the vault.) 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; others were ranked 7th through 111th. Half of the scores from the preliminary carried over to the final.
Schedule All times are Central European Time (UTC+1) Date Time Round Monday, 27 August 1972  '''11:15''''''19:00'''  '''Preliminary: Compulsory''' Wednesday, 29 August 1972  '''10:00''''''18:00'''  '''Preliminary: Voluntary''' Saturday, 1 September 1972  '''19:30'''  '''Final'''
Results One-hundred twelve gymnasts competed in the compulsory and optional rounds on August 27 and 29.The six highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on September 1.Rank  Gymnast  Nation  Preliminary  Final Compulsory  Voluntary  Total   Prelim. Final  Total   Sawao Kato    9.60  9.75  '''19.35'''  9.675  9.800  '''19.475'''   Shigeru Kasamatsu    9.55  9.70  '''19.25'''  9.625  9.750  '''19.375'''   Eizo Kenmotsu    9.65  9.65  '''19.30'''  9.650  9.600  '''19.250''' 4  Viktor Klimenko    9.65  9.60  '''19.25'''  9.625  9.500  '''19.125''' 5  Akinori Nakayama    9.60  9.65  '''19.25'''  9.625  9.250  '''18.875''' 6  Nikolai Andrianov    9.50  9.55  '''19.05'''  9.525  8.450  '''17.975''' 7  Eberhard Gienger    9.50  9.55  '''19.05'''  Did not advance Mikhail Voronin    9.60  9.45  '''19.05'''  Did not advance 9  Klaus Köste    9.50  9.50  '''19.00'''  Did not advance 10  Günter Spies    9.55  9.40  '''18.95'''  Did not advance 11  Mikolaj Kubica    9.40  9.45  '''18.85'''  Did not advance Edvard Mikaelian    9.50  9.35  '''18.85'''  Did not advance Mitsuo Tsukahara    9.35  9.50  '''18.85'''  Did not advance 14  Teruichi Okamura    9.35  9.40  '''18.75'''  Did not advance 15  Matthias Brehme    9.30  9.35  '''18.65'''  Did not advance Wolfgang Thüne    9.30  9.35  '''18.65'''  Did not advance 17  Wolfgang Klotz    9.25  9.35  '''18.60'''  Did not advance Alexander Maleev    9.35  9.25  '''18.60'''  Did not advance Peter Rohner    9.30  9.30  '''18.60'''  Did not advance Makoto Sakamoto    9.30  9.30  '''18.60'''  Did not advance Andrzej Szajna    9.25  9.35  '''18.60'''  Did not advance 22  Li Song-sob    9.25  9.30  '''18.55'''  Did not advance Walter Mossinger    9.35  9.20  '''18.55'''  Did not advance 24  Janez Brodnik    9.20  9.30  '''18.50'''  Did not advance Sylwester Kubica    9.15  9.35  '''18.50'''  Did not advance Imre Molnár    9.40  9.10  '''18.50'''  Did not advance 27  Max Brühwiler    9.15  9.30  '''18.45'''  Did not advance Kim Song-yu    9.15  9.30  '''18.45'''  Did not advance 29  Steven Hug    9.10  9.30  '''18.40'''  Did not advance Wilhelm Kubica    9.10  9.30  '''18.40'''  Did not advance Reinhard Rychly    9.20  9.20  '''18.40'''  Did not advance 32  Béla Herczeg    9.15  9.20  '''18.35'''  Did not advance Milenko Kersnic    9.10  9.25  '''18.35'''  Did not advance Kim Song-il    9.15  9.20  '''18.35'''  Did not advance Mauno Nissinen    8.95  9.40  '''18.35'''  Did not advance 36  Jürgen Paeke    9.00  9.30  '''18.30'''  Did not advance Geno Radev    9.00  9.30  '''18.30'''  Did not advance 38  Bernd Effing    9.00  9.25  '''18.25'''  Did not advance Petre Mihaiuc    9.10  9.15  '''18.25'''  Did not advance Ladislav Morava    9.05  9.20  '''18.25'''  Did not advance Roberto Léon Richards    8.95  9.30  '''18.25'''  Did not advance 42  Jifi Fejtek    9.05  9.15  '''18.20'''  Did not advance Edwin Greutmann    8.95  9.25  '''18.20'''  Did not advance Reinhard Ritter    9.10  9.10  '''18.20'''  Did not advance 45  Vladislav Nehasil    8.95  9.20  '''18.15'''  Did not advance Vladimir Schukin    9.00  9.15  '''18.15'''  Did not advance 47  Robert Bretscher    8.90  9.20  '''18.10'''  Did not advance Jorge Cuervo    8.90  9.20  '''18.10'''  Did not advance Ho Yun-hang    9.00  9.10  '''18.10'''  Did not advance István Kiss    9.10  9.00  '''18.10'''  Did not advance Bohumil Mudrik    9.05  9.05  '''18.10'''  Did not advance 52  Dan Grecu    9.00  9.05  '''18.05'''  Did not advance Christian Guiffroy    9.05  9.00  '''18.05'''  Did not advance Zoltán Magyar    9.00  9.05  '''18.05'''  Did not advance Miloš Vratič    8.90  9.15  '''18.05'''  Did not advance 56  István Bérczi    8.85  9.10  '''17.95'''  Did not advance Shin Heung-do    9.00  8.95  '''17.95'''  Did not advance 58  John Crosby Jr.    8.65  9.25  '''17.90'''  Did not advance Drago Sostaric    8.85  9.05  '''17.90'''  Did not advance 60  Franco Donega    8.85  9.00  '''17.85'''  Did not advance Carmine Luppino    8.70  9.15  '''17.85'''  Did not advance Jean-Pierre Miens    8.85  9.00  '''17.85'''  Did not advance 63  Ole Benediktson    8.65  9.15  '''17.80'''  Did not advance Jo Jong-ryol    8.55  9.25  '''17.80'''  Did not advance Heinz Häussler    8.70  9.10  '''17.80'''  Did not advance Zoran Ivanovic    8.85  8.95  '''17.80'''  Did not advance Gheorghe Paunescu    8.70  9.10  '''17.80'''  Did not advance 68  Christian Deuza    8.85  8.90  '''17.75'''  Did not advance Ivica Hmjelovac    8.80  8.95  '''17.75'''  Did not advance Antal Kisteleki    8.90  8.85  '''17.75'''  Did not advance 71  Mircea Gheorghiu    9.05  8.65  '''17.70'''  Did not advance 72  Jim Culhane Jr.    8.65  9.00  '''17.65'''  Did not advance Jerzy Kruza    8.60  9.05  '''17.65'''  Did not advance Adolfo Lampronti    8.60  9.05  '''17.65'''  Did not advance 75  René Badell    8.60  9.00  '''17.60'''  Did not advance José Ginés    8.70  8.90  '''17.60'''  Did not advance Stefan Zoev    8.65  8.95  '''17.60'''  Did not advance 78  Georges Guelzec    8.45  9.05  '''17.50'''  Did not advance Ivan Kondev    8.55  8.95  '''17.50'''  Did not advance Constantin Petrescu    8.55  8.95  '''17.50'''  Did not advance 81  Henri Boërio    8.15  9.30  '''17.45'''  Did not advance Bernard Farjat    8.65  8.80  '''17.45'''  Did not advance Cecilio Ugarte    8.50  8.95  '''17.45'''  Did not advance 84  Tore Lie    8.70  8.65  '''17.35'''  Did not advance 85  Marshall Avener    8.10  9.15  '''17.25'''  Did not advance Luigi Coppa    8.35  8.90  '''17.25'''  Did not advance Rogelio Mendoza    8.45  8.80  '''17.25'''  Did not advance 88  Bozhidar Iliev    8.40  8.80  '''17.20'''  Did not advance Agustin Sandoval    8.55  8.65  '''17.20'''  Did not advance Bruno Banzer    8.70  8.50  '''17.20'''  Did not advance 91  Maurizio Milanetto    8.10  9.05  '''17.15'''  Did not advance Pavel Stanovsky    8.25  8.90  '''17.15'''  Did not advance 93  Dimitar Dimitrov    8.50  8.60  '''17.10'''  Did not advance Luis Ramirez    8.20  8.90  '''17.10'''  Did not advance Fedele Spatazza    8.80  8.30  '''17.10'''  Did not advance 96  Dimitar Koychev    8.30  8.75  '''17.05'''  Did not advance Ian Clarke    8.45  8.60  '''17.05'''  Did not advance 98  Eddie Arnold    8.40  8.60  '''17.00'''  Did not advance 99  George Greenfield    7.75  9.05  '''16.80'''  Did not advance Stan Wild    8.00  8.80  '''16.80'''  Did not advance 101  Philippe Gaille    7.70  9.05  '''16.75'''  Did not advance 102  Jorge Rodriguez    7.85  8.80  '''16.65'''  Did not advance André Simard    7.90  8.75  '''16.65'''  Did not advance Mieczyslaw Strzalka    8.30  8.35  '''16.65'''  Did not advance 105  Peter Lloyd    8.60  8.00  '''16.60'''  Did not advance 106  Bill Norgrave    7.90  8.45  '''16.35'''  Did not advance 107  Emilio Sagre    8.30  7.95  '''16.25'''  Did not advance 108  Steve Mitruk    7.80  8.40  '''16.20'''  Did not advance 109  Nicolae Oprescu    7.25  8.85  '''16.10'''  Did not advance 110  Terry Sale    6.65  8.50  '''15.15'''  Did not advance 111  Miloslav Netusil    9.25  0.00  '''9.25'''  Did not advance 112  Bruce Medd    6.30  0.00  '''6.30'''  Did not advance —  Hans Ettlin      Did not advance
References * Official Olympic Report* www.gymnasticsresults.com* www.gymn-forum.net