Gymnastics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's rings

Men's rings at the Games of the XX Olympiad
Akinori Nakayama
Venue	Olympiahalle
Dates	27 August – 1 September
Competitors	111 from 26 nations
Medalists
Akinori Nakayama  Japan Mikhail Voronin  Soviet Union Mitsuo Tsukahara  Japan
← 1968 1976 →

The men's rings 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 111 competitors from 26 nations (with 2 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.^[1] The top two places were the same as in 1968, while the next two places were taken by the same gymnasts but in the opposite order. The event was won by Akinori Nakayama of Japan, the nation's third consecutive victory in the men's rings; Nakayama was the second man to successfully defend an Olympic title in the event. Mikhail Voronin's second consecutive silver extended the Soviet Union's podium streak in the rings to six Games. Nakayama and Voronin were the fifth and sixth men to earn multiple medals in the rings. Mitsuo Tsukahara of Japan took bronze, switching places with fourth-place finisher Sawao Kato from the previous Games (where Kato took bronze and Tsukahara fourth).

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 Sawao Kato of Japan, and fourth-place finisher Mitsuo Tsukahara of Japan. Nakayama, Tsukahara, and Voronin (in that order) had comprised the podium at the 1970 World Championships.^[1]

Liechtenstein, New Zealand, and North Korea each made their debut in the men's rings. 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.^[1][2]

Schedule[]

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Results[]

One-hundred eleven 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	1⁄2 Prelim.	Final	Total
	Akinori Nakayama	Japan	9.70	9.70	19.40	9.700	9.650	19.350
	Mikhail Voronin	Soviet Union	9.60	9.65	19.25	9.625	9.650	19.275
	Mitsuo Tsukahara	Japan	9.45	9.60	19.05	9.525	9.700	19.225
4	Sawao Kato	Japan	9.50	9.60	19.10	9.550	9.600	19.150
5	Eizo Kenmotsu	Japan	9.60	9.50	19.10	9.550	9.400	18.950
	Klaus Köste	East Germany	9.45	9.55	19.00	9.500	9.450	18.950
7	Nikolai Andrianov	Soviet Union	9.50	9.50	19.00	Did not advance
8	Shin Heung-do	North Korea	9.30	9.65	18.95	Did not advance
9	Teruichi Okamura	Japan	9.45	9.45	18.90	Did not advance
10	Andrzej Szajna	Poland	9.40	9.45	18.85	Did not advance
	Wolfgang Thüne	East Germany	9.50	9.35	18.85	Did not advance
12	Matthias Brehme	East Germany	9.40	9.40	18.80	Did not advance
	Shigeru Kasamatsu	Japan	9.30	9.50	18.80	Did not advance
	Sylwester Kubica	Poland	9.30	9.50	18.80	Did not advance
	Edvard Mikaelian	Soviet Union	9.45	9.35	18.80	Did not advance
16	Viktor Klimenko	Soviet Union	9.40	9.30	18.70	Did not advance
	Wolfgang Klotz	East Germany	9.40	9.30	18.70	Did not advance
	Walter Mossinger	West Germany	9.30	9.40	18.70	Did not advance
19	Makoto Sakamoto	United States	9.35	9.30	18.65	Did not advance
20	Dan Grecu	Romania	9.20	9.30	18.50	Did not advance
	Mikolaj Kubica	Poland	9.20	9.30	18.50	Did not advance
22	Li Song-sob	North Korea	8.90	9.50	18.40	Did not advance
	Alexander Maleev	Soviet Union	9.25	9.15	18.40	Did not advance
	Vladimir Schukin	Soviet Union	9.10	9.30	18.40	Did not advance
	Günter Spies	West Germany	9.20	9.20	18.40	Did not advance
26	Eberhard Gienger	West Germany	9.10	9.25	18.35	Did not advance
	Kim Song-yu	North Korea	9.00	9.35	18.35	Did not advance
28	Marshall Avener	United States	9.15	9.15	18.30	Did not advance
29	Jifi Fejtek	Czechoslovakia	9.15	9.10	18.25	Did not advance
	Imre Molnár	Hungary	9.10	9.15	18.25	Did not advance
31	Peter Rohner	Switzerland	9.15	9.05	18.20	Did not advance
	Reinhard Rychly	East Germany	9.00	9.20	18.20	Did not advance
33	Janez Brodnik	Yugoslavia	9.05	9.05	18.10	Did not advance
	Ho Yun-hang	North Korea	8.95	9.15	18.10	Did not advance
	Wilhelm Kubica	Poland	8.80	9.30	18.10	Did not advance
	Petre Mihaiuc	Romania	8.90	9.20	18.10	Did not advance
37	Steven Hug	United States	9.00	9.05	18.05	Did not advance
	Vladislav Nehasil	Czechoslovakia	9.05	9.00	18.05	Did not advance
	Nicolae Oprescu	Romania	9.00	9.05	18.05	Did not advance
40	István Kiss	Hungary	8.90	9.10	18.00	Did not advance
41	Jo Jong-ryol	North Korea	8.70	9.25	17.95	Did not advance
42	Antal Kisteleki	Hungary	9.00	8.90	17.90	Did not advance
	Mauno Nissinen	Finland	8.90	9.00	17.90	Did not advance
	Pavel Stanovsky	Czechoslovakia	8.95	8.95	17.90	Did not advance
	Mieczyslaw Strzalka	Poland	8.80	9.10	17.90	Did not advance
46	Reinhard Ritter	West Germany	8.95	8.85	17.80	Did not advance
47	George Greenfield	United States	8.85	8.90	17.75	Did not advance
	Zoltán Magyar	Hungary	9.00	8.75	17.75	Did not advance
49	Philippe Gaille	Switzerland	8.85	8.85	17.70	Did not advance
	Kim Song-il	North Korea	8.70	9.00	17.70	Did not advance
	Jürgen Paeke	East Germany	8.50	9.20	17.70	Did not advance
52	Dimitar Koychev	Bulgaria	8.90	8.75	17.65	Did not advance
	Ladislav Morava	Czechoslovakia	8.80	8.85	17.65	Did not advance
54	Edwin Greutmann	Switzerland	9.00	8.60	17.60	Did not advance
55	Jorge Cuervo	Cuba	8.75	8.80	17.55	Did not advance
	Jerzy Kruza	Poland	8.55	9.00	17.55	Did not advance
	Miloš Vratič	Yugoslavia	8.75	8.80	17.55	Did not advance
58	Max Brühwiler	Switzerland	8.60	8.90	17.50	Did not advance
	Heinz Häussler	West Germany	8.55	8.95	17.50	Did not advance
	Cecilio Ugarte	Spain	8.65	8.85	17.50	Did not advance
61	Bernd Effing	West Germany	8.60	8.85	17.45	Did not advance
	Gheorghe Paunescu	Romania	8.60	8.85	17.45	Did not advance
63	Adolfo Lampronti	Italy	8.50	8.85	17.35	Did not advance
64	Jim Culhane Jr.	United States	8.50	8.80	17.30	Did not advance
65	Dimitar Dimitrov	Bulgaria	8.65	8.55	17.20	Did not advance
	Ivica Hmjelovac	Yugoslavia	8.50	8.70	17.20	Did not advance
	Bohumil Mudrik	Czechoslovakia	8.45	8.75	17.20	Did not advance
	Stefan Zoev	Bulgaria	8.60	8.60	17.20	Did not advance
69	Henri Boërio	France	8.55	8.60	17.15	Did not advance
	Ivan Kondev	Bulgaria	8.40	8.75	17.15	Did not advance
	Jean-Pierre Miens	France	8.65	8.50	17.15	Did not advance
	Fedele Spatazza	Italy	8.60	8.55	17.15	Did not advance
73	Maurizio Milanetto	Italy	8.30	8.80	17.10	Did not advance
74	Emilio Sagre	Cuba	8.45	8.60	17.05	Did not advance
75	Christian Deuza	France	8.10	8.90	17.00	Did not advance
	Drago Sostaric	Yugoslavia	8.40	8.60	17.00	Did not advance
77	René Badell	Cuba	8.20	8.75	16.95	Did not advance
	István Bérczi	Hungary	8.55	8.40	16.95	Did not advance
	Bernard Farjat	France	8.30	8.65	16.95	Did not advance
	Mircea Gheorghiu	Romania	8.35	8.60	16.95	Did not advance
	Constantin Petrescu	Romania	8.30	8.65	16.95	Did not advance
	Jorge Rodriguez	Cuba	8.50	8.45	16.95	Did not advance
83	Tore Lie	Norway	8.25	8.65	16.90	Did not advance
	Geno Radev	Bulgaria	8.40	8.50	16.90	Did not advance
85	John Crosby Jr.	United States	7.85	9.00	16.85	Did not advance
	Christian Guiffroy	France	8.10	8.75	16.85	Did not advance
	Carmine Luppino	Italy	8.00	8.85	16.85	Did not advance
88	Luigi Coppa	Italy	8.25	8.55	16.80	Did not advance
	Milenko Kersnic	Yugoslavia	8.05	8.75	16.80	Did not advance
90	Zoran Ivanovic	Yugoslavia	8.15	8.60	16.75	Did not advance
	Bill Norgrave	Great Britain	8.55	8.20	16.75	Did not advance
92	Béla Herczeg	Hungary	8.50	8.20	16.70	Did not advance
	Bozhidar Iliev	Bulgaria	8.85	7.85	16.70	Did not advance
94	Robert Bretscher	Switzerland	7.50	9.10	16.60	Did not advance
	Franco Donega	Italy	7.95	8.65	16.60	Did not advance
96	Eddie Arnold	Great Britain	8.50	8.00	16.50	Did not advance
97	André Simard	Canada	7.70	8.75	16.45	Did not advance
98	Peter Lloyd	Australia	8.15	8.10	16.25	Did not advance
	Agustin Sandoval	Spain	8.00	8.25	16.25	Did not advance
100	Roberto Léon Richards	Cuba	7.75	8.45	16.20	Did not advance
101	Luis Ramirez	Cuba	7.55	8.60	16.15	Did not advance
102	Ian Clarke	Australia	8.15	7.90	16.05	Did not advance
	Georges Guelzec	France	7.45	8.60	16.05	Did not advance
104	Bruno Banzer	Liechtenstein	7.45	8.55	16.00	Did not advance
	Steve Mitruk	Canada	7.75	8.25	16.00	Did not advance
106	José Ginés	Spain	7.55	8.30	15.85	Did not advance
	Stan Wild	Great Britain	8.00	7.85	15.85	Did not advance
108	Rogelio Mendoza	Mexico	6.90	8.35	15.25	Did not advance
109	Ole Benediktson	Denmark	6.90	8.25	15.15	Did not advance
110	Terry Sale	New Zealand	6.60	7.35	13.95	Did not advance
111	Miloslav Netusil	Czechoslovakia	9.05	0.00	9.05	Did not advance
—	Hans Ettlin	Switzerland	DNS			Did not advance
	Bruce Medd	Canada	DNS			Did not advance

References[]

• Official Olympic Report
• www.gymnasticsresults.com
• www.gymn-forum.net