Gymnastics at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's horizontal bar

The men's horizontal bar competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. The qualification and final rounds took place on September 18, 20 and 24th at the Olympic Gymnastics Hall. There were 89 competitors from 23 nations, with nations competing in the team event having 6 gymnasts and other nations having up to 3 gymnasts. There were ties for both gold and bronze medals. The Soviet Union took two golds, as Vladimir Artemov and Valeri Liukin finished even at the top spot; they were the Soviets' first gold medals in the horizontal bar since 1968, and moved the Soviet Union past the United States and Switzerland into second most all-time golds in the event (after Japan with six). Bronze medals went to Holger Behrendt of East Germany and Marius Gherman of Romania, the first medal in the event for both nations. It was the first time since 1964 that Japanese gymnasts competed but did not win the event.

Men's horizontal bar at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad
Valeri Liukin, on 1987 Soviet stamp (rings)
Venue	Olympic Gymnastics Hall
Dates	18–24 September
Competitors	89 from 23 nations
Winning score	19.900
Medalists
Vladimir Artemov  Soviet Union Valeri Liukin  Soviet Union Holger Behrendt  East Germany Marius Gherman  Romania

Background

This was the 17th 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). Only one of the eight finalists from 1984 returned: fourth-place finisher Lou Yun of China. Dmitry Bilozerchev of the Soviet Union was the reigning (1987) world champion, with the rest of the worlds podium consisting of Canadian Curtis Hibbert (silver), East German Holger Behrendt, and Hungarian Zsolt Borkai (the latter two tied for bronze).

Chinese Taipei made its debut in the men's horizontal bar. The United States made its 15th appearance, most of any nation; the Americans had missed only the inaugural 1896 event and the boycotted 1980 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. 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. Half of the preliminary score carried over to the final. The 1984 Games had expanded the number of finalists from six to eight. Nations were still limited to two finalists each. Others were ranked 9th through 89th.

Schedule

All times are Korea Standard Time adjusted for daylight savings (UTC+10)

Date	Time	Round
Sunday, 18 September 1988		Preliminary: Compulsory
Tuesday, 20 September 1988		Preliminary: Voluntary
Saturday, 24 September 1988	14:50	Final

Results

Eighty-nine gymnasts competed in the horizontal bar event during the compulsory and optional rounds on September 18 and 20. The eight highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on September 24. 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.

Rank	Gymnast	Nation	Preliminary			Final
			Compulsory	Voluntary	Total	1⁄2 Prelim.	Final	Total
	Vladimir Artemov	Soviet Union	9.90	10.00	19.90	9.950	9.950	19.900
	Valeri Liukin	Soviet Union	9.90	9.95	19.85	9.925	9.975	19.900
	Holger Behrendt	East Germany	9.75	9.95	19.70	9.850	9.950	19.800
	Marius Gherman	Romania	9.80	9.90	19.70	9.850	9.950	19.800
5	Wang Chongsheng	China	9.90	9.85	19.75	9.875	9.900	19.775
6	Xu Zhiqiang	China	9.90	9.80	19.70	9.850	9.850	19.700
7	Curtis Hibbert	Canada	9.80	9.90	19.70	9.850	9.825	19.675
8	Andreas Wecker	East Germany	9.80	9.90	19.70	9.850	9.650	19.500
9	Csaba Fajkusz	Hungary	9.75	9.90	19.65	Did not advance
	Yukio Iketani	Japan	9.90	9.75	19.65	Did not advance
	Daisuke Nishikawa	Japan	9.80	9.85	19.65	Did not advance
12	Li Ning	China	9.80	9.80	19.60	Did not advance
	Koichi Mizushima	Japan	9.85	9.75	19.60	Did not advance
	Vladimir Novikov	Soviet Union	9.70	9.90	19.60	Did not advance
15	Philippe Chartrand	Canada	9.75	9.80	19.55	Did not advance
	Stoyko Gochev	Bulgaria	9.75	9.80	19.55	Did not advance
	Vladimir Gogoladze	Soviet Union	9.65	9.90	19.55	Did not advance
	Sergey Kharkov	Soviet Union	9.65	9.90	19.55	Did not advance
	Patrick Mattioni	France	9.75	9.80	19.55	Did not advance
	Balázs Tóth	Hungary	9.80	9.75	19.55	Did not advance
21	Ralf Büchner	East Germany	9.70	9.80	19.50	Did not advance
	Kalofer Khristozov	Bulgaria	9.70	9.80	19.50	Did not advance
	Charles Lakes	United States	9.80	9.70	19.50	Did not advance
24	Zsolt Borkai	Hungary	9.80	9.65	19.45	Did not advance
	Christian Chevalier	France	9.65	9.80	19.45	Did not advance
	Dimitar Taskov	Bulgaria	9.65	9.80	19.45	Did not advance
	Marius Toba	Romania	9.65	9.80	19.45	Did not advance
	Brad Peters	Canada	9.75	9.70	19.45	Did not advance
	Lance Ringnald	United States	9.70	9.75	19.45	Did not advance
30	Thierry Pecqueux	France	9.70	9.70	19.40	Did not advance
31	Dmitry Bilozerchev	Soviet Union	9.90	9.45	19.35	Did not advance
	Li Chunyang	China	9.65	9.70	19.35	Did not advance
	Lou Yun	China	9.80	9.55	19.35	Did not advance
	Park Jong-Hoon	South Korea	9.65	9.70	19.35	Did not advance
35	Alfonso Rodríguez	Spain	9.50	9.80	19.30	Did not advance
	Hiroyuki Konishi	Japan	9.70	9.60	19.30	Did not advance
	Adrian Sandu	Romania	9.60	9.70	19.30	Did not advance
38	Gyorgy Guczoghy	Hungary	9.55	9.70	19.25	Did not advance
	Ulf Hoffmann	East Germany	9.55	9.70	19.25	Did not advance
	Zsolt Horváth	Hungary	9.60	9.65	19.25	Did not advance
	Johan Jonasson	Sweden	9.55	9.70	19.25	Did not advance
	Ju Yeong-sam	South Korea	9.60	9.65	19.25	Did not advance
	Alan Nolet	Canada	9.60	9.65	19.25	Did not advance
	Marian Rizan	Romania	9.50	9.75	19.25	Did not advance
	Daniel Winkler	West Germany	9.60	9.65	19.25	Did not advance
	Takahiro Yamada	Japan	9.60	9.65	19.25	Did not advance
47	James Rozon	Canada	9.65	9.55	19.20	Did not advance
	Sven Tippelt	East Germany	9.80	9.40	19.20	Did not advance
	Deyan Kolev	Bulgaria	9.60	9.60	19.20	Did not advance
50	Bruno Cavelti	Switzerland	9.60	9.55	19.15	Did not advance
	Sylvio Kroll	East Germany	9.25	9.90	19.15	Did not advance
52	Nicolae Bejenaru	Romania	9.50	9.60	19.10	Did not advance
	Paolo Bucci	Italy	9.65	9.45	19.10	Did not advance
	Lubomir Geraskov	Bulgaria	9.70	9.40	19.10	Did not advance
	Jenő Paprika	Hungary	9.60	9.50	19.10	Did not advance
56	Boris Preti	Italy	9.80	9.25	19.05	Did not advance
	Toshiharu Sato	Japan	9.80	9.25	19.05	Did not advance
58	Andreas Aguilar	West Germany	9.40	9.60	19.00	Did not advance
	Terry Bartlett	Great Britain	9.30	9.70	19.00	Did not advance
	Gabriele Sala	Italy	9.60	9.40	19.00	Did not advance
	Song Yu-jin	South Korea	9.50	9.50	19.00	Did not advance
	Wes Suter	United States	9.35	9.65	19.00	Did not advance
63	Petar Georgiev	Bulgaria	9.50	9.45	18.95	Did not advance
	Dominick Minicucci Jr.	United States	9.45	9.50	18.95	Did not advance
65	Valentin Pîntea	Romania	9.35	9.55	18.90	Did not advance
66	Jury Chechi	Italy	9.20	9.65	18.85	Did not advance
	Kevin Davis	United States	9.60	9.25	18.85	Did not advance
68	Lorne Bobkin	Canada	9.75	9.05	18.80	Did not advance
	Riccardo Trapella	Italy	9.50	9.30	18.80	Did not advance
70	Guo Linxian	China	9.65	9.10	18.75	Did not advance
	Ralph Kern	West Germany	9.45	9.30	18.75	Did not advance
	Frédéric Longuepée	France	9.25	9.50	18.75	Did not advance
	Gil Pinto	Brazil	9.35	9.40	18.75	Did not advance
74	Vittorio Allievi	Italy	9.55	9.15	18.70	Did not advance
75	Claude Carmona	France	9.45	9.20	18.65	Did not advance
	Álvaro Montesinos	Spain	9.35	9.30	18.65	Did not advance
	Bernhard Simmelbauer	West Germany	9.05	9.60	18.65	Did not advance
78	Mike Beckmann	West Germany	9.45	9.15	18.60	Did not advance
	Miguel Ángel Rubio	Spain	8.80	9.80	18.60	Did not advance
	Josef Zellweger	Switzerland	9.50	9.10	18.60	Did not advance
81	Stéphane Cauterman	France	8.90	9.60	18.50	Did not advance
82	Scott Johnson	United States	8.75	9.60	18.35	Did not advance
83	Chang Chao-chun	Chinese Taipei	9.00	8.95	17.95	Did not advance
84	Kenneth Meredith	Australia	8.75	9.15	17.90	Did not advance
85	Jürgen Brümmer	West Germany	8.55	9.30	17.85	Did not advance
85	Jože Kolman	Yugoslavia	8.25	9.60	17.85	Did not advance
87	Andrew Morris	Great Britain	8.80	8.80	17.60	Did not advance
88	Hélder Pinheiro	Portugal	9.20	8.35	17.55	Did not advance
89	Tony Piñeda	Mexico	9.50	2.00	11.50	Did not advance

References

• Official Olympic Report
• www.gymnasticsresults.com