The men's pommel horse competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The qualification and final rounds took place on July 20, 22 and 25 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.[1] The event was won by Zoltán Magyar of Hungary, the third man to successfully defend an Olympic title in the pommel horse. Silver went to Alexander Dityatin, extending the Soviet Union's podium streak in the event to eight Games. Michael Nikolay of East Germany took bronze for the second consecutive Games. Magyar and Nikolay were the sixth and seventh men to earn multiple pommel horse medals.
| Men's pommel horse at the Games of the XXII Olympiad | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Zoltán Magyar (1976) | ||||||||||
| Venue | Luzhniki Palace of Sports | |||||||||
| Dates | 20–25 July | |||||||||
| Competitors | 65 from 14 nations | |||||||||
| Winning score | 19.925 | |||||||||
| Medalists | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
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). Four of the six finalists from 1976 returned: gold medalist Zoltán Magyar of Hungary, bronze medalists Nikolai Andrianov of the Soviet Union and Michael Nikolay of East Germany, and sixth-place finisher Alexander Dityatin of the Soviet Union. Magyar had also won the last three world championships (1974, 1978, and 1979) and was a heavy favorite. The American-led boycott resulted in there being no competitors from either the traditional men's gymnastics power of Japan or the rising power of the United States; the Soviets' dominance this Games would be challenged only by the East Germans and occasional specialists such as Magyar (on the men's side, at least; Romania had a strong women's team).[1]
Brazil made its debut in the men's pommel horse. Hungary made its 13th appearance, tying the United States (absent from the pommel horse 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.[1][2]
Schedule
All times are Moscow Time (UTC+3)
| Date | Time | Round |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday, 20 July 1980 | 10:00 17:00 | Preliminary: Compulsory |
| Tuesday, 22 July 1980 | 10:00 17:00 | Preliminary: Voluntary |
| Friday, 25 July 1980 | 14:30 | Final |
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.
| Rank | Gymnast | Nation | Preliminary | Final | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compulsory | Voluntary | Total | 1⁄2 Prelim. | Final | Total | |||
 | Zoltán Magyar |  Hungary | 9.90 | 9.95 | 19.85 | 9.925 | 10.000 | 19.925 |
 | Alexander Dityatin |  Soviet Union | 9.90 | 9.90 | 19.80 | 9.900 | 9.900 | 19.800 |
 | Michael Nikolay |  East Germany | 9.90 | 9.85 | 19.75 | 9.875 | 9.900 | 19.775 |
| 4 | Roland Brückner | East Germany | 9.80 | 9.85 | 19.65 | 9.825 | 9.900 | 19.725 |
| 5 | Aleksandr Tkachyov | Soviet Union | 9.90 | 9.85 | 19.75 | 9.875 | 9.600 | 19.475 |
| 6 | Ferenc Donáth | Hungary | 9.75 | 9.85 | 19.60 | 9.800 | 9.600 | 19.400 |
| 7 | Eduard Azaryan | Soviet Union | 9.80 | 9.90 | 19.70 | Did not advance | ||
| 8 | Nikolai Andrianov | Soviet Union | 9.75 | 9.85 | 19.60 | Did not advance | ||
| Vladimir Markelov | Soviet Union | 9.80 | 9.80 | 19.60 | Did not advance | |||
| 10 | Stoyan Deltchev |  Bulgaria | 9.65 | 9.85 | 19.50 | Did not advance | ||
| 11 | Lutz Hoffmann | East Germany | 9.70 | 9.75 | 19.45 | Did not advance | ||
| Bohdan Makuts | Soviet Union | 9.70 | 9.75 | 19.45 | Did not advance | |||
| 13 | György Guczoghy | Hungary | 9.65 | 9.75 | 19.40 | Did not advance | ||
| 14 | Michel Boutard |  France | 9.60 | 9.75 | 19.35 | Did not advance | ||
| Andreas Bronst | East Germany | 9.60 | 9.75 | 19.35 | Did not advance | |||
| Romulus Bucuroiu |  Romania | 9.65 | 9.70 | 19.35 | Did not advance | |||
| Kurt Szilier | Romania | 9.65 | 9.70 | 19.35 | Did not advance | |||
| 18 | Roberto Leon |  Cuba | 9.65 | 9.65 | 19.30 | Did not advance | ||
| 19 | Rudolf Babiak |  Czechoslovakia | 9.45 | 9.75 | 19.20 | Did not advance | ||
| Ralf-Peter Hemmann | East Germany | 9.50 | 9.70 | 19.20 | Did not advance | |||
| Zoltán Kelemen | Hungary | 9.50 | 9.70 | 19.20 | Did not advance | |||
| 22 | Miloslav Kučeřík | Czechoslovakia | 9.45 | 9.70 | 19.15 | Did not advance | ||
| Joël Suty | France | 9.50 | 9.65 | 19.15 | Did not advance | |||
| 24 | Péter Kovács | Hungary | 9.35 | 9.75 | 19.10 | Did not advance | ||
| 25 | Plamen Petkov | Bulgaria | 9.40 | 9.65 | 19.05 | Did not advance | ||
| Jiří Tabák | Czechoslovakia | 9.55 | 9.50 | 19.05 | Did not advance | |||
| 27 | Enrique Bravo | Cuba | 9.55 | 9.45 | 19.00 | Did not advance | ||
| 28 | Sorin Cepoi | Romania | 9.45 | 9.50 | 18.95 | Did not advance | ||
| 29 | Dan Grecu | Romania | 9.25 | 9.65 | 18.90 | Did not advance | ||
| Andrzej Szajna |  Poland | 9.30 | 9.60 | 18.90 | Did not advance | |||
| Dancho Yordanov | Bulgaria | 9.40 | 9.50 | 18.90 | Did not advance | |||
| 32 | Jan Zoulik | Czechoslovakia | 9.00 | 9.80 | 18.80 | Did not advance | ||
| 33 | István Vámos | Hungary | 9.25 | 9.50 | 18.75 | Did not advance | ||
| 34 | Miguel Arroyo | Cuba | 9.45 | 9.25 | 18.70 | Did not advance | ||
| Henri Boerio | France | 9.45 | 9.25 | 18.70 | Did not advance | |||
| Willi Moy | France | 9.30 | 9.40 | 18.70 | Did not advance | |||
| 37 | Yves Bouquel | France | 9.50 | 9.05 | 18.55 | Did not advance | ||
| Krzysztof Potaczek | Poland | 9.55 | 9.00 | 18.55 | Did not advance | |||
| Thomas Wilson | Great Britain | 9.25 | 9.30 | 18.55 | Did not advance | |||
| Barry Winch | Great Britain | 9.25 | 9.30 | 18.55 | Did not advance | |||
| 41 | Aurelian Georgescu | Romania | 8.90 | 9.60 | 18.50 | Did not advance | ||
| 42 | Jorge Roche | Cuba | 9.40 | 9.05 | 18.45 | Did not advance | ||
| 43 | Lutz Mack | East Germany | 8.80 | 9.60 | 18.40 | Did not advance | ||
| Rumen Petkov | Bulgaria | 9.00 | 9.40 | 18.40 | Did not advance | |||
| 45 | Ognyan Bangiev | Bulgaria | 9.25 | 9.10 | 18.35 | Did not advance | ||
| 46 | Lindsay Nylund | Australia | 8.90 | 9.35 | 18.25 | Did not advance | ||
| 47 | Nicolae Oprescu | Romania | 8.85 | 9.35 | 18.20 | Did not advance | ||
| Waldemar Woźniak | Poland | 8.85 | 9.35 | 18.20 | Did not advance | |||
| 49 | Yanko Radanchev | Bulgaria | 8.60 | 9.55 | 18.15 | Did not advance | ||
| 50 | Mario Castro | Cuba | 9.15 | 8.80 | 17.95 | Did not advance | ||
| 51 | Gabriel Calvo |  Spain | 9.00 | 8.90 | 17.90 | Did not advance | ||
| 52 | Fernando Bertrand | Spain | 9.05 | 8.80 | 17.85 | Did not advance | ||
| José de la Casa | Spain | 8.95 | 8.90 | 17.85 | Did not advance | |||
| Marc Touchais | France | 9.00 | 8.85 | 17.85 | Did not advance | |||
| 55 | Han Gwang-song |  North Korea | 8.80 | 8.90 | 17.70 | Did not advance | ||
| Keith Langley | Great Britain | 9.05 | 8.65 | 17.70 | Did not advance | |||
| Jan Migdau | Czechoslovakia | 8.50 | 9.20 | 17.70 | Did not advance | |||
| 58 | Jozef Konečný | Czechoslovakia | 8.05 | 9.55 | 17.60 | Did not advance | ||
| 59 | Cho Hun | North Korea | 8.40 | 9.15 | 17.55 | Did not advance | ||
| 60 | Song Sun-bong | North Korea | 8.35 | 8.85 | 17.20 | Did not advance | ||
| Sergio Suarez | Cuba | 8.95 | 8.25 | 17.20 | Did not advance | |||
| 62 | Kang Gwang-song | North Korea | 7.55 | 9.45 | 17.00 | Did not advance | ||
| 63 | João Luiz Ribeiro |  Brazil | 8.55 | 8.30 | 16.85 | Did not advance | ||
| 64 | Li Su-gil | North Korea | 8.00 | 8.65 | 16.65 | Did not advance | ||
| 65 | Kim Gwang-jin | North Korea | 7.95 | 8.60 | 16.55 | Did not advance | ||
| — | Moustapha Chouara |  Lebanon | DNS | Did not advance | ||||
| Adnan Horns | Lebanon | DNS | Did not advance | |||||
| Maurizio Zonzini | San Marino | DNS | Did not advance | |||||