The men's parallel bars competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. The qualification and final rounds took place July 27, 29 and August 2 at the Palau dels Esports de Barcelona. There were 93 competitors from 25 nations, with nations in the team event having 6 gymnasts while other nations could have up to 3 gymnasts.[1] The event was won by Vitaly Scherbo of the Unified Team, the third time in four Games that a Soviet or former Soviet gymnast won the rings. Li Jing of China earned silver. There was a three-way tie for third, with Igor Korobchinski of the Unified Team, Guo Linyao of China, and Masayuki Matsunaga of Japan each receiving bronze medals. They were the first medals for China in the parallel bars.
| Men's parallel bars at the Games of the XXV Olympiad | ||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Palau dels Esports de Barcelona | |||||||||||||||
| Dates | 27 July – 2 August | |||||||||||||||
| Competitors | 93 from 25 nations | |||||||||||||||
| Winning score | 9.900 | |||||||||||||||
| Medalists | ||||||||||||||||
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Background
This was the 18th 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). Six of the eight finalists from 1988 returned: bronze medalist Sven Tippelt of East Germany, fourth-place finisher Kalofer Khristozov of Bulgaria, fifth-place finisher Marius Gherman of Romania, sixth-place finisher Curtis Hibbert of Canada, seventh-place finisher Sylvio Kroll of East Germany, and eighth-place finisher Boris Preti of Italy. Li Jing of China had earned gold at the last three world championships (1989, 1991, and 1992), sharing the top place on the podium twice with Soviet (or former Soviet) gymnasts, in 1989 with Vladimir Artemov (who was not competing in Barcelona) and in 1992 with Aleksey Voropayev (who was).[1]
Puerto Rico and Slovenia each made their debut in the men's parallel bars; Russia and eleven other former Soviet republics competed as the Unified Team. The United States made its 16th 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. The top eight gymnasts, with a limit of two per nation, advanced to the final. In a change from previous years, the preliminary score had no effect on the final; once the eight finalists were selected, their ranking depended only on the final exercise. Non-finalists were ranked 9th through 93rd based on preliminary score.[1][2]
Schedule
All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)
| Date | Time | Round |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday, 29 July 1992 | Preliminary | |
| Sunday, 2 August 1992 | 23:00 | Final |
Results
Ninety-one gymnasts competed in the parallel bars event during the compulsory and optional rounds on July 27 and 29. The eight highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on August 2. Each country was limited to two competitors in the final.
| Rank | Gymnast | Nation | Preliminary | Final | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compulsory | Voluntary | Total | ||||
 | Vitaly Scherbo |  Unified Team | 9.900 | 9.825 | 19.725 | 9.900 |
 | Li Jing |  China | 9.750 | 9.750 | 19.500 | 9.812 |
 | Ihor Korobchynskyi | Unified Team | 9.800 | 9.800 | 19.600 | 9.800 |
| Guo Linyao | China | 9.725 | 9.700 | 19.425 | 9.800 | |
| Masayuki Matsunaga |  Japan | 9.575 | 9.775 | 19.350 | 9.800 | |
| 6 | Jair Lynch |  United States | 9.550 | 9.700 | 19.250 | 9.712 |
| 7 | Andreas Wecker |  Germany | 9.700 | 9.675 | 19.375 | 9.612 |
| 8 | Daisuke Nishikawa | Japan | 9.725 | 9.625 | 19.350 | 9.575 |
| 9 | Valery Belenky | Unified Team | 9.800 | 9.775 | 19.575 | Did not advance |
| 10 | Grigory Misutin | Unified Team | 9.750 | 9.800 | 19.550 | Did not advance |
| 11 | Li Xiaoshuang | China | 9.775 | 9.600 | 19.375 | Did not advance |
| 12 | Aleksey Voropayev | Unified Team | 9.650 | 9.700 | 19.350 | Did not advance |
| 13 | Li Chunyang | China | 9.750 | 9.550 | 19.300 | Did not advance |
| Yoshiaki Hatakeda | Japan | 9.675 | 9.625 | 19.300 | Did not advance | |
| Yukio Iketani | Japan | 9.550 | 9.750 | 19.300 | Did not advance | |
| Yutaka Aihara | Japan | 9.650 | 9.650 | 19.300 | Did not advance | |
| 17 | Lee Joo-hyung |  South Korea | 9.675 | 9.550 | 19.225 | Did not advance |
| 18 | Paolo Bucci |  Italy | 9.550 | 9.650 | 19.200 | Did not advance |
| Takashi Chinen | Japan | 9.575 | 9.625 | 19.200 | Did not advance | |
| 20 | Zoltán Supola |  Hungary | 9.525 | 9.650 | 19.175 | Did not advance |
| Rustam Sharipov | Unified Team | 9.700 | 9.475 | 19.175 | Did not advance | |
| 22 | Boris Preti | Italy | 9.475 | 9.675 | 19.150 | Did not advance |
| Sylvio Kroll | Germany | 9.650 | 9.500 | 19.150 | Did not advance | |
| 24 | Kalofer Hristozov |  Bulgaria | 9.525 | 9.600 | 19.125 | Did not advance |
| M. Chris Waller | United States | 9.600 | 9.525 | 19.125 | Did not advance | |
| Marian Rizan |  Romania | 9.550 | 9.575 | 19.125 | Did not advance | |
| Marius Gherman | Romania | 9.525 | 9.600 | 19.125 | Did not advance | |
| Han Yun-su | South Korea | 9.475 | 9.650 | 19.125 | Did not advance | |
| 29 | Jeong Jin-su | South Korea | 9.500 | 9.600 | 19.100 | Did not advance |
| Patrice Casimir |  France | 9.575 | 9.525 | 19.100 | Did not advance | |
| 31 | Ralf Büchner | Germany | 9.525 | 9.550 | 19.075 | Did not advance |
| 32 | Michael Engeler |  Switzerland | 9.550 | 9.500 | 19.050 | Did not advance |
| Alessandro Viligiardi | Italy | 9.475 | 9.575 | 19.050 | Did not advance | |
| Oliver Walther | Germany | 9.575 | 9.475 | 19.050 | Did not advance | |
| Scott Keswick | United States | 9.575 | 9.475 | 19.050 | Did not advance | |
| 36 | Curtis Hibbert |  Canada | 9.550 | 9.475 | 19.025 | Did not advance |
| 37 | Alfonso Rodríguez |  Spain | 9.475 | 9.525 | 19.000 | Did not advance |
| 38 | Adrian Gal | Romania | 9.450 | 9.525 | 18.975 | Did not advance |
| Daniel Giubellini | Switzerland | 9.475 | 9.500 | 18.975 | Did not advance | |
| Li Ge | China | 9.475 | 9.500 | 18.975 | Did not advance | |
| 41 | Li Dashuang | China | 9.525 | 9.425 | 18.950 | Did not advance |
| Trent Dimas | United States | 9.625 | 9.325 | 18.950 | Did not advance | |
| 43 | Miklós Pánczél | Hungary | 9.400 | 9.525 | 18.925 | Did not advance |
| Neil Thomas |  Great Britain | 9.550 | 9.375 | 18.925 | Did not advance | |
| Nicolae Bejenaru | Romania | 9.450 | 9.475 | 18.925 | Did not advance | |
| 46 | James May | Great Britain | 9.450 | 9.450 | 18.900 | Did not advance |
| Sébastien Darrigade | France | 9.400 | 9.500 | 18.900 | Did not advance | |
| Sven Tippelt | Germany | 9.525 | 9.375 | 18.900 | Did not advance | |
| 49 | Dominick Minicucci Jr. | United States | 9.425 | 9.425 | 18.850 | Did not advance |
| Ruggero Rossato | Italy | 9.450 | 9.400 | 18.850 | Did not advance | |
| Szilveszter Csollány | Hungary | 9.350 | 9.500 | 18.850 | Did not advance | |
| 52 | Deyan Kolev | Bulgaria | 9.400 | 9.425 | 18.825 | Did not advance |
| Yoo Ok-ryul | South Korea | 9.450 | 9.375 | 18.825 | Did not advance | |
| 54 | Han Gwang-ho | South Korea | 9.300 | 9.500 | 18.800 | Did not advance |
| John Roethlisberger | United States | 9.500 | 9.300 | 18.800 | Did not advance | |
| Miguel Ángel Rubio | Spain | 9.425 | 9.375 | 18.800 | Did not advance | |
| Gabriele Sala | Italy | 9.325 | 9.475 | 18.800 | Did not advance | |
| 58 | Csaba Fajkusz | Hungary | 9.325 | 9.450 | 18.775 | Did not advance |
| Krasimir Dunev | Bulgaria | 9.375 | 9.400 | 18.775 | Did not advance | |
| Yordan Yovchev | Bulgaria | 9.450 | 9.325 | 18.775 | Did not advance | |
| 61 | Pae Gil-su |  North Korea | 9.400 | 9.325 | 18.725 | Did not advance |
| Nicu Stroia | Romania | 9.350 | 9.375 | 18.725 | Did not advance | |
| Oliver Grimm | Switzerland | 9.350 | 9.375 | 18.725 | Did not advance | |
| 64 | Cho Hun | North Korea | 9.300 | 9.400 | 18.700 | Did not advance |
| 65 | Johan Jonasson |  Sweden | 9.275 | 9.400 | 18.675 | Did not advance |
| Fabrice Guelzec | France | 9.475 | 9.200 | 18.675 | Did not advance | |
| 67 | Adrian Sandu | Romania | 9.300 | 9.350 | 18.650 | Did not advance |
| Yeo Hong-cheol | South Korea | 9.325 | 9.325 | 18.650 | Did not advance | |
| Jože Kolman |  Slovenia | 9.200 | 9.450 | 18.650 | Did not advance | |
| Terry Bartlett | Great Britain | 9.300 | 9.350 | 18.650 | Did not advance | |
| 71 | Martin Modlitba |  Czechoslovakia | 9.050 | 9.575 | 18.625 | Did not advance |
| Ron Kaplan |  Israel | 9.350 | 9.275 | 18.625 | Did not advance | |
| 73 | Luis López |  Mexico | 9.400 | 9.200 | 18.600 | Did not advance |
| 74 | Arnold Bugár | Czechoslovakia | 9.150 | 9.375 | 18.525 | Did not advance |
| 75 | Brennon Dowrick |  Australia | 9.175 | 9.325 | 18.500 | Did not advance |
| Sin Myong-su | North Korea | 9.100 | 9.400 | 18.500 | Did not advance | |
| 77 | Gianmatteo Centazzo | Italy | 9.325 | 9.125 | 18.450 | Did not advance |
| Marco Monteiro |  Brazil | 9.200 | 9.250 | 18.450 | Did not advance | |
| 79 | Ilian Aleksandrov | Bulgaria | 9.325 | 9.100 | 18.425 | Did not advance |
| 80 | Mario Franke | Germany | 9.575 | 8.800 | 18.375 | Did not advance |
| 81 | Markus Müller | Switzerland | 8.900 | 9.425 | 18.325 | Did not advance |
| Flavio Rota | Switzerland | 8.950 | 9.375 | 18.325 | Did not advance | |
| 83 | Erich Wanner | Switzerland | 8.975 | 9.325 | 18.300 | Did not advance |
| 84 | Károly Schupkégel | Hungary | 9.200 | 9.025 | 18.225 | Did not advance |
| 85 | Isidro Ibarrondo |  Argentina | 9.000 | 9.125 | 18.125 | Did not advance |
| 86 | Mike Inglis | Canada | 8.800 | 9.275 | 18.075 | Did not advance |
| 87 | Alan Nolet | Canada | 9.225 | 8.825 | 18.050 | Did not advance |
| 88 | Georgi Lozanov | Bulgaria | 9.100 | 8.850 | 17.950 | Did not advance |
| 89 | David Cox | Great Britain | 8.500 | 9.100 | 17.600 | Did not advance |
| 90 | Róbert Élő | Hungary | 8.250 | 9.150 | 17.400 | Did not advance |
| 91 | Marvin Campbell | Great Britain | 8.750 | 8.450 | 17.200 | Did not advance |
| 92 | Victor Colon |  Puerto Rico | 9.225 | — | 9.225 | Did not advance |
| 93 | Paul Bowler | Great Britain | 9.150 | — | 9.150 | Did not advance |