Gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's rings

The men's rings competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. It was held from 3 to 7 December at the Melbourne Festival Hall. There were 63 competitors from 18 nations (down sharply from the 185 gymnasts in 1952), with nations in the team competition having up to 6 gymnasts and other nations entering up to 3 gymnasts.[1] The event was won by Albert Azaryan of the Soviet Union, the nation's second consecutive victory in the rings. Another Soviet, Valentin Muratov, took silver (the second consecutive silver in the event for the Soviets, as well). Masumi Kubota and Masao Takemoto earned Japan's first medals in the event, tying for bronze.

Men's rings
at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
Albert Azaryan depicted on Armenian stamp
VenueFestival Hall
Dates3–7 December
Competitors63 from 18 nations
Winning score19.35
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Albert Azaryan
 Soviet Union
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Valentin Muratov
 Soviet Union
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Masao Takemoto
 Japan
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Masumi Kubota
 Japan
← 1952
1960 →

Background

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This was the ninth 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 top 10 gymnasts from 1952 returned: silver medalist Viktor Chukarin and fifth-place finisher Valentin Muratov of the Soviet Union, sixth-place finisher Masao Takemoto of Japan, and seventh-place finisher Berndt Lindfors of Finland. At the 1954 world championships, the Soviet Union had swept the top 6 places, with Albert Azaryan the victor.[1]

Australia and Canada each made their debut in the men's rings; East and West Germany competed together as the United Team of Germany for the first time. The United States made its eighth appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the inaugural 1896 Games.

Competition format

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The gymnastics format continued to use the aggregation format, mostly following the scoring tweaks made in 1952. Each nation entered either 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 2 exercise scores were summed to give an apparatus total. No separate finals were contested.

Exercise scores ranged from 0 to 10 and apparatus scores from 0 to 20.[2]

Schedule

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All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

Date Time Round
Monday, 3 December 1956
Tuesday, 4 December 1956
Wednesday, 5 December 1956
Thursday, 6 December 1956
Friday, 7 December 1956
8:00 Final

Results

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Rank Gymnast Nation Compulsory Voluntary Total
  Albert Azaryan   Soviet Union 9.55 9.80 19.35
  Valentin Muratov   Soviet Union 9.60 9.55 19.15
  Masao Takemoto   Japan 9.60 9.50 19.10
Masami Kubota   Japan 9.60 9.50 19.10
5 Takashi Ono   Japan 9.50 9.55 19.05
Nobuyuki Aihara   Japan 9.55 9.50 19.05
7 Viktor Chukarin   Soviet Union 9.40 9.60 19.00
Shinsaku Tsukawaki   Japan 9.50 9.50 19.00
9 Ferdinand Daniš   Czechoslovakia 9.45 9.45 18.90
10 Yury Titov   Soviet Union 9.40 9.45 18.85
Berndt Lindfors   Finland 9.45 9.40 18.85
12 Pavel Stolbov   Soviet Union 9.40 9.40 18.80
Kalevi Suoniemi   Finland 9.30 9.50 18.80
14 Robert Klein   United Team of Germany 9.40 9.35 18.75
15 Boris Shakhlin   Soviet Union 9.35 9.35 18.70
Akira Kono   Japan 9.40 9.30 18.70
17 Dick Beckner   United States 9.35 9.30 18.65
18 Helmut Bantz   United Team of Germany 9.25 9.35 18.60
19 Vladimír Kejř   Czechoslovakia 9.30 9.20 18.50
20 Velik Kapsazov   Bulgaria 9.20 9.25 18.45
Armando Vega   United States 9.05 9.40 18.45
22 Zdeněk Růžička   Czechoslovakia 9.10 9.20 18.30
23 Josef Škvor   Czechoslovakia 9.15 9.05 18.20
Martti Mansikka   Finland 9.15 9.05 18.20
Attila Takács   Hungary 8.95 9.25 18.20
Hans Pfann   United Team of Germany 9.10 9.10 18.20
27 Onni Lappalainen   Finland 8.95 9.20 18.15
28 Jaroslav Bím   Czechoslovakia 8.90 9.20 18.10
János Héder   Hungary 8.90 9.20 18.10
30 Theo Wied   United Team of Germany 9.05 8.75 17.80
31 Jack Beckner   United States 8.70 9.05 17.75
32 Jaroslav Mikoška   Czechoslovakia 8.75 8.90 17.65
Erich Wied   United Team of Germany 8.70 8.95 17.65
34 Charles Simms   United States 8.70 8.80 17.50
Abie Grossfeld   United States 9.20 8.30 17.50
36 Raymond Dot   France 8.85 8.60 17.45
37 Josy Stoffel   Luxembourg 8.50 8.90 17.40
38 Frank Turner   Great Britain 8.75 8.50 17.25
Hans Sauter   Austria 8.55 8.70 17.25
40 Olavi Leimuvirta   Finland 8.75 8.40 17.15
41 Michel Mathiot   France 8.60 8.40 17.00
42 Nik Stuart   Great Britain 9.15 7.70 16.85
Bill Tom   United States 8.10 8.75 16.85
Ed Gagnier   Canada 8.40 8.45 16.85
45 Raimo Heinonen   Finland 7.85 8.90 16.75
46 Jean Guillou   France 8.60 8.00 16.60
William Thoresson   Sweden 8.20 8.40 16.60
48 Jakob Kiefer   United Team of Germany 8.35 8.15 16.50
49 John Lees   Australia 7.95 8.45 16.40
50 Rafael Lecuona   Cuba 7.70 8.30 16.00
51 Bruce Sharp   Australia 8.10 7.85 15.95
52 Ronnie Lombard   South Africa 7.60 8.30 15.90
53 Jack Wells   South Africa 7.35 8.50 15.85
54 Stoyan Stoyanov   Bulgaria 7.05 8.60 15.65
55 Mincho Todorov   Bulgaria 7.65 7.90 15.55
56 David Gourlay   Australia 7.55 7.90 15.45
57 Kurt Wigartz   Sweden 6.90 8.40 15.30
58 Graham Bond   Australia 7.00 7.85 14.85
59 Brian Blackburn   Australia 7.50 7.05 14.55
60 Noel Punton   Australia 6.80 7.55 14.35
61 Sham Lal   India 6.90 6.60 13.50
62 Pritam Singh   India 6.00 4.75 10.75
63 Anant Ram   India 4.75 2.00 6.75

References

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  1. ^ a b "Rings, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  2. ^ Official Report, p. 472.