The men's

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competition was one of eight events for male competitors in

artistic gymnastics Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different types of apparatus. The sport is governed by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique, Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), ...

at the

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. The qualification and final rounds took place on July 29, 31 and August 4 at

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’s

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. There were 71 competitors from 19 nations, with nations competing in the team event having 6 gymnasts while other nations could have to up to 3 gymnasts. The event was won by

Bart Conner Barthold Wayne Conner (born March 28, 1958) is a retired American Olympic gymnastics, gymnast. He was a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team and won two gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics. He owns and operates ...

of the United States, the nation's first victory in the parallel bars since 1904 and second overall. Another American, Mitch Gaylord, took bronze. Japan returned to the podium after the 1980 boycott broke its six-Games medal (and four-Games gold medal) streak, with

Nobuyuki Kajitani is a Japanese former gymnast who competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to ...

's silver.

Background

This was the 16th 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). None of the six finalists from 1980 returned; all six were from boycotting nations. American

had won the 1979 world championship, missing the 1980 Games due to the boycott. Koji Gushiken of Japan and Lou Yun of China had shared the 1981 and 1983 world championships, respectively, with Soviet gymnasts. Thus, even without the Soviets, there was a strong and competitive field for the event. The People's Republic of China and San Marino each made their debut in the men's parallel bars. The United States made its 14th appearance, breaking a tie with the absent Hungary for 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 1984 Games expanded the number of finalists from six to eight. Nations were still limited to two finalists each. Others were ranked 9th through 71st. Half of the preliminary score carried over to the final.Official Report, vol. 2, p. 444.

Schedule

All times are

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( UTC-7)

Results

Seventy-one gymnasts competed in the compulsory and optional rounds on July 29 and 31. The eight highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on August 4. 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.

References

Official Olympic Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gymnastics at the 1984 Summer Olympics - Men's parallel bars Men's parallel bars Men's 1984 Men's events at the 1984 Summer Olympics