Gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's pommel horse

The men's pommel horse 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 Boris Shakhlin of the Soviet Union, the nation's second consecutive victory in the pommel horse. Takashi Ono earned Japan's first medal in the event with his silver. Soviet Viktor Chukarin became the first man to win multiple medals in the pommel horse, adding a bronze to his 1952 gold.

Men's pommel horse
at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
Artistic gymnastics pictogram
VenueFestival Hall
Date3–7 December
Competitors63 from 18 nations
Winning score19.25
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Boris Shakhlin
 Soviet Union
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Takashi Ono
 Japan
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Viktor Chukarin
 Soviet Union
← 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). Two of the top 10 gymnasts from 1952 returned: gold medalist Viktor Chukarin of the Soviet Union and sixth-place finisher Hans Sauter of Austria. Reigning world champion and Olympic silver medalist Hrant Shahinyan of the Soviet Union did not compete; Chukarin at third place in the worlds was the highest placed gymnast to come to Melbourne.[1]

Australia and Canada each made their debut in the men's pommel horse; 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
  Boris Shakhlin   Soviet Union 9.50 9.75 19.25
  Takashi Ono   Japan 9.50 9.70 19.20
  Viktor Chukarin   Soviet Union 9.50 9.60 19.10
4 Josef Škvor   Czechoslovakia 9.45 9.60 19.05
5 Yury Titov   Soviet Union 9.45 9.55 19.00
6 Jaroslav Bím   Czechoslovakia 9.35 9.60 18.95
7 Masao Takemoto   Japan 9.45 9.45 18.90
Pavel Stolbov   Soviet Union 9.40 9.50 18.90
9 Valentin Muratov   Soviet Union 9.45 9.35 18.80
Kalevi Suoniemi   Finland 9.35 9.45 18.80
Berndt Lindfors   Finland 9.45 9.35 18.80
12 Nobuyuki Aihara   Japan 9.35 9.40 18.75
Helmut Bantz   United Team of Germany 9.35 9.40 18.75
Josy Stoffel   Luxembourg 9.30 9.45 18.75
Albert Azaryan   Soviet Union 9.25 9.50 18.75
16 Martti Mansikka   Finland 9.30 9.35 18.65
Masami Kubota   Japan 9.35 9.30 18.65
Olavi Leimuvirta   Finland 9.35 9.30 18.65
Velik Kapsazov   Bulgaria 9.30 9.35 18.65
20 Akira Kono   Japan 9.00 9.60 18.60
21 Nik Stuart   Great Britain 9.30 9.25 18.55
22 Shinsaku Tsukawaki   Japan 9.20 9.25 18.45
Onni Lappalainen   Finland 9.05 9.40 18.45
Attila Takács   Hungary 9.10 9.35 18.45
25 Jack Beckner   United States 9.30 9.10 18.40
26 Ferdinand Daniš   Czechoslovakia 9.40 8.85 18.25
Vladimír Kejř   Czechoslovakia 9.15 9.10 18.25
28 Hans Pfann   United Team of Germany 9.25 8.95 18.20
Michel Mathiot   France 9.20 9.00 18.20
30 Raimo Heinonen   Finland 8.90 9.25 18.15
Charles Simms   United States 9.35 8.80 18.15
32 Jaroslav Mikoška   Czechoslovakia 9.35 8.75 18.10
33 Jakob Kiefer   United Team of Germany 9.20 8.85 18.05
Rafael Lecuona   Cuba 8.90 9.15 18.05
Ronnie Lombard   South Africa 9.05 9.00 18.05
36 Robert Klein   United Team of Germany 8.95 9.05 18.00
37 Theo Wied   United Team of Germany 8.90 9.05 17.95
38 Kurt Wigartz   Sweden 8.85 9.00 18.85
Zdeněk Růžička   Czechoslovakia 9.15 8.70 17.85
Stoyan Stoyanov   Bulgaria 9.10 8.75 17.85
Jean Guillou   France 9.40 8.45 17.85
János Héder   Hungary 8.80 9.05 17.85
43 Raymond Dot   France 8.70 9.10 17.80
44 Bill Tom   United States 8.60 9.15 17.75
45 William Thoresson   Sweden 8.90 8.80 17.70
Ed Gagnier   Canada 8.50 9.20 17.70
47 Dick Beckner   United States 8.70 8.80 17.50
48 Jack Wells   South Africa 8.70 8.75 17.45
49 Mincho Todorov   Bulgaria 8.50 8.90 17.40
50 Armando Vega   United States 8.60 8.75 17.35
51 Abie Grossfeld   United States 8.65 8.65 17.30
Erich Wied   United Team of Germany 8.60 8.70 17.30
53 Frank Turner   Great Britain 8.55 7.80 16.35
54 John Lees   Australia 7.70 7.85 15.55
55 David Gourlay   Australia 7.50 7.20 14.70
56 Graham Bond   Australia 6.95 7.00 13.95
57 Noel Punton   Australia 5.50 7.10 12.60
58 Brian Blackburn   Australia 5.00 7.10 12.10
59 Bruce Sharp   Australia 5.65 4.95 10.60
60 Pritam Singh   India 4.50 5.75 10.25
61 Sham Lal   India 3.40 6.60 10.00
62 Hans Sauter   Austria 9.10 9.10
63 Anant Ram   India 2.00 6.25 8.25

References

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