Gymnastics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's pommel horse

The men's pommel horse event at the 2020 Summer Olympics was held on 24 July and 1 August 2021 at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre.[1] Approximately 70 gymnasts from 35 nations (of the 98 total gymnasts) competed on pommel horse in the qualifying round.[2]

Men's pommel horse
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Olympic artistic gymnastics
VenueAriake Gymnastics Centre
Date24 July 2021 (qualifying)
1 August 2021 (final)
Competitors8 from 7 nations
Winning score15.583 points
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Max Whitlock  Great Britain
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Lee Chih-kai  Chinese Taipei
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Kazuma Kaya  Japan
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Official Video Highlights

Defending champion Max Whitlock of Great Britain repeated as Olympic champion to win his third Olympic title and sixth Olympic medal overall. Chinese Taipei's Lee Chih-kai won silver to earn Chinese Taipei's first Olympic medal in artistic gymnastics. Kazuma Kaya of Japan completed the podium with bronze, moving up from seventh in qualifications.

Background

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This was the 25th 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).

Qualification

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A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 6 qualified gymnasts: a team of 4 and up to 2 specialists. A total of 98 quota places are allocated to men's gymnastics.

The 12 teams that qualify will be able to send 4 gymnasts in the team competition, for a total of 48 of the 98 quota places. The top three teams at the 2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships (China, Russia, and Japan) and the top nine teams (excluding those already qualified) at the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships (Ukraine, Great Britain, Switzerland, the United States, Chinese Taipei, South Korea, Brazil, Spain, and Germany) earned team qualification places.

The remaining 50 quota places are awarded individually. Each gymnast can only earn one place, except that gymnasts that competed with a team that qualified are eligible to earn a second place through the 2020 All Around World Cup Series. Some of the individual events are open to gymnasts from NOCs with qualified teams, while others are not. These places are filled through various criteria based on the 2019 World Championships, the 2020 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series, continental championships, a host guarantee, and a Tripartite Commission invitation.

Each of the 98 qualified gymnasts are eligible for the pommel horse competition, but many gymnasts do not compete in each of the apparatus events.

The COVID-19 pandemic delayed many of the events for qualifying for gymnastics. The 2018 and 2019 World Championships were completed on time, but many of the World Cup series events were delayed into 2021.

Competition format

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The top 8 qualifiers in the qualification phase (limit two per NOC) advanced to the apparatus final. The finalists performed an additional exercise. Qualification scores were then ignored, with only final round scores counting.

Schedule

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The competition was held over two days, 24 July and 1 August. The qualifying round (for all men's gymnastics events) was the first day with the apparatus final on the second day.[1]

Date Time Round Subdivision
24 July 10:00 Qualification Subdivision 1
14:30 Subdivision 2
19:30 Subdivision 3
1 August 18:41 Final
All times are local time (UTC+09:00).

Results

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Qualifying

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Rank Gymnast D Score E Score Pen. Total Qual.
1[a]   Lee Chih-kai (TPE) 6.4 8.866 15.266 Q
2[a]   Rhys McClenaghan (IRL) 6.5 8.766 Q
  Kohei Kameyama (JPN) Q
4   Alec Yoder (USA) 6.4 8.800 15.200 Q
5   Max Whitlock (GBR) 6.8 8.100 14.900 Q
6   Sun Wei (CHN) 6.3 8.533 14.833 Q
7   Kazuma Kaya (JPN) 6.4 8.433 14.833 Q
8   Daiki Hashimoto (JPN) 6.5 8.266 14.766
9   David Belyavskiy (ROC) 6.4 8.333 14.733 Q
10   Matvei Petrov (ALB) 6.5 8.233 14.733 R1
11   Joe Fraser (GBR) 6.3 8.366 14.666 R2
12   Zou Jingyuan (CHN) 5.9 8.700 14.600 R3
Reserves

The reserves for the men's pommel horse final were:

  1.   Matvei Petrov (ALB)
  2.   Joe Fraser (GBR)
  3.   Zou Jingyuan (CHN)

Only two gymnasts from each country may advance to the event final. Gymnasts who did not qualify for the final because of the quota, but had high enough scores to do so were:

Final

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Rank Gymnast D Score E Score Pen. Total
    Max Whitlock (GBR) 7.0 8.583 15.583
    Lee Chih-kai (TPE) 6.7 8.700 15.400
    Kazuma Kaya (JPN) 6.6 8.300 14.900
4   David Belyavskiy (ROC) 6.4 8.433 14.833
5   Kohei Kameyama (JPN) 6.8 7.800 14.600
6   Alec Yoder (USA) 6.4 8.166 14.566
7   Rhys McClenaghan (IRL) 6.4 6.700 13.100
8   Sun Wei (CHN) 6.3 6.766 13.066

[3]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b The top three on pommel horse all had a total score of 15.266 points, but in accordance with the FIG's tie-breaking criteria,[4] Lee Chih-kai was placed first due to his E-score (8.866) being higher than that of the other two gymnasts, Rhys McClenaghan and Kohei Kameyama (8.766). McClenaghan and Kameyama had identical D-scores of 6.5, and were thus tied in second place.[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Artistic Gymnastics Competition Schedule". Tokyo 2020. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  2. ^ "Qualification System – Games of the XXXII Olympiad – Artistic Gymnastics" (PDF). International Gymnastics Federation. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  3. ^ "Artistic Gymnastics: Men's Pommel Horse Final – Results" (PDF). International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
  4. ^ "Technical Regulations 2020 (amended, valid until 31.12.2021)" (PDF). International Gymnastics Federation. Retrieved 28 July 2021. Qualification for Apparatus Finals
    In case of a tie in points, at any place on any apparatus, except for vault, in qualification for Apparatus Finals, the ranking will be determined by the following criteria:
    1. the gymnast with the highest E-score prevails
    2. the gymnast with the highest D-score prevails
    If they remain tied, the gymnasts will share the same classification
  5. ^ "Artistic Gymnastics: Men's Qualification – Results" (PDF). International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 July 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2021.