Gymnastics at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's rings

Men's rings at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad
Dmitry Bilozerchev (1987, on pommel horse)
Venue	Olympic Gymnastics Hall
Dates	18–24 September
Competitors	89 from 23 nations
Medalists
Holger Behrendt  East Germany Dmitry Bilozerchev  Soviet Union Sven Tippelt  East Germany

The men's rings competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. The qualification and final rounds took place on September 18, 20, and 24th at the Olympic Gymnastics Hall. There were 89 competitors from 23 nations, with nations competing in the team event having 6 gymnasts and other nations having up to 3 gymnasts. For the second consecutive Games, the event ended in a way tie for first place. Dmitry Bilozerchev of the Soviet Union and Holger Behrendt of East Germany each received a gold medal. It was East Germany's first medal in the rings. The Soviets had had an eight-Games medal streak (and two-Games gold medal streak) in the event snapped by their boycott of the 1984 Games; Bilozerchev's medal put the nation back on the podium after that one-Games absence. Sven Tippelt, also of East Germany, took bronze.

Background

This was the 17th 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 eight finalists from 1984 returned: gold medalist Li Ning of China and eighth-place finisher Josef Zellweger of Switzerland. Two-time world champion Yuri Korolyov of the Soviet Union was injured and unable to compete in Seoul. Li had shared gold with Korolyov at the 1985 World Championships and silver with Dmitry Bilozerchev of the Soviet Union at the 1987 World Championships.

Chinese Taipei made its debut in the men's rings. The United States made its 15th appearance, most of any nation; the Americans had missed only the inaugural 1896 rings 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. Half of the preliminary score carried over to the final. The 1984 Games had expanded the number of finalists from six to eight. Nations were still limited to two finalists each. Others were ranked 9th through 89th.

Schedule

All times are Korea Standard Time adjusted for daylight savings (UTC+10)

Date	Time	Round
Sunday, 18 September 1988		Preliminary: Compulsory
Tuesday, 20 September 1988		Preliminary: Voluntary
Saturday, 24 September 1988	13:10	Final

Results

Eighty-nine gymnasts competed in the rings event during the compulsory and optional rounds on September 18 and 20. The eight highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on September 24. 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 each gymnast's "prelim" score.

Rank	Gymnast	Nation	Preliminary			Final
			Compulsory	Voluntary	Total	1⁄2 Prelim.	Final	Total
	Holger Behrendt	East Germany	9.90	10.00	19.90	9.950	9.975	19.925
	Dmitry Bilozerchev	Soviet Union	9.95	10.00	19.95	9.975	9.950	19.925
	Sven Tippelt	East Germany	9.90	9.95	19.85	9.925	9.950	19.875
4	Kalofer Khristozov	Bulgaria	9.90	9.90	19.80	9.900	9.925	19.825
	Valeri Liukin	Soviet Union	9.90	9.95	19.85	9.925	9.900	19.825
6	Lou Yun	China	9.80	9.90	19.70	9.850	9.950	19.800
	Jury Chechi	Italy	9.80	9.90	19.70	9.850	9.950	19.800
8	Gyorgy Guczoghy	Hungary	9.85	9.90	19.75	9.875	9.825	19.700
9	Vladimir Artemov	Soviet Union	9.90	9.90	19.80	Did not advance
	Sergey Kharkov	Soviet Union	9.90	9.90	19.80	Did not advance
11	Andreas Aguilar	West Germany	9.80	9.90	19.70	Did not advance
	Lubomir Geraskov	Bulgaria	9.80	9.90	19.70	Did not advance
	Sylvio Kroll	East Germany	9.80	9.90	19.70	Did not advance
	Vladimir Novikov	Soviet Union	9.80	9.90	19.70	Did not advance
	Xu Zhiqiang	China	9.80	9.90	19.70	Did not advance
16	Deyan Kolev	Bulgaria	9.80	9.85	19.65	Did not advance
	Marius Toba	Romania	9.85	9.80	19.65	Did not advance
18	Vladimir Gogoladze	Soviet Union	9.80	9.80	19.60	Did not advance
	Boris Preti	Italy	9.70	9.90	19.60	Did not advance
	Andreas Wecker	East Germany	9.80	9.80	19.60	Did not advance
21	Csaba Fajkusz	Hungary	9.70	9.85	19.55	Did not advance
	Stoyko Gochev	Bulgaria	9.70	9.85	19.55	Did not advance
	Yukio Iketani	Japan	9.80	9.75	19.55	Did not advance
	Toshiharu Sato	Japan	9.75	9.80	19.55	Did not advance
	Wang Chongsheng	China	9.75	9.80	19.55	Did not advance
26	Guo Linxian	China	9.70	9.80	19.50	Did not advance
	Li Chunyang	China	9.70	9.80	19.50	Did not advance
	Valentin Pîntea	Romania	9.75	9.75	19.50	Did not advance
29	Koichi Mizushima	Japan	9.65	9.80	19.45	Did not advance
	Daisuke Nishikawa	Japan	9.75	9.70	19.45	Did not advance
	Alfonso Rodríguez	Spain	9.70	9.75	19.45	Did not advance
	Dimitar Taskov	Bulgaria	9.65	9.80	19.45	Did not advance
	Josef Zellweger	Switzerland	9.70	9.75	19.45	Did not advance
34	Jürgen Brümmer	West Germany	9.70	9.70	19.40	Did not advance
	Ralf Büchner	East Germany	9.70	9.70	19.40	Did not advance
	Curtis Hibbert	Canada	9.70	9.70	19.40	Did not advance
	Zsolt Horváth	Hungary	9.60	9.80	19.40	Did not advance
	Song Yu-jin	South Korea	9.65	9.75	19.40	Did not advance
39	Paolo Bucci	Italy	9.55	9.80	19.35	Did not advance
	Philippe Chartrand	Canada	9.70	9.65	19.35	Did not advance
	Petar Georgiev	Bulgaria	9.65	9.70	19.35	Did not advance
	Marius Gherman	Romania	9.65	9.70	19.35	Did not advance
	Ulf Hoffmann	East Germany	9.65	9.70	19.35	Did not advance
	Li Ning	China	9.40	9.95	19.35	Did not advance
	Takahiro Yamada	Japan	9.70	9.65	19.35	Did not advance
46	Claude Carmona	France	9.70	9.60	19.30	Did not advance
	Hiroyuki Konishi	Japan	9.70	9.60	19.30	Did not advance
48	Zsolt Borkai	Hungary	9.80	9.45	19.25	Did not advance
	Christian Chevalier	France	9.45	9.80	19.25	Did not advance
	Brad Peters	Canada	9.70	9.55	19.25	Did not advance
	Miguel Ángel Rubio	Spain	9.60	9.65	19.25	Did not advance
52	Charles Lakes	United States	9.60	9.60	19.20	Did not advance
	Patrick Mattioni	France	9.55	9.65	19.20	Did not advance
	Park Jong-Hoon	South Korea	9.65	9.55	19.20	Did not advance
	Marian Rizan	Romania	9.55	9.65	19.20	Did not advance
56	Jenő Paprika	Hungary	9.50	9.65	19.15	Did not advance
	Thierry Pecqueux	France	9.40	9.75	19.15	Did not advance
58	Nicolae Bejenaru	Romania	9.55	9.55	19.10	Did not advance
	Kevin Davis	United States	9.50	9.60	19.10	Did not advance
	Scott Johnson	United States	9.30	9.80	19.10	Did not advance
	Riccardo Trapella	Italy	9.40	9.70	19.10	Did not advance
62	Johan Jonasson	Sweden	9.40	9.65	19.05	Did not advance
	Ju Yeong-sam	South Korea	9.75	9.30	19.05	Did not advance
	Dominick Minicucci Jr.	United States	9.55	9.50	19.05	Did not advance
65	Andrew Morris	Great Britain	9.50	9.50	19.00	Did not advance
	Adrian Sandu	Romania	9.55	9.45	19.00	Did not advance
67	Bruno Cavelti	Switzerland	9.35	9.60	18.95	Did not advance
	Alan Nolet	Canada	9.55	9.40	18.95	Did not advance
	Bernhard Simmelbauer	West Germany	9.45	9.50	18.95	Did not advance
70	Daniel Winkler	West Germany	9.50	9.40	18.90	Did not advance
71	Álvaro Montesinos	Spain	9.55	9.30	18.85	Did not advance
	Lance Ringnald	United States	9.30	9.55	18.85	Did not advance
73	Kenneth Meredith	Australia	9.30	9.50	18.80	Did not advance
	James Rozon	Canada	9.50	9.30	18.80	Did not advance
75	Frédéric Longuepée	France	9.15	9.55	18.70	Did not advance
76	Terry Bartlett	Great Britain	9.50	9.15	18.65	Did not advance
	Stéphane Cauterman	France	9.25	9.40	18.65	Did not advance
	Gabriele Sala	Italy	9.45	9.20	18.65	Did not advance
79	Mike Beckmann	West Germany	9.40	9.20	18.60	Did not advance
	Lorne Bobkin	Canada	9.45	9.15	18.60	Did not advance
81	Vittorio Allievi	Italy	9.15	9.40	18.55	Did not advance
82	Wes Suter	United States	9.15	9.35	18.50	Did not advance
83	Ralph Kern	West Germany	9.60	8.80	18.40	Did not advance
	Jože Kolman	Yugoslavia	9.10	9.30	18.40	Did not advance
85	Chang Chao-chun	Chinese Taipei	9.20	8.95	18.15	Did not advance
86	Gil Pinto	Brazil	8.80	9.30	18.10	Did not advance
87	Tony Piñeda	Mexico	8.60	9.40	18.00	Did not advance
88	Hélder Pinheiro	Portugal	8.70	9.25	17.95	Did not advance
89	Balázs Tóth	Hungary	9.65	0.00	9.65	Did not advance

References

• Official Olympic Report
• www.gymnasticsresults.com