Gymnastics at the 1968 Summer Olympics

Gymnastics
at the Games of the XIX Olympiad
VenueNational Auditorium
Dates21 October – 26 October 1968

At the 1968 Summer Olympics, fourteen different artistic gymnastics events were contested, eight for men and six for women. All events were held at the National Auditorium in Mexico City from October 21 through October 26.[1]

Format of competition

The scoring in all the events was similar to that of the gymnastics events at the 1960 Summer Olympics. The six best gymnasts on the apparatus in the team competition (by sum of two scores - for compulsory and optional routine) qualified for that apparatus finals. The new feature of the competition was in women's events: each of them was judged by four judges, like the men's competition. The highest and lowest marks were dropped and an average of two remaining marks constituted the score.

Results

Men's events

Games Gold Silver Bronze
Individual all-around
Sawao Kato
 Japan
Mikhail Voronin
 Soviet Union
Akinori Nakayama
 Japan
Team all-around
 Japan (JPN)
Yukio Endo
Sawao Kato
Takeshi Katō
Eizo Kenmotsu
Akinori Nakayama
Mitsuo Tsukahara
 Soviet Union (URS)
Sergei Diomidov
Valery Iljinykh
Valery Karasev
Viktor Klimenko
Victor Lisitsky
Mikhail Voronin
 East Germany (GDR)
Günter Beier
Matthias Brehme
Gerhard Dietrich
Siegfried Fülle
Klaus Köste
Peter Weber
Floor exercise
Sawao Kato
 Japan
Akinori Nakayama
 Japan
Takeshi Katō
 Japan
Horizontal bar
Mikhail Voronin
 Soviet Union
none awarded Eizo Kenmotsu
 Japan
Akinori Nakayama
 Japan
Parallel bars
Akinori Nakayama
 Japan
Mikhail Voronin
 Soviet Union
Viktor Klimenko
 Soviet Union
Pommel horse
Miroslav Cerar
 Yugoslavia
Olli Laiho
 Finland
Mikhail Voronin
 Soviet Union
Rings
Akinori Nakayama
 Japan
Mikhail Voronin
 Soviet Union
Sawao Kato
 Japan
Vault
Mikhail Voronin
 Soviet Union
Yukio Endo
 Japan
Sergei Diomidov
 Soviet Union

Women's events

Games Gold Silver Bronze
Individual all-around
Věra Čáslavská
 Czechoslovakia
Zinaida Voronina
 Soviet Union
Natalia Kuchinskaya
 Soviet Union
Team all-around
 Soviet Union (URS)
Lyubov Burda
Olga Karasyova
Natalia Kuchinskaya
Larisa Petrik
Ludmilla Tourischeva
Zinaida Voronina
 Czechoslovakia (TCH)
Věra Čáslavská
Marianna Krajčírová
Jana Kubičková
Hana Lišková
Bohumila Řimnáčová
Miroslava Skleničková
 East Germany (GDR)
Maritta Bauerschmidt
Karin Janz
Marianne Noack
Magdalena Schmidt
Ute Starke
Erika Zuchold
Balance beam
Natalia Kuchinskaya
 Soviet Union
Věra Čáslavská
 Czechoslovakia
Larisa Petrik
 Soviet Union
Floor exercise
Larisa Petrik
 Soviet Union
none awarded Natalia Kuchinskaya
 Soviet Union
Věra Čáslavská
 Czechoslovakia
Uneven bars
Věra Čáslavská
 Czechoslovakia
Karin Janz
 East Germany
Zinaida Voronina
 Soviet Union
Vault
Věra Čáslavská
 Czechoslovakia
Erika Zuchold
 East Germany
Zinaida Voronina
 Soviet Union

Medal table

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 Japan62412
2 Soviet Union55818
3 Czechoslovakia4206
4 Yugoslavia1001
5 East Germany0224
6 Finland0101
Totals (6 entries)16121442

Controversy

Larisa Petrik's gold medal on floor was very controversial because originally, Čáslavská won outright. After the competition was concluded, Petrik's prelims scores were changed to let her tie with Čáslavská, an action which caused Čáslavská to publicly defy the Soviets who had recently invaded her home country. A similar controversy occurred in the balance beam, where Čáskavská was denied gold altogether.[2]

See also

References

  1. "Gymnastics at the 1968 Mexico City Summer Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  2. "'I will sweat blood to defeat invaders' representatives' - 1968's forgotten Olympic protest". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2023-02-21.
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