Horizontal bar at the Olympics

Horizontal bar at the Olympic Games
Horizontal bar competition at the 1896 Summer Olympics
Overview
Sport	Artistic gymnastics
Gender	Men
Years held	Men: 1896, 1904, 1924–2024
Reigning champion
Men	Shinnosuke Oka (JPN)

The horizontal bar is an artistic gymnastics event held at the Summer Olympics. The event was first held for men at the first modern Olympics in 1896. It was held again in 1904, but not in 1900, 1908, 1912, or 1920 when no apparatus events were awarded medals. The horizontal bar was one of the components of the men's artistic individual all-around in 1900, 1908, and 1912, however. The men's horizontal bar returned as a medal event in 1924 and has been held every Games since. Horizontal bar scores were included in the individual all-around for 1924 and 1928, with no separate apparatus final. In 1932, the horizontal bar was entirely separate from the all-around. From 1936 to 1956, there were again no separate apparatus finals with the horizontal bar scores used in the all-around. Beginning in 1960, there were separate apparatus finals.

The 1896 Games also featured a team horizontal bar event.

At the 2024 Games, the final event saw all but two fall from the horizontal bar, sparking calls for an investigation.

Medalists

Men

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1896 Athens	Hermann Weingärtner  Germany	Alfred Flatow  Germany	Not awarded
1900 Paris	Not held
1904 St. Louis	Anton Heida  United States Edward Hennig  United States	Not awarded	George Eyser  United States
1908 London	Not held
1912 Stockholm	Not held
1920 Antwerp	Not held
1924 Paris	Leon Štukelj  Yugoslavia	Jean Gutweninger  Switzerland	André Higelin  France
1928 Amsterdam	Georges Miez  Switzerland	Romeo Neri  Italy	Eugen Mack  Switzerland
1932 Los Angeles	Dallas Bixler  United States	Heikki Savolainen  Finland	Einari Teräsvirta  Finland
1936 Berlin	Aleksanteri Saarvala  Finland	Konrad Frey  Germany	Alfred Schwarzmann  Germany
1948 London	Josef Stalder  Switzerland	Walter Lehmann  Switzerland	Veikko Huhtanen  Finland
1952 Helsinki	Jack Günthard  Switzerland	Alfred Schwarzmann  Germany Josef Stalder  Switzerland	Not awarded
1956 Melbourne	Takashi Ono  Japan	Yuri Titov  Soviet Union	Masao Takemoto  Japan
1960 Rome	Takashi Ono  Japan	Masao Takemoto  Japan	Boris Shakhlin  Soviet Union
1964 Tokyo	Boris Shakhlin  Soviet Union	Yuri Titov  Soviet Union	Miroslav Cerar  Yugoslavia
1968 Mexico City	Akinori Nakayama  Japan Mikhail Voronin  Soviet Union	Not awarded	Eizo Kenmotsu  Japan
1972 Munich	Mitsuo Tsukahara  Japan	Sawao Kato  Japan	Shigeru Kasamatsu  Japan
1976 Montreal	Mitsuo Tsukahara  Japan	Eizo Kenmotsu  Japan	Eberhard Gienger  West Germany Henri Boerio  France
1980 Moscow	Stoyan Deltchev  Bulgaria	Alexander Dityatin  Soviet Union	Nikolai Andrianov  Soviet Union
1984 Los Angeles	Shinji Morisue  Japan	Tong Fei  China	Koji Gushiken  Japan
1988 Seoul	Vladimir Artemov  Soviet Union Valeri Liukin  Soviet Union	Not awarded	Holger Behrendt  East Germany Marius Gherman  Romania
1992 Barcelona	Trent Dimas  United States	Andreas Wecker  Germany	Grigory Misutin  Unified Team
1996 Atlanta	Andreas Wecker  Germany	Krasimir Dunev  Bulgaria	Vitaly Scherbo  Belarus Fan Bin  China Alexei Nemov  Russia
2000 Sydney	Alexei Nemov  Russia	Benjamin Varonian  France	Lee Joo-Hyung  South Korea
2004 Athens	Igor Cassina  Italy	Paul Hamm  United States	Isao Yoneda  Japan
2008 Beijing	Zou Kai  China	Jonathan Horton  United States	Fabian Hambüchen  Germany
2012 London	Epke Zonderland  Netherlands	Fabian Hambüchen  Germany	Zou Kai  China
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Fabian Hambüchen  Germany	Danell Leyva  United States	Nile Wilson  Great Britain
2020 Tokyo	Daiki Hashimoto  Japan	Tin Srbić  Croatia	Nikita Nagornyy  ROC
2024 Paris	Shinnosuke Oka  Japan	Ángel Barajas  Colombia	Tang Chia-hung  Chinese Taipei Zhang Boheng  China

Multiple medalists

Rank	Gymnast	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Takashi Ono	Japan	1956–1960	2	0	0	2
	Mitsuo Tsukahara	Japan	1972–1976	2	0	0	2
3	Fabian Hambüchen	Germany	2008–2016	1	1	1	3
4	Josef Stalder	Switzerland	1948–1952	1	1	0	2
	Andreas Wecker	Germany	1992–1996	1	1	0	2
6	Boris Shakhlin	Soviet Union	1960–1964	1	0	1	2
	Alexei Nemov	Russia	1996–2000	1	0	1	2
	Zou Kai	China	2008–2012	1	0	1	2
9	Yuri Titov	Soviet Union	1956–1964	0	2	0	2
10	Eizo Kenmotsu	Japan	1968–1976	0	1	1	2
	Alfred Schwarzmann	Germany	1936–1952	0	1	1	2
	Masao Takemoto	Japan	1956–1960	0	1	1	2

Medalists by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Japan	8	3	5	16
2	Soviet Union	4	3	2	9
3	United States	4	3	1	8
4	Germany	3	5	2	10
5	Switzerland	3	3	1	7
6	China	1	1	3	5
	Finland	1	1	2	4
8	Bulgaria	1	1	0	2
	Italy	1	1	0	2
10	Russia	1	0	1	2
	Yugoslavia	1	0	1	2
12	Netherlands	1	0	0	1
13	France	0	1	2	3
14	Colombia	0	1	0	1
	Croatia	0	1	0	1
16	Belarus	0	0	1	1
	Chinese Taipei	0	0	1	1
	East Germany	0	0	1	1
	West Germany	0	0	1	1
	Great Britain	0	0	1	1
	Romania	0	0	1	1
	ROC	0	0	1	1
	South Korea	0	0	1	1
	Unified Team	0	0	1	1

Gallery

Hermann Weingärtner, 1896

Heikki Savolainen, 1932

Takashi Ono, 1964

Epke Zonderland, 2016

Men's Horizontal Bar at the Olympics

Team horizontal bar

At the 1896 Olympics a team version of the horizontal bar was held. It was one of two team apparatus events in 1896, along with the team parallel bars. The team apparatus events were never held again.

The team horizontal bar event had 10 horizontal bars for the team to use. Teams in the 1896 team events could be large, with one in the parallel bars exceeding 30 members. Only one team competed in the team horizontal bar. Judges scored the teams on execution, rhythm, and technical difficulty.

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1896 Athens	Germany	Not awarded	Not awarded