Gymnastics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's parallel bars

Men's parallel bars
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Men's parallel bars; at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
	Olympic artistic gymnastics
Venue	Ariake Gymnastics Centre
Date	24 July 2021 (qualifying); 3 August 2021 (final)
Competitors	8 from 7 nations
Winning score	16.233 points
Medalists
	← 2016 2024 →

The men's parallel bars event at the 2020 Summer Olympics was held on 24 July and 3 August 2021 at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre.^[1] Approximately 70 gymnasts from 35 nations (of the 98 total gymnasts) competed on parallel bars in the qualifying round.^[2]

Zou Jingyuan of China won the title for his first individual Olympic medal. Germany's Lukas Dauser earned the silver for his first Olympic medal. Ferhat Arıcan of Turkey rounded off the podium in bronze, earning not only his first Olympic medal, but also the first for his country in artistic gymnastics. The defending champion, Oleg Verniaiev from Ukraine, did not enter the competition as he was serving a doping ban.

The medals for the competition were presented by Jean-Christophe Rolland, Olympian, France; IOC Member, and the medalists' bouquets were presented by Luo Chaoyi, People's Republic of China; FIG Executive Committee Member.

Background

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

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

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

Schedule

The competition is held over two days, 24 July and 3 August. The qualifying round (for all men's gymnastics events) is the first day; the apparatus final is on the second day.^[1]

Date	Time	Round	Subdivision
24 July	10:00	Qualification	Subdivision 1
	14:30		Subdivision 2
	19:30		Subdivision 3
3 August	17:00	Final	–
All times are local time (UTC+09:00).

Results

Qualifying

Rank	Gymnast	D Score	E Score	Total	Qual.
1	Zou Jingyuan (CHN)	6.8	9.366	16.166	Q
2	Lukas Dauser (GER)	6.7	9.033	15.733	Q
3	You Hao (CHN)	6.8	8.866	15.666	Q
4	Ferhat Arıcan (TUR)	7.0	8.566	15.566	Q
5	Sam Mikulak (USA)	6.4	9.033	15.433	Q
6	Xiao Ruoteng (CHN)	6.4	9.000	15.400	–
7	Joe Fraser (GBR)	6.6	8.800	15.400	Q
8	Petro Pakhniuk (UKR)	6.6	8.733	15.333	Q
9	David Belyavskiy (ROC)	6.6	8.725	15.325	Q
10	Daiki Hashimoto (JPN)	6.2	9.100	15.300	R1
11	Wataru Tanigawa (JPN)	6.4	8.841	15.241	R2
12	Artur Dalaloyan (ROC)	6.4	8.833	15.233	R3

Reserves

The reserves for the men's parallel bars final were:

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:

Xiao Ruoteng (CHN)

Final

Rank	Gymnast	D Score	E Score	Total
	Zou Jingyuan (CHN)	6.9	9.333	16.233
	Lukas Dauser (GER)	6.7	9.000	15.700
	Ferhat Arıcan (TUR)	7.0	8.633	15.633
4	You Hao (CHN)	6.9	8.566	15.466
5	David Belyavskiy (ROC)	6.6	8.600	15.200
6	Sam Mikulak (USA)	6.4	8.600	15.000
7	Petro Pakhniuk (UKR)	6.1	8.433	14.533
8	Joe Fraser (GBR)	6.1	8.400	14.500
Source:^[3]