Pommel horse at the Olympics

Pommel horse at the Olympic Games
Pommel horse competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Overview
Sport	Artistic gymnastics
Gender	Men
Years held	Men: 1896, 1904, 1924–2024
Reigning champion
Men	Rhys McClenaghan  (IRL)

The pommel horse 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 pommel horse was one of the components of the men's artistic individual all-around in 1900, however. The men's pommel horse returned as a medal event in 1924 and has been held every Games since. Pommel horse scores were included in the individual all-around for 1924 and 1928, with no separate apparatus final. In 1932, the pommel horse was entirely separate from the all-around. From 1936 to 1956, there were again no separate apparatus finals with the pommel horse scores used in the all-around. Beginning in 1960, there were separate apparatus finals.

Medalists

Men

The medals have been swept four times, something which is no longer possible under current rules: by the United States in 1904, Switzerland in 1924, Finland in 1948, and the Soviet Union in 1952. There have been three-way ties for gold twice (still possible but very unlikely under current rules): 1948 and 1988.

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1896 Athens details	Louis Zutter   Switzerland	Hermann Weingärtner   Germany	Not awarded
1900 Paris	Not held
1904 St. Louis details	Anton Heida   United States	George Eyser   United States	William Merz   United States
1908 London	Not held
1912 Stockholm	Not held
1920 Antwerp	Not held
1924 Paris details	Josef Wilhelm   Switzerland	Jean Gutweninger   Switzerland	Antoine Rebetez   Switzerland
1928 Amsterdam details	Hermann Hänggi   Switzerland	Georges Miez   Switzerland	Heikki Savolainen   Finland
1932 Los Angeles details	István Pelle   Hungary	Omero Bonoli   Italy	Frank Haubold   United States
1936 Berlin details	Konrad Frey   Germany	Eugen Mack   Switzerland	Albert Bachmann   Switzerland
1948 London details	Paavo Aaltonen   Finland Veikko Huhtanen   Finland Heikki Savolainen   Finland	Not awarded	Not awarded
1952 Helsinki details	Viktor Chukarin   Soviet Union	Yevgeny Korolkov   Soviet Union Hrant Shahinyan   Soviet Union	Not awarded
1956 Melbourne details	Boris Shakhlin   Soviet Union	Takashi Ono   Japan	Viktor Chukarin   Soviet Union
1960 Rome details	Eugen Ekman   Finland Boris Shakhlin   Soviet Union	Not awarded	Shuji Tsurumi   Japan
1964 Tokyo details	Miroslav Cerar   Yugoslavia	Shuji Tsurumi   Japan	Yury Tsapenko   Soviet Union
1968 Mexico City details	Miroslav Cerar   Yugoslavia	Olli Laiho   Finland	Mikhail Voronin   Soviet Union
1972 Munich details	Viktor Klimenko   Soviet Union	Sawao Kato   Japan	Eizo Kenmotsu   Japan
1976 Montreal details	Zoltán Magyar   Hungary	Eizo Kenmotsu   Japan	Nikolai Andrianov   Soviet Union Michael Nikolay   East Germany
1980 Moscow details	Zoltán Magyar   Hungary	Alexander Dityatin   Soviet Union	Michael Nikolay   East Germany
1984 Los Angeles details	Li Ning   China Peter Vidmar   United States	Not awarded	Timothy Daggett   United States
1988 Seoul details	Lubomir Geraskov   Bulgaria Zsolt Borkai   Hungary Dmitri Bilozertchev   Soviet Union	Not awarded	Not awarded
1992 Barcelona details	Vitaly Scherbo   Unified Team Pae Gil-Su   North Korea	Not awarded	Andreas Wecker   Germany
1996 Atlanta details	Li Donghua   Switzerland	Marius Urzică   Romania	Alexei Nemov   Russia
2000 Sydney details	Marius Urzică   Romania	Eric Poujade   France	Alexei Nemov   Russia
2004 Athens details	Teng Haibin   China	Marius Urzică   Romania	Takehiro Kashima   Japan
2008 Beijing details	Xiao Qin   China	Filip Ude   Croatia	Louis Smith   Great Britain
2012 London details	Krisztián Berki   Hungary	Louis Smith   Great Britain	Max Whitlock   Great Britain
2016 Rio de Janeiro details	Max Whitlock   Great Britain	Louis Smith   Great Britain	Alexander Naddour   United States
2020 Tokyo details	Max Whitlock   Great Britain	Lee Chih-kai   Chinese Taipei	Kazuma Kaya   Japan
2024 Paris details	Rhys McClenaghan   Ireland	Nariman Kurbanov   Kazakhstan	Stephen Nedoroscik   United States

Multiple medalists

The most successful Olympian on pommel horse is Max Whitlock of Great Britain with two gold medals, in 2016 and 2020, and a bronze in 2012. He shares the title of most decorated Olympian on the apparatus, with three Olympic medals, with close contemporary and compatriot Louis Smith with two silvers and a bronze, and Romanian gymnast Marius Urzică, with one gold medal and two silvers. Three other gymnasts have won the gold medal twice: Soviet Boris Shakhlin, Yugoslav Miroslav Cerar, and Hungarian legend Zoltán Magyar.

Rank	Gymnast	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Max Whitlock	Great Britain	2012–2020	2	0	1	3
2	Boris Shakhlin	Soviet Union	1956–1960	2	0	0	2
	Miroslav Cerar	Yugoslavia	1964–1968	2	0	0	2
	Zoltán Magyar	Hungary	1976–1980	2	0	0	2
5	Marius Urzică	Romania	1996–2004	1	2	0	3
6	Viktor Chukarin	Soviet Union	1952–1956	1	0	1	2
7	Louis Smith	Great Britain	2008–2016	0	2	1	3
8	Shuji Tsurumi	Japan	1960–1964	0	1	1	2
	Eizo Kenmotsu	Japan	1972–1976	0	1	1	2
10	Michael Nikolay	East Germany	1976–1980	0	0	2	2
	Alexei Nemov	Russia	1996–2000	0	0	2	2

Medalists by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union	5	3	4	12
2	Hungary	5	0	0	5
3	Switzerland	4	3	2	9
4	Finland	4	1	1	6
5	China	3	0	0	3
6	Great Britain	2	2	2	6
7	United States	2	1	5	8
8	Yugoslavia	2	0	0	2
9	Romania	1	2	0	3
10	Germany	1	1	1	3
11	Bulgaria	1	0	0	1
	Ireland	1	0	0	1
	North Korea	1	0	0	1
	Unified Team	1	0	0	1
15	Japan	0	4	4	8
16	Chinese Taipei	0	1	0	1
	Croatia	0	1	0	1
	France	0	1	0	1
	Italy	0	1	0	1
	Kazakhstan	0	1	0	1
21	East Germany	0	0	2	2
	Russia	0	0	2	2

Gallery

Takashi Ono, 1964

Ivan Ivankov, 2000

Alexander Artemev, 2008

Yang Wei, 2008

Louis Smith, 2016

Artur Davtyan, 2020

Men's Pommel Horse at the Olympics