Pommel horse at the Olympics

Pommel horse
at the Olympic Games
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 (GBR)	2012–2020	2	0	1	3
2	Boris Shakhlin	Soviet Union (URS)	1956–1960	2	0	0	2
	Miroslav Cerar	Yugoslavia (YUG)	1964–1968	2	0	0	2
	Zoltán Magyar	Hungary (HUN)	1976–1980	2	0	0	2
5	Marius Urzică	Romania (ROU)	1996–2004	1	2	0	3
6	Viktor Chukarin	Soviet Union (URS)	1952–1956	1	0	1	2
7	Louis Smith	Great Britain (GBR)	2008–2016	0	2	1	3
8	Shuji Tsurumi	Japan (JPN)	1960–1964	0	1	1	2
8	Eizo Kenmotsu	Japan (JPN)	1972–1976	0	1	1	2
10	Michael Nikolay	East Germany (GDR)	1976–1980	0	0	2	2
10	Alexei Nemov	Russia (RUS)	1996–2000	0	0	2	2

Medalists by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union (URS)	5	3	4	12
2	Hungary (HUN)	5	0	0	5
3	Switzerland (SUI)	4	3	2	9
4	Finland (FIN)	4	1	1	6
5	China (CHN)	3	0	0	3
6	Great Britain (GBR)	2	2	2	6
7	United States (USA)	2	1	5	8
8	Yugoslavia (YUG)	2	0	0	2
9	Romania (ROU)	1	2	0	3
10	Germany (GER)	1	1	1	3
11	Bulgaria (BUL)	1	0	0	1
	Ireland (IRL)	1	0	0	1
	North Korea (PRK)	1	0	0	1
	Unified Team (EUN)	1	0	0	1
15	Japan (JPN)	0	4	4	8
16	Chinese Taipei (TPE)	0	1	0	1
	Croatia (CRO)	0	1	0	1
	France (FRA)	0	1	0	1
	Italy (ITA)	0	1	0	1
	Kazakhstan (KAZ)	0	1	0	1
21	East Germany (GDR)	0	0	2	2
21	Russia (RUS)	0	0	2	2