Rings, Men

Chen Yibing of China had won the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics and in every World Championship and Asian Games since 2006, except for the 2009 World Championships in which he did not participate. Thus, in the men’s rings event at the 2012 Games, he was as close to a shoo-in as one could get in an Olympic final and proved it by winning the qualification round a comfortable distance ahead of Matteo Morandi of Italy, who had been competing on an international level since 2003. Morandi was far from the most experienced finalist, however, eclipsed by the qualification of Yordan Yovchev of Bulgaria, who had first appeared at the 1992 Summer Games. Yovchev tied a record set just days earlier by Oksana Chusovitina by competing in his sixth Olympics as a gymnast.

Chen was the first gymnast to go in the finals, putting on an excellent performance and earning a respectable score of 15.800, 0.058 off of his qualifying mark. Morandi nearly caught up with him midway through the competition, posting a score of 15.733 and sliding into second place. With only Arthur Zanetti of Brazil left to go, Chen remained in the lead, but was not yet assured of the gold. Zanetti, who had had the highest execution score but qualified in fourth based on a lower difficulty, was the most recent World Championship runner-up and selected a difficulty equal to Chen’s for his final routine. The Brazilian’s routine was excellent and it earned him a total score of 15.900, sufficient to capture the gold and his nation’s first Olympic medal in the sport. Chen settled for silver and Morandi won bronze, his first Olympic medal in three editions of the Games.