Horizontal Bar, Men

Going into the men’s horizontal bar event at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Zou Kai of China already had five Olympic gold medals: three from 2008 in the team, floor exercise, and horizontal bar competitions and two from 2012 in the team and floor exercise categories. He was also the 2009 and 2011 World Champion in the horizontal bar, but would not go unchallenged in his quest for a sixth Olympic gold medal. His compatriot Zhang Chenglong, World Champion in 2010, was also competing, as was Emin Garibov of Russia, the reigning European Champion, and Epke Zonderland of the Netherlands, the 2011 European Champion and world runner-up in 2009 and 2010. Zonderland had also appeared in the finals of the 2008 Olympics, the first Dutch man to appear at the Games since 1928.

In the qualification round, Zonderland came out on top, with Zhang close behind and Danell Leyva of the United States, the 2011 World Champion in parallel bars and the bronze medalist in the London Olympic individual all-around, in third. Garbov and Zou finished further down, in sixth and seventh respectively, but still survived to the finals. In the finals Zou went fourth with the highest difficulty routine of the event, 7.900. His excellent performance of 16.366 set the bar, knocking his teammate Zhang, with a score of 16.266, into second. Fabian Hambüchen of Germany, 2007 World Champion, three time European Champion (2005, 2007, 2008), and bronze medalist at the 2008 Olympic Games, managed to pass Zou’s point total with a less difficult routine, but a much better execution score, the highest of the night. He did not stay long on the top of the podium, however, as Zonderland went next with an outstanding performance that ranked as difficult as Zou’s, but with better execution. Zonderland’s routine included three successive difficult flight elements, Cassica-Kovacs-Kolman, and he became the first person to successfully perform them, having attempted (and failed) at the 2012 European Championships. The final two gymnasts had no answer for this and Zonderland became the Netherlands’ first Olympic champion in gymnastics since the women’s all-around team in 1928, the only other time the nation had medalled in the sport. Hambüchen took home silver and Zou, after being crowned Olympic champion five times, settled for bronze.