| Date | 11 August 1932 — 8:00 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, California | |
| Participants | 12 from 6 countries | |
| Format | Separate competition unrelated to all-around, with specialists allowed to compete on the apparatus. Score based on compulsory and optional exercises on apparatus. | |
Twelve (12) gymnasts from six nations competed on the horizontal bar, with performances in a compulsory and a voluntary exercise. The event was held separately from the all-around, and was won by Dallas Bixler, a specialist on high bar, who did not compete in the all-around. He was in only third place after the compulsory routine, but his voluntary reverse dismount was most impressive to the judges and brought him the gold medal. Second-place ended up in a tie between two Finnish teammates, Heikki Savolainen and Einari Teräsvirta. The silver medal was given to Savolainen and bronze to Teräsvirta by mutual agreement of the two Finns.
| Pos | Competitor | NOC | Points | 1st Exercise Points | 2nd Exercise Points | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dallas Bixler |  USA | 55.0 | 26.6 | 28.4 | Gold | ||
| 2 | Heikki Savolainen |  FIN | 54.2 | 27.5 | 26.7 | Silver | ||
| 3 | Einari Teräsvirta | FIN | 54.2 | 27.6 | 26.6 | Bronze | ||
| =4 | Ilmari Pakarinen | FIN | 51.8 | 26.2 | 25.6 | |||
| =4 | István Pelle |  HUN | 51.8 | 25.7 | 26.1 | |||
| 6 | Michael Schuler | USA | 46.7 | 24.4 | 22.3 | |||
| 7 | Miklós Péter | HUN | 45.4 | 24.6 | 20.8 | |||
| 8 | Mahito Haga |  JPN | 37.4 | 19.0 | 18.4 | |||
| 9 | Ismael Mosqueira |  MEX | 32.8 | 20.8 | 12.0 | |||
| 10 | Al Jochim | USA | 24.1 | 24.1 | – | |||
| 11 | Savino Guglielmetti |  ITA | 23.9 | 23.9 | – | |||
| 12 | Giovanni Lattuada | ITA | 22.7 | 22.7 | – |
