Artistic Gymnastics at the 1996 Summer Olympics

Dates 20 – 29 July 1996
Medal Events 14

The 1996 Olympic gymnastics competition took place in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, the home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. The competition was also the first at the Olympics since the complete break-up of the Soviet Union, which had been dominant in women’s gymnastics since 1952, and in men’s gymnastics was one of two top dominant nations, with Japan, during that time. In 1992 the Soviet Union no longer existed but a reincarnation of many of the several republics competed as the Unified Team, which was effectively the same entity for gymnastic purposes.

On the men’s side, Russia still won the most medals, with six, while China and Belarus won four each, but only Russia won two gold medals, as seven nations won gold medals. Among the women, Romania won eight medals but only one gold, while the United States and Ukraine won two gold medals, with the USA winning four medals in all.

There were some changes in format. In the individual all-around 36 gymnasts still advanced from the team all-around qualifying, with a max of three gymnasts per nation, but the qualifying scores were now thrown out, and only the final round score was used to determine individual all-around placements and medals. The team all-around was also slightly different. For years, the event had consisted of six-person teams, with the five best all-around scores counting towards the team scores. It was changed slightly in 1992 when the five best scores on each apparatus routine, compulsory and optional, were used for the team scores. In 1996, teams were allowed seven gymnasts, choosing six to compete on each apparatus, with the five best scores on each apparatus counting towards the team score.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Individual All-Around, Men Olympic 20 – 24 July 1996 111 31
Team All-Around, Men Olympic 20 – 22 July 1996 83 12
Floor Exercise, Men Olympic 20 – 28 July 1996 107 31
Horse Vault, Men Olympic 20 – 29 July 1996 105 31
Parallel Bars, Men Olympic 20 – 29 July 1996 106 31
Horizontal Bar, Men Olympic 20 – 29 July 1996 105 31
Rings, Men Olympic 20 – 28 July 1996 102 31
Pommelled Horse, Men Olympic 20 – 28 July 1996 102 31
Individual All-Around, Women Olympic 21 – 25 July 1996 105 28
Team All-Around, Women Olympic 21 – 23 July 1996 83 12
Floor Exercise, Women Olympic 21 – 29 July 1996 96 28
Horse Vault, Women Olympic 21 – 29 July 1996 97 28
Uneven Bars, Women Olympic 21 – 29 July 1996 99 28
Balance Beam, Women Olympic 21 – 29 July 1996 96 28
216 (111/105) 36 (31/28)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Individual All-Around, Men Li XiaoshuangCHN Aleksey NemovRUS Vitali ShcherbaBLR
Team All-Around, Men Russian FederationRUS People's Republic of ChinaCHN UkraineUKR
Floor Exercise, Men Ioannis MelissanidisGRE Li XiaoshuangCHN Aleksey NemovRUS
Horse Vault, Men Aleksey NemovRUS Yeo Hong-CheolKOR Vitali ShcherbaBLR
Parallel Bars, Men Rustam SharipovUKR Jair LynchUSA Vitali ShcherbaBLR
Horizontal Bar, Men Andreas WeckerGER Krasimir DunevBUL Vitali Shcherba
Fan Bin
Aleksey Nemov
BLR
CHN
RUS
Rings, Men Jury ChechiITA Szilveszter Csollány
Dan Burincă
HUN
ROU
Pommelled Horse, Men Donghua LiSUI Marius UrzicăROU Aleksey NemovRUS
Individual All-Around, Women Liliya PodkopaievaUKR Gina GogeanROU Simona Amânar
Lavinia Miloșovici
ROU
ROU
Team All-Around, Women United StatesUSA Russian FederationRUS RomaniaROU
Floor Exercise, Women Liliya PodkopaievaUKR Simona AmânarROU Dominique DawesUSA
Horse Vault, Women Simona AmânarROU Mo HuilanCHN Gina GogeanROU
Uneven Bars, Women Svetlana KhorkinaRUS Bi Wenjing
Amy Chow
CHN
USA
Balance Beam, Women Shannon MillerUSA Liliya PodkopaievaUKR Gina GogeanROU

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
Russian Federation RUS 3 2 3 8
Ukraine UKR 3 1 1 5
United States USA 2 2 1 5
Romania ROU 1 4 5 10
People's Republic of China CHN 1 4 1 6
Germany GER 1 0 0 1
Greece GRE 1 0 0 1
Italy ITA 1 0 0 1
Switzerland SUI 1 0 0 1
Bulgaria BUL 0 1 0 1
Hungary HUN 0 1 0 1
Republic of Korea KOR 0 1 0 1
Belarus BLR 0 0 4 4