# Gymnastics at the 1968 Summer Olympics

At the 1968 Summer Olympics, fourteen different artistic gymnastics events were contested, eight for men and six for women. All events were held at the National Auditorium in Mexico City from October 21 through October 26.

## Format of competition

The scoring in all the events was similar to that of the gymnastics events at the 1960 Summer Olympics. The six best gymnasts on the apparatus in the team competition (by sum of two scores - for compulsory and optional routine) qualified for that apparatus finals. The new feature of the competition was in women's events: each of them was judged by four judges, like the men's competition. The highest and lowest marks were dropped and an average of two remaining marks constituted the score.

## Results
### Men's events

| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Individual all-around details | Sawao Kato Japan | Mikhail Voronin Soviet Union | Akinori Nakayama Japan |
| Team all-around details | Japan (JPN) Yukio Endo Sawao Kato Takeshi Katō Eizo Kenmotsu Akinori Nakayama Mitsuo Tsukahara | Soviet Union (URS) Sergei Diomidov Valery Iljinykh Valery Karasev Viktor Klimenko Victor Lisitsky Mikhail Voronin | East Germany (GDR) Günter Beier Matthias Brehme Gerhard Dietrich Siegfried Fülle Klaus Köste Peter Weber |
| Floor exercise details | Sawao Kato Japan | Akinori Nakayama Japan | Takeshi Katō Japan |
| Horizontal bar details | Mikhail Voronin Soviet Union | none awarded | Eizo Kenmotsu Japan |
| Horizontal bar details | Akinori Nakayama Japan | none awarded | Eizo Kenmotsu Japan |
| Parallel bars details | Akinori Nakayama Japan | Mikhail Voronin Soviet Union | Viktor Klimenko Soviet Union |
| Pommel horse details | Miroslav Cerar Yugoslavia | Olli Laiho Finland | Mikhail Voronin Soviet Union |
| Rings details | Akinori Nakayama Japan | Mikhail Voronin Soviet Union | Sawao Kato Japan |
| Vault details | Mikhail Voronin Soviet Union | Yukio Endo Japan | Sergei Diomidov Soviet Union |

### Women's events

| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Individual all-around details | Věra Čáslavská Czechoslovakia | Zinaida Voronina Soviet Union | Natalia Kuchinskaya Soviet Union |
| Team all-around details | Soviet Union (URS) Lyubov Burda Olga Karasyova Natalia Kuchinskaya Larisa Petrik Ludmilla Tourischeva Zinaida Voronina | Czechoslovakia (TCH) Věra Čáslavská Marianna Krajčírová Jana Kubičková Hana Lišková Bohumila Řimnáčová Miroslava Skleničková | East Germany (GDR) Maritta Bauerschmidt Karin Janz Marianne Noack Magdalena Schmidt Ute Starke Erika Zuchold |
| Balance beam details | Natalia Kuchinskaya Soviet Union | Věra Čáslavská Czechoslovakia | Larisa Petrik Soviet Union |
| Floor exercise details | Larisa Petrik Soviet Union | none awarded | Natalia Kuchinskaya Soviet Union |
| Floor exercise details | Věra Čáslavská Czechoslovakia | none awarded | Natalia Kuchinskaya Soviet Union |
| Uneven bars details | Věra Čáslavská Czechoslovakia | Karin Janz East Germany | Zinaida Voronina Soviet Union |
| Vault details | Věra Čáslavská Czechoslovakia | Erika Zuchold East Germany | Zinaida Voronina Soviet Union |

## Medal table

| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Japan | 6 | 2 | 4 | 12 |
| 2 | Soviet Union | 5 | 5 | 8 | 18 |
| 3 | Czechoslovakia | 4 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| 4 | Yugoslavia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | East Germany | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 6 | Finland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Totals (6 entries) | Totals (6 entries) | 16 | 12 | 14 | 42 |

## Controversy

Larisa Petrik's gold medal on floor was very controversial because originally, Čáslavská won outright. After the competition was concluded, Petrik's prelims scores were changed to let her tie with Čáslavská, an action which caused Čáslavská to publicly defy the Soviets who had recently invaded her home country. A similar controversy occurred in the balance beam, where Čáskavská was denied gold altogether.