# Gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's horizontal bar

The men's horizontal bar competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. There were 63 competitors from 18 nations (down sharply from the 185 gymnasts in 1952), with nations in the team competition having up to 6 gymnasts and other nations entering up to 3 gymnasts. The event was won by Takashi Ono of Japan, with his countryman Masao Takemoto taking bronze. Silver went to Yuri Titov of the Soviet Union. Japan and the Soviet Union each earned their first horizontal bar medals.

## Background

This was the ninth appearance of the event, which is one of the five apparatus events held every time there were apparatus events at the Summer Olympics (no apparatus events were held in 1900, 1908, 1912, or 1920). Four of the top 10 gymnasts from 1952 returned: fifth-place finisher Viktor Chukarin of the Soviet Union, seventh-place finisher Helmut Bantz of Germany, and ninth-place finishers Berndt Lindfors of Finland and Valentin Muratov of the Soviet Union. Muratov had won the 1954 world championship, with Bantz and Boris Shakhlin of the Soviet Union tying for second.
Australia and Canada each made their debut in the men's horizontal bar; East and West Germany competed together as the United Team of Germany for the first time. The United States made its eighth appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the inaugural 1896 Games.

## Competition format

The gymnastics format continued to use the aggregation format, mostly following the scoring tweaks made in 1952. Each nation entered either a team of six gymnasts or up to three individual gymnasts. All entrants in the gymnastics competitions performed both a compulsory exercise and a voluntary exercise for each apparatus. The 2 exercise scores were summed to give an apparatus total. No separate finals were contested.
Exercise scores ranged from 0 to 10 and apparatus scores from 0 to 20.

## Schedule

All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)
| Date | Time | Round |
| Monday, 3 December 1956 Tuesday, 4 December 1956 Wednesday, 5 December 1956 Thursday, 6 December 1956 Friday, 7 December 1956 | 8:00 | Final |

## Results

| Rank | Gymnast | Nation | Compulsory | Voluntary | Total |
| | Takashi Ono | Japan | 9.75 | 9.85 | 19.60 |
| | Yury Titov | Soviet Union | 9.70 | 9.70 | 19.40 |
| | Masao Takemoto | Japan | 9.70 | 9.60 | 19.30 |
| 4 | Viktor Chukarin | Soviet Union | 9.55 | 9.70 | 19.25 |
| 4 | Pavel Stolbov | Soviet Union | 9.55 | 9.70 | 19.25 |
| 6 | Helmut Bantz | United Team of Germany | 9.50 | 9.65 | 19.15 |
| 7 | Jack Beckner | United States | 9.40 | 9.60 | 19.00 |
| 8 | Albert Azaryan | Soviet Union | 9.40 | 9.55 | 18.95 |
| 9 | Ferdinand Daniš | Czechoslovakia | 9.45 | 9.40 | 18.85 |
| 10 | Stoyan Stoyanov | Bulgaria | 9.35 | 9.45 | 18.80 |
| 10 | Raymond Dot | France | 9.40 | 9.40 | 18.80 |
| 10 | Zdeněk Růžička | Czechoslovakia | 9.45 | 9.35 | 18.80 |
| 13 | Shinsaku Tsukawaki | Japan | 9.30 | 9.45 | 18.75 |
| 13 | Boris Shakhlin | Soviet Union | 9.30 | 9.45 | 18.75 |
| 13 | Akira Kono | Japan | 9.30 | 9.45 | 18.75 |
| 13 | Velik Kapsazov | Bulgaria | 9.40 | 9.35 | 18.75 |
| 13 | Abie Grossfeld | United States | 9.35 | 9.40 | 18.75 |
| 18 | Kalevi Suoniemi | Finland | 9.25 | 9.45 | 18.70 |
| 18 | Raimo Heinonen | Finland | 9.25 | 9.45 | 18.70 |
| 18 | Josef Škvor | Czechoslovakia | 9.20 | 9.50 | 18.70 |
| 18 | Theo Wied | United Team of Germany | 9.25 | 9.45 | 18.70 |
| 22 | Berndt Lindfors | Finland | 9.20 | 9.45 | 18.65 |
| 22 | Charles Simms | United States | 9.20 | 9.45 | 18.65 |
| 22 | Jakob Kiefer | United Team of Germany | 9.25 | 9.40 | 18.65 |
| 25 | Masami Kubota | Japan | 9.20 | 9.40 | 18.60 |
| 25 | Valentin Muratov | Soviet Union | 9.55 | 9.05 | 18.60 |
| 27 | Nobuyuki Aihara | Japan | 9.30 | 9.25 | 18.55 |
| 28 | Jean Guillou | France | 9.30 | 9.20 | 18.50 |
| 29 | Robert Klein | United Team of Germany | 9.25 | 9.20 | 18.45 |
| 29 | Josy Stoffel | Luxembourg | 9.25 | 9.20 | 18.45 |
| 29 | Dick Beckner | United States | 9.10 | 9.35 | 18.45 |
| 32 | Jaroslav Bím | Czechoslovakia | 9.05 | 9.30 | 18.35 |
| 33 | Jaroslav Mikoška | Czechoslovakia | 9.35 | 8.95 | 18.30 |
| 33 | Vladimír Kejř | Czechoslovakia | 9.20 | 9.10 | 18.30 |
| 35 | Onni Lappalainen | Finland | 9.00 | 9.25 | 18.25 |
| 36 | Nik Stuart | Great Britain | 9.15 | 9.05 | 18.20 |
| 37 | Olavi Leimuvirta | Finland | 8.95 | 9.20 | 18.15 |
| 37 | Erich Wied | United Team of Germany | 8.65 | 9.50 | 18.15 |
| 39 | Mincho Todorov | Bulgaria | 9.00 | 9.10 | 18.10 |
| 40 | Kurt Wigartz | Sweden | 9.20 | 8.85 | 18.05 |
| 40 | Armando Vega | United States | 9.15 | 8.90 | 18.05 |
| 42 | Martti Mansikka | Finland | 8.90 | 9.10 | 18.00 |
| 43 | Ronnie Lombard | South Africa | 9.05 | 8.90 | 17.95 |
| 44 | Attila Takács | Hungary | 9.45 | 8.45 | 17.90 |
| 44 | Michel Mathiot | France | 9.15 | 8.75 | 17.90 |
| 46 | Bill Tom | United States | 8.80 | 9.05 | 17.85 |
| 47 | William Thoresson | Sweden | 9.05 | 8.75 | 17.80 |
| 48 | Hans Pfann | United Team of Germany | 8.55 | 9.20 | 17.75 |
| 48 | Frank Turner | Great Britain | 8.95 | 8.80 | 17.75 |
| 50 | Graham Bond | Australia | 8.90 | 8.75 | 17.65 |
| 51 | János Héder | Hungary | 9.20 | 8.25 | 17.45 |
| 52 | Jack Wells | South Africa | 8.50 | 8.70 | 17.20 |
| 53 | Ed Gagnier | Canada | 7.65 | 8.45 | 16.10 |
| 54 | David Gourlay | Australia | 8.10 | 7.90 | 16.00 |
| 55 | Rafael Lecuona | Cuba | 6.75 | 7.80 | 14.55 |
| 56 | Bruce Sharp | Australia | 7.30 | 6.65 | 13.95 |
| 57 | John Lees | Australia | 7.70 | 6.10 | 13.80 |
| 58 | Brian Blackburn | Australia | 8.20 | 5.00 | 13.20 |
| 59 | Pritam Singh | India | 5.80 | 5.75 | 11.55 |
| 60 | Sham Lal | India | 4.00 | 6.50 | 10.50 |
| 61 | Anant Ram | India | 8.20 | 1.50 | 9.70 |
| 62 | Hans Sauter | Austria | 9.20 | — | 9.20 |
| 63 | Noel Punton | Australia | 4.50 | 4.00 | 8.50 |