Uneven Bars, Women

The format was the same as in 1964, with the best six gymnasts in the individual all-around advancing to the apparatus final, with the final apparatus score made up of 50% of the all-around total and a final optional program. Nataliya Kuchinskaya (URS) had won this event at the 1966 World Championships but she placed only 37th in all-around qualifying, the only apparatus on which she did not make the final. This was the only event in which Věra Čáslavská did not medal at the 1966 Worlds, but she won the gold medal in Mexico City easily, with the highest score in qualifying and the final round. East German Karin Janz won the silver medal, while the bronze went to Soviet Zinaida Voronina. Janz would later become an orthopaedic surgeon, specializing in spine surgery and in the late 1990s developed the world’s most popular artificial disk for spinal problems. But well before that she would compete at the 1972 Olympics, winning five medals and two gold medals in the vault and this event.