Uneven Bars, Women

The format was similar to 1964 and 1968, with the best six gymnasts in the team 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. Olga Korbut had stunned the crowd in the team all-around with her uneven bars performances with several acrobatic and dangerous moves never performed before in women’s gymnastics, but she still trailed East German Karin Janz. Janz’s lead was too large for Korbut to overcome in the final, and in fact, Janz extended it with the best optional routine in the final to win the gold medal comfortably. The silver medals were shared by Korbut and Janz’s teammate Erika Zuchold.

Janz won five medals and two gold medals in München, ending her Olympic career with seven medals. She then went to medical school and became an orthopaedic surgeon specializing in spine surgery. In the late 1990s Janz designed a revolutionary artificial disk which became used world-wide to help many people overcome crippling back pain.