Uneven Bars, Women

The format was similar to 1964-72, 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. However, nations were now limited to only two gymnasts in the finals. Nadia Comăneci was perfect in this event, quite literally. She scored a 20.00 in the team qualifying, with 10.00 for both he compulsory and optional routines, and then received another 10.00 in the final round, for a score of 20.00 in this event. At the modern Games (post-WW2), the only other times this happened on the 20-point scoring system was by Japan’s Shinji Morisue in 1984 on high bar, and Romania’s Daniela Silivaş in 1988 on the uneven bars. Comăneci was followed by her teammate, Teodora Ungureanu, and Hungarian Márta Egervári. This was the only women’s event in Montréal in which the Soviet Union did not win a medal. In fact, this was the only time between 1952-88, during the Olympic existence of the Soviet Union, in which they did win a medal in a women’s gymnastics event, save for the obvious 1984 boycott year.