Carlos Yulo

Athletes competing in men’s artistic gymnastics from 25 countries set, matched, or broke records for their nations at the Olympic Games in Paris, France, making history in the sport and inspiring future generations of athletes to follow in their footsteps.

View the complete list of Olympic Games records.

ARMENIA

Vahagn Davtyan, a first-time Olympian at age 35, became the first gymnast from Armenia to qualify into the rings final, where his sixth-place finish smashed his younger brother’s 64th-place record from qualifications in 2012.

Not to be outdone, Artur Davtyan in his fourth Games beat his own record on vault, where he won the bronze medal in 2020. This year, he improved on this by exactly one spot, winning the silver medal to again make history.

AUSTRALIA

It was really exciting to see Jesse Moore, one of the last MAG qualifiers to Paris after winning the all-around competition at the Oceania Championships, qualify to the all-around final, where his 21st-place finish came very close to breaking Australia’s record, which Joshua Jefferis set in 2012.

Though he didn’t break the all-around record, he did improve two of Australia’s apparatus rankings, finishing 22nd on floor to break Philippe Rizzo’s 33rd-place record from 2000 and finishing 27th on pommel horse to break Werner Birnbaum’s 38th-place record from 1984.

BELGIUM

After narrowly missing out on qualifying a full team to the Olympics, the Belgians were still able to get the maximum number of individuals to Paris showing some incredible growth in the program.

They also had some super impressive results over the past week, with Glen Cuyle becoming the second Belgian MAG athlete to qualify to an apparatus final, matching Dennis Goossens’ eighth-place record on rings, while Luka van den Keybus with a 33rd-place ranking on high bar tied Jimmy Verbaeys’ record set in 2012.

CHINA

Since making their Olympic gymnastics debut in 1984, the Chinese men have won gold in every final, so now for them it’s about repeating golds, which they managed to do twice in Paris.

Liu Yang won China’s fourth rings title in history, and the country’s first back-to-back title after he also won in 2020. Prior to Liu, we saw Li Ning win gold on rings in 1984 and Chen Yibing get the title in 2008.

On parallel bars, Zou Jingyuan stunned to also win his second straight title after getting gold in Tokyo, and it was the fifth parallel bars title in China’s history, with Li Xiaopeng winning in 2000 and 2008, while Feng Zhe won in 2012.

COLOMBIA

Angel Barajas lost out on multiple chances to qualify for Paris, as he was too young for world championships – the primary qualifier – and then the Pan American Gymnastics Union opted to use the Pan Am Games in 2023 as the continental qualifier instead of a separate championships in the spring of 2024, again making him ineligible due to his age.

Thankfully, Barajas came in clutch in the world cup series – his one chance to qualify – to earn a spot, and proved himself once again to reach the high bar final in Paris, making him the first Colombian man to qualify to an apparatus final. Next, he impressed again in the final to win the silver medal, also becoming the first Colombian man to medal in artistic gymnastics at the Olympic Games (his second-place finish here bested teammate Jossimar Calvo’s 12th-place finish from 2016).

CROATIA

Another strong small-program specialist to qualify from the world cups here was Aurel Benovic, who set records on both of the apparatuses he competed in Paris!

Benovic reached the vault final, where his fifth-place finish broke Aleksei Demianov’s 63rd-place record from 1996, and though he missed out on the floor final, he still managed to make history by finishing 28th, breaking Filip Ude’s 41st-place record from 2008.

CYPRUS

In his third Olympic Games, this year’s European all-around champion Marios Georgiou broke several of the apparatus records he set his first couple of times out in 2016 and 2020.

His biggest accomplishment was making his – and his country’s – first apparatus final, with his sixth-place finish on high bar besting his ninth-place qualifications ranking in 2020. He also finished 35th on pommel horse to break his 40th-place record from 2016, 50th on floor to tie his record from 2020, and 56th on rings to break his 61st-place record from 2020.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

When Audrys Nin Reyes earned the continental spot for the Americas region at last year’s Pan Am Games, he became the first MAG athlete from the Dominican Republic to qualify to the Olympic Games, making Olympic history before he even arrived in Paris.

Nin Reyes competed two events in Paris, finishing 16th in vault qualifications and 66th in high bar qualifications to set the first program records on both.

EGYPT

This was the second Olympics appearance for Omar Mohamed, who made his debut in Tokyo, where he broke records on floor and pommel horse.

This year, he again improved on both his and Egypt’s pommel horse record, with his 41st-place finish breaking his 46th-place record from 2020.

FRANCE

With Samir Aït Saïd the only French MAG athlete to qualify for Paris, he had a lot of the country’s hopes on his shoulders at his home Games, and once again making the rings final was a massive accomplishment in itself.

Though he once again narrowly missed out on a medal by finishing fourth, he matched the record he set in 2020, where he was also just off the podium.

GREAT BRITAIN

The British men had a pretty successful Olympic Games with eight individual finalists, fourth place in the team final, and two medals, including Jake Jarman with the bronze on floor and Harry Hepworth with the bronze on vault, which was the first medal for Great Britain on this apparatus in program history, as Hepworth broke Kristian Thomas’ eight-place record from 2012.

Hepworth was also the first British man to qualify into the rings final, where his seventh-place finish broke Joe Fraser’s 12th-place prelims record from 2020.

IRAN

The first Iranian MAG athlete to qualify for the Olympic Games in 60 years, Mahdi Olfati – who qualified via the world cup series – came in as a legitimate medal threat on vault.

Though he didn’t end up winning a medal, he became the first Iranian man to reach an individual final, and his seventh-place finish smashed Jalal Bazargan-Vali’s 103rd-place record from 1964.

IRELAND

Three years ago, Rhys McClenaghan made history as the first Irish gymnast to qualify to an apparatus final, finishing seventh on pommel horse in Tokyo.

Coming into this year’s Games as the reining world and continental champion, McClenaghan was the favorite for gold, and did not disappoint, with his stunning routine in the final winning first place to break his own record and become Ireland’s first medalist in the sport.

JAPAN

Like China, the Japanese men are chasing their own first-place records in nearly every medal event – pommel horse is the only event where they haven’t yet won gold, having won silver four times – and they managed to do it three times this year.

Most notable was Oka Shinnosuke in his major international debut winning gold medals in the all-around and on high bar. He was the sixth MAG athlete to win the all-around competition, following in the footsteps of Endo Yukio (1964), Kato Sawao (1968-1972), Gushiken Koji (1984), Uchimura Kohei (2012-2016), and Hashimoto Daiki (2020), and he won Japan’s eighth high bar title, with Ono Takashi (1956-1960), Nakayama Akinori (1968), Tsukahara Mitsuo (1972-1976), Morisue Shinji (1984), and Hashimoto Daiki (2020) coming before him.

Additionally, the team won its eighth team title in Paris, with the Japanese men winning five straight titles from 1960 to 1976, and then another two in 2004 and 2016.

JORDAN

Ahmad Abu Al Soud made history as the first gymnast from Jordan to qualify to the Olympic Games in men’s gymnastics, making history when he earned a spot via the world cup series in the spring.

Though his prelims routine didn’t go as planned, with Abu Al Soud falling twice to miss a final he had a great shot at medaling in, he set the program record for Jordan by finishing 51st.

KAZAKHSTAN

There were two excellent athletes representing Kazakhstan this year, both of whom made it into the record books for their program.

Nariman Kurbanov was the most impressive, winning Kazakhstan’s first medal in gymnastics when he finished second on pommel horse, breaking Yernar Yerimbetov’s eighth-place record from 2004 in the process. We also saw Milad Karimi in his second Olympic Games tie his own fifth-place floor record that he set in 2020, as well as finish 47th on rings to break his 49th-place record from the same year.

LITHUANIA

In his third Olympic Games, Robert Tvorogal dropped his all-around program to focus solely on parallel bars and high bar, where he had his best shots at making the finals.

Though he ultimately missed out on both, Tvorogal got pretty close on high bar, finishing 18th to break his 32nd-place record from 2020.

NETHERLANDS

This was a really successful year for the Dutch men, who were a surprise to qualify a full team at world championships last year, and though they didn’t make the team final, they did see three individuals break records, including two that were nearly a hundred years old.

Casimir Schmidt had an excellent competition, qualifying to the all-around final where he finished 13th to break Bart Deurloo’s 15th-place record from 2016 while also finishing 13th in vault prelims, the best finish for a Dutch man since Pieter van Dam placed 34th in 1928!

Loran de Munck also broke a 96-year-old record, becoming the first Dutch man to qualify to the pommel horse final where he finished eighth to break Mozes Jacobs’ record from 1928, while Frank Rijken qualified in 16th place on parallel bars to break Epke Zonderland’s 18th-place record from 2012.

PHILIPPINES

Six years ago, Carlos Yulo became the first Filipino man to win a world medal, and though his Olympic Games in Tokyo didn’t go according to plan, he fought back this quad with his competition in Paris one for the books.

Most notably, Yulo became not only the first Filipino MAG athlete, but the first Filipino man in any sport to win an Olympic gold medal – something he did first on floor (smashing his 44th-place record from 2020) and then repeated a day later on vault (he was fourth in the final there in 2020).

In addition to his history-making medal finishes, Yulo also broke the records he set in 2020 in the all-around by finishing in 12th place, an improvement from 47th, on pommel horse by finishing in 40th place, an improvement from 69th; on parallel bars by finishing in 19th place, an improvement from 55th; and on high bar by finishing in 27th place, also an improvement from 55th.

SPAIN

It was going to be difficult to top the silver medal he earned on floor in Tokyo, and though he made the final again this year, Rayderley Zapata unfortunately came up a bit short to miss the podium this time around.

Still, he had a great competition overall, and proved himself as one of Spain’s best ring workers in history by tying Rafael Martinez’s 19th-place rings qualifications record from 2004.

SYRIA

Lais Najjar, a University of Michigan athlete who began representing Syria internationally as a junior in 2017, ended up missing out on a world championships spot last year but ended up being the top option for the tripartite nomination, which recognizes athletes from nations that historically have not had high representation at the Games.

As the first MAG athlete to compete for Syria at the Olympics, Najjar showed great routines on all three of his events, setting program records on parallel bars in 47th place, floor exercise in 51st place, and high bar in 54th place.

TAIWAN

After putting up Taiwan’s best-ever all-around performance at the Olympic Games in Tokyo last quad, Tang opted to focus on his top apparatus – high bar – with the goal of winning a medal in Paris, and the work paid off as he tied for bronze this year.

With this accomplishment, Tang became the first Taiwanese athlete to medal on high bar, breaking his own 33rd-place record from qualifications in 2020.

TÜRKIYE

The Turkish men’s program debuted at the Olympic Games in 1908, and then wasn’t seen again for over a century, qualifying individuals to the Games in 2016 and 2020 before then realizing the goal of qualifying a full team to Paris with their performance at worlds last year. Though the team missed out on the final here, they still managed to finish in an impressive ninth place to set the program record.

Additionally, Adem Asil earned a spot in the rings final, where he finished in fifth place to tie teammate Ibrahim Colak’s record from 2020.

UKRAINE

In spite of living and training through the horrors of war over the past two years, the Ukrainian men rose to the occasion in Paris, putting up incredible team and individual performances all week long, with two of the athletes breaking apparatus records.

Illia Kovtun, who won a medal on parallel bars in addition to finishing just off the podium in the all-around and on floor, had the program’s best-ever floor finish, with his fourth-place ranking breaking Grigory Misutin’s eighth-place record from 1996. Additionally, Oleg Verniaiev put up a great routine in the pommel horse final, finishing fifth to break Vitali Nakonechnyi’s sixth-place record from 2012.

UZBEKISTAN

Two of the three individual athletes from Uzbekistan were able to add their names to the record books in Paris, an impressive feat for this program that did not qualify any MAG athletes to an Olympic Games until 2008.

First up is Abdulla Azimov, who nearly made the pommel horse final after finishing 13th in qualifications to break Anton Fokin’s 22nd-place record from 2008, while his 45th-place finish on high bar broke a 48th-place record set by Fokin in 2016 and matched by Rasuljon Abdurakhimov in 2020. Additionally, Khabibullo Ergashev finished 55th in floor qualifications, also breaking Fokin’s record from 2008.

Article by Lauren Hopkins