China’s Liu Yang remains the gold standard in the men’s rings competition at the Olympics.
The star gymnast successfully defended his gold medal from the 2020 Tokyo Games with another victory in Sunday’s competition at the 2024 Paris Games. He posted a score of 15.300, outscoring his Chinese teammate, Zou Jingyuan, and Greece’s Eleftherios Petrounias.
Zou secured the silver with a score of 15.233, while Petrounias claimed the bronze with 15.100.
Here are the full results:
- Liu Yang, China: 15.300
- Zou Jingyuan, China: 15.233
- Eleftherios Petrounias, Greece: 15.100
- Samir Aït Saïd, France: 15.000
- Adem Asil, Türkiye: 14.966
- Vahagn Davtyan, Armenia: 14.866
- Harry Hepworth, Great Britain: 14.800
- Glen Cuyle, Belgium: 13.833
The competition between Liu and Zou was incredibly close, as Liu was the reigning gold medalist and Zou had topped the standings after the qualification round. Both entered Sunday’s final with difficulty scores of 6.400, making execution the deciding factor. Liu executed slightly better, scoring 8.900 compared to Zou’s 8.833.
The gold and silver medalists were not the only standouts in Sunday’s competition. Petrounias added to his extensive Olympic resume with a bronze, thanks to his difficulty score of 6.300, higher than France’s Samir Aït Saïd’s 6.100. This gave Petrounias a small margin for error in execution, allowing him to finish with a score of 15.100, winning the bronze by .100.
Petrounias previously won gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and bronze in Tokyo.
The three medalists emerged from an eight-man final that did not include any Americans. While the United States women have dominated the gymnastics competitions in Paris, no American men qualified for Sunday’s rings final.
