The format was the same as it had been from 1984-96, with eight gymnasts advancing from the team all-around, but no more than two per nation. Romanian [Marius Urzic?] had won the silver medal on pommells at the 1996 Olympics, and been the World Champion in 1994. His results since 1996 had been desultory, until a silver medal at the 1999 Worlds, and in early 2000 he won the European Championship on the pommelled horse. He won the gold medal in Sydney and in 2004, would add another silver medal on the pommelled horse. France’s [Eric Poujade], runner-up at the 1997 World Championships, also placed second in Sydney, while bronze went to the 1999 World Champion, [Aleksey Nemov], who had also been third in 1996.

Through 2012, Urzic?’s three medals on a single apparatus has only been done three other times by a male Olympic gymnast: [Nikolay Andrianov] on both vault and floor, and [Li Xiaopeng] on the parallel bars. Among women this has only been accomplished by Russia’s [Larysa Latynina], who did it on three apparatuses: vault, floor, and uneven bars.