Men's pommel horse at the Games of the XXIII Olympiad
Azerbaijan stamp depicting Li Ning on the pommel horse at the 1984 Olympics
Venue	Pauley Pavilion
Dates	29 July – 4 August
Competitors	71 from 19 nations
Winning score	19.950
Medalists
Li Ning  China Peter Vidmar  United States Tim Daggett  United States
← 1980 1988 →

The men's pommel horse competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The qualification and final rounds took place on July 29, 31 and August 4 at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion. There were 71 competitors from 19 nations, with nations competing in the team event having 6 gymnasts while other nations could have to up to 3 gymnasts.^[1] The event was won in a tie between Li Ning of China, in the nation's debut in the Games, and Peter Vidmar, with the United States' first gold medal in the pommel horse since 1904 (and second overall) and first medal in the event since 1932. The bronze medal went to another American, Tim Daggett. The Soviet Union's eight-Games podium streak in the event ended with no Soviets competing due to the boycott.

This was the 16th appearance of the event, which is one of the five apparatus events held every time there were apparatus events at the Summer Olympics (no apparatus events were held in 1900, 1908, 1912, or 1920). None of the six finalists from 1980 returned, as all were from boycotting nations. With the absence of the Soviets, East Germans, and Hungary's Zoltán Magyar (who had retired anyway), the field was open to the traditional power Japan and rising powers China and the United States. Li Xiaoping and Li Ning of China had taken second and fourth, respectively, at the 1983 world championships, the highest rankings of the non-boycotting nations; Li Xiaoping had won the world championship in 1981.^[1]

The People's Republic of China and San Marino each made their debut in the men's pommel horse. The United States made its 14th appearance, breaking a tie with the absent Hungary for most of any nation; the Americans had missed only the inaugural 1896 pommel horse and the boycotted 1980 Games.

Each nation entered a team of six gymnasts or up to three individual gymnasts. All entrants in the gymnastics competitions performed both a compulsory exercise and a voluntary exercise for each apparatus. The scores for all 12 exercises were summed to give an individual all-around score. These exercise scores were also used for qualification for the apparatus finals. The two exercises (compulsory and voluntary) for each apparatus were summed to give an apparatus score.

The 1984 Games expanded the number of finalists from six to eight. Nations were still limited to two finalists each. Others were ranked 9th through 71st. Half of the preliminary score carried over to the final.^[1][2]

All times are Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7)

Seventy-one gymnasts competed in the compulsory and optional rounds on July 29 and 31. The eight highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on August 4. Each country was limited to two competitors in the final. Half of the points earned by each gymnast during both the compulsory and optional rounds carried over to the final. This constitutes the "prelim" score.

Rank	Gymnast	Nation	Preliminary			Final
			Compulsory	Voluntary	Total	1⁄2 Prelim.	Final	Total
	Li Ning	China	10.00	9.90	19.90	9.950	10.000	19.950
	Peter Vidmar	United States	10.00	9.90	19.90	9.950	10.000	19.950
	Tim Daggett	United States	9.95	9.90	19.85	9.925	9.900	19.825
4	Tong Fei	China	9.85	9.85	19.70	9.850	9.900	19.750
5	Jean-Luc Cairon	France	9.75	9.85	19.60	9.800	9.900	19.700
6	Nobuyuki Kajitani	Japan	9.60	9.85	19.45	9.725	9.900	19.625
7	Benno Groß	West Germany	9.75	9.80	19.55	9.775	9.750	19.525
8	Josef Zellweger	Switzerland	9.70	9.80	19.50	9.750	9.750	19.500
9	Mitchell Gaylord	United States	9.90	9.85	19.75	Did not advance
10	Bart Conner	United States	9.80	9.75	19.55	Did not advance
11	Jim Hartung	United States	9.80	9.70	19.50	Did not advance
	Xu Zhiqiang	China	9.75	9.75	19.50	Did not advance
13	Brad Peters	Canada	9.75	9.70	19.45	Did not advance
	Joël Suty	France	9.70	9.75	19.45	Did not advance
15	Jürgen Geiger	West Germany	9.65	9.75	19.40	Did not advance
	Noritoshi Hirata	Japan	9.60	9.80	19.40	Did not advance
17	Scott Johnson	United States	9.70	9.65	19.35	Did not advance
	Li Xiaoping	China	10.00	9.35	19.35	Did not advance
19	Tony Piñeda	Mexico	9.50	9.80	19.30	Did not advance
20	Bernhard Simmelbauer	West Germany	9.65	9.65	19.30	Did not advance
21	Koji Gushiken	Japan	9.80	9.45	19.25	Did not advance
22	Markus Lehmann	Switzerland	9.60	9.60	19.20	Did not advance
	Li Yuejiu	China	9.60	9.60	19.20	Did not advance
24	Vittorio Allievi	Italy	9.65	9.50	19.15	Did not advance
	Andrew Morris	Great Britain	9.55	9.60	19.15	Did not advance
	Emilian Nicula	Romania	9.55	9.60	19.15	Did not advance
27	Jacques Def	France	9.50	9.60	19.10	Did not advance
	Marco Piatti	Switzerland	9.60	9.50	19.10	Did not advance
	Daniel Winkler	West Germany	9.40	9.70	19.10	Did not advance
30	Han Chung-sik	South Korea	9.35	9.70	19.05	Did not advance
	Warren Long	Canada	9.50	9.55	19.05	Did not advance
	Valentin Pîntea	Romania	9.55	9.50	19.05	Did not advance
	Daniel Wunderlin	Switzerland	9.55	9.50	19.05	Did not advance
34	Shinji Morisue	Japan	9.40	9.60	19.00	Did not advance
	Maurizio Zonzini	San Marino	9.45	9.55	19.00	Did not advance
36	Andreas Japtok	West Germany	9.45	9.50	18.95	Did not advance
	Miguel Soler	Spain	9.45	9.50	18.95	Did not advance
38	Werner Birnbaum	Australia	9.60	9.30	18.90	Did not advance
	Johan Jonasson	Sweden	9.30	9.60	18.90	Did not advance
	Lee Jeoung-sik	South Korea	9.40	9.50	18.90	Did not advance
41	Philippe Chartrand	Canada	9.45	9.40	18.85	Did not advance
	Alfonso Rodríguez	Spain	9.45	9.40	18.85	Did not advance
43	Finn Gjertsen	Norway	9.30	9.50	18.80	Did not advance
	Jang Tae-eun	South Korea	9.20	9.60	18.80	Did not advance
	Keith Langley	Great Britain	9.40	9.40	18.80	Did not advance
	Lou Yun	China	9.20	9.60	18.80	Did not advance
	Koji Sotomura	Japan	9.55	9.25	18.80	Did not advance
48	Bruno Cavelti	Switzerland	9.35	9.40	18.75	Did not advance
	Nam Seung-gu	South Korea	9.25	9.50	18.75	Did not advance
	Barry Winch	Great Britain	9.45	9.30	18.75	Did not advance
51	Rocco Amboni	Italy	9.30	9.40	18.70	Did not advance
	Michel Boutard	France	9.55	9.15	18.70	Did not advance
	Ju Yeong-sam	South Korea	9.50	9.20	18.70	Did not advance
54	Urs Meister	Switzerland	9.45	9.20	18.65	Did not advance
	Volker Rohrwick	West Germany	9.35	9.30	18.65	Did not advance
	Philippe Vatuone	France	9.45	9.20	18.65	Did not advance
57	Terence Bartlett	Great Britain	9.45	9.15	18.60	Did not advance
58	Daniel Gaudet	Canada	9.45	9.10	18.55	Did not advance
	Frank Nutzenberger	Canada	9.30	9.25	18.55	Did not advance
60	Antonio Fraguas	Spain	9.40	9.10	18.50	Did not advance
61	Chae Gwang-seok	South Korea	9.00	9.45	18.45	Did not advance
62	Diego Lazzarich	Italy	8.95	9.45	18.40	Did not advance
63	Laurent Barbiéri	France	9.20	9.05	18.25	Did not advance
64	Yohanan Moyal	Israel	8.85	9.25	18.10	Did not advance
65	Kyoji Yamawaki	Japan	8.65	9.40	18.05	Did not advance
66	Allan Reddon	Canada	9.60	8.20	17.80	Did not advance
67	Richard Benyon	Great Britain	8.25	9.35	17.60	Did not advance
68	Gerson Gnoatto	Brazil	8.05	9.35	17.40	Did not advance
69	Eddie Van Hoof	Great Britain	8.70	8.55	17.25	Did not advance
70	Robert Edmonds	Australia	9.45	7.60	17.05	Did not advance
71	Ya'akov Levi	Israel	8.60	8.25	16.85	Did not advance

• Official Olympic Report
• www.gymnasticsresults.com
• www.gymn-forum.net