On Monday, Zou Jingyuan from China was nearly perfect in defending his Olympic title on the parallel bars, marking the last day of artistic gymnastics at the Paris Games.
This was Zou’s third medal in Paris, having already earned a silver in rings and helped his team to a second-place finish behind Japan in the team event.
Zou, a three-time world champion in parallel bars, won gold ahead of Illia Kovtun from Ukraine. Shinnosuke Oka of Japan, who won the all-around title, took the bronze.
Later on Monday, there will be one more gold medal awarded in the men’s horizontal bar competition. This presents another chance for China to increase its count of Olympic titles, following Zhang Boheng’s top score in qualifying.
Kovtun started the event with a challenging routine that featured an impressive handstand on one rail, which earned him a score of 15.500.
Kovtun led until Zou performed an exceptional routine that included powerful moves and impressive aerials, finishing with a perfect dismount. Zou’s score of 16.200 was the highest single score in artistic gymnastics at these Games.
This achievement was notable as Zou became the first man since Sawao Kato of Japan in 1976 to defend his Olympic title on the parallel bars.
