Gymnastics at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Men's vault

This was the 15th 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). Three of the six finalists from 1976 returned: gold medalist Nikolai Andrianov of the Soviet Union, fourth-place finisher Dan Grecu of Romania, and fifth-place finisher Zoltán Magyar of Hungary. Andrianov had finished second to fellow Soviet Alexander Dityatin in the 1979 world championships. The American-led boycott resulted in there being no competitors from either the traditional men's gymnastics power of Japan or the rising power of the United States; the Soviets' dominance this Games would be challenged only by the East Germans.[1]

Brazil made its debut in the men's vault. Hungary made its 13th appearance, tying the United States (absent from the vault event for the first time since the inaugural 1896 Games) for most of any nation.

The event used a "vaulting horse" aligned parallel to the gymnast's run (rather than the modern "vaulting table" in use since 2004). 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 top 6 in each apparatus participated in the finals, except that nations were limited to two finalists each; others were ranked 7th through 65th. Half of the preliminary score carried over to the final.[1][2]

All times are Moscow Time (UTC+3)

Sixty-five gymnasts competed in the compulsory and optional rounds on July 20 and 22. The six highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on July 25. 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
	Nikolai Andrianov	Soviet Union	9.90	9.90	19.80	9.900	9.925	19.825
	Alexander Dityatin	Soviet Union	9.85	9.90	19.75	9.875	9.925	19.800
	Roland Brückner	East Germany	9.90	9.85	19.75	9.875	9.900	19.775
4	Ralf-Peter Hemmann	East Germany	9.80	9.85	19.65	9.825	9.925	19.750
5	Stoyan Deltchev	Bulgaria	9.80	9.85	19.65	9.825	9.875	19.700
6	Jiří Tabák	Czechoslovakia	9.85	9.90	19.75	9.875	9.650	19.525
7	Bohdan Makuts	Soviet Union	9.90	9.85	19.75	Did not advance
8	Eduard Azaryan	Soviet Union	9.75	9.85	19.60	Did not advance
	Lutz Hoffmann	East Germany	9.80	9.80	19.60	Did not advance
	Jozef Konečný	Czechoslovakia	9.80	9.80	19.60	Did not advance
	Aleksandr Tkachyov	Soviet Union	9.80	9.80	19.60	Did not advance
12	Willi Moy	France	9.75	9.80	19.55	Did not advance
	István Vámos	Hungary	9.75	9.80	19.55	Did not advance
	Sergio Suarez	Cuba	9.70	9.85	19.55	Did not advance
15	Andreas Bronst	East Germany	9.70	9.80	19.50	Did not advance
	Aurelian Georgescu	Romania	9.65	9.85	19.50	Did not advance
	Zoltán Magyar	Hungary	9.75	9.75	19.50	Did not advance
18	Michael Nikolay	East Germany	9.65	9.80	19.45	Did not advance
	Kurt Szilier	Romania	9.55	9.90	19.45	Did not advance
	Rumen Petkov	Bulgaria	9.70	9.75	19.45	Did not advance
21	Ferenc Donáth	Hungary	9.60	9.80	19.40	Did not advance
	Vladimir Markelov	Soviet Union	9.80	9.60	19.40	Did not advance
23	Sorin Cepoi	Romania	9.60	9.75	19.35	Did not advance
	Marc Touchais	France	9.65	9.70	19.35	Did not advance
25	Romulus Bucuroiu	Romania	9.40	9.90	19.30	Did not advance
	Péter Kovács	Hungary	9.55	9.75	19.30	Did not advance
	Miguel Arroyo	Cuba	9.70	9.60	19.30	Did not advance
	Dan Grecu	Romania	9.60	9.70	19.30	Did not advance
	Keith Langley	Great Britain	9.60	9.70	19.30	Did not advance
30	Lutz Mack	East Germany	9.75	9.50	19.25	Did not advance
	Jan Migdau	Czechoslovakia	9.60	9.65	19.25	Did not advance
	Yanko Radanchev	Bulgaria	9.55	9.70	19.25	Did not advance
	Waldemar Woźniak	Poland	9.60	9.65	19.25	Did not advance
	Jan Zoulik	Czechoslovakia	9.65	9.60	19.25	Did not advance
35	Enrique Bravo	Cuba	9.60	9.60	19.20	Did not advance
	Miloslav Kučeřík	Czechoslovakia	9.50	9.70	19.20	Did not advance
	Andrzej Szajna	Poland	9.45	9.75	19.20	Did not advance
38	Rudolf Babiak	Czechoslovakia	9.50	9.65	19.15	Did not advance
39	Nicolae Oprescu	Romania	9.45	9.65	19.10	Did not advance
40	Ognyan Bangiev	Bulgaria	9.50	9.55	19.05	Did not advance
41	Michel Boutard	France	9.55	9.45	19.00	Did not advance
	Gabriel Calvo	Spain	9.30	9.70	19.00	Did not advance
	Kang Gwang-song	North Korea	9.40	9.60	19.00	Did not advance
	Roberto Leon	Cuba	9.50	9.50	19.00	Did not advance
	Song Sun-bong	North Korea	9.40	9.60	19.00	Did not advance
46	György Guczoghy	Hungary	9.55	9.40	18.95	Did not advance
	Kim Gwang-jin	North Korea	9.40	9.55	18.95	Did not advance
	José de la Casa	Spain	9.45	9.50	18.95	Did not advance
49	Mario Castro	Cuba	9.40	9.50	18.90	Did not advance
	Plamen Petkov	Bulgaria	9.25	9.65	18.90	Did not advance
51	Fernando Bertrand	Spain	9.30	9.50	18.80	Did not advance
	Li Su-gil	North Korea	9.30	9.50	18.80	Did not advance
	Zoltán Kelemen	Hungary	9.10	9.70	18.80	Did not advance
54	Lindsay Nylund	Australia	9.35	9.35	18.70	Did not advance
	Krzysztof Potaczek	Poland	9.00	9.70	18.70	Did not advance
56	João Luiz Ribeiro	Brazil	9.40	9.25	18.65	Did not advance
57	Yves Bouquel	France	9.30	9.30	18.60	Did not advance
	Han Gwang-song	North Korea	9.40	9.20	18.60	Did not advance
	Dancho Yordanov	Bulgaria	9.50	9.10	18.60	Did not advance
60	Joël Suty	France	9.45	9.10	18.55	Did not advance
61	Henri Boerio	France	9.45	9.00	18.45	Did not advance
62	Thomas Wilson	Great Britain	9.20	9.15	18.35	Did not advance
63	Cho Hun	North Korea	9.20	8.85	18.05	Did not advance
64	Barry Winch	Great Britain	8.80	9.20	18.00	Did not advance
65	Jorge Roche	Cuba	9.75	0.00	9.75	Did not advance
—	Moustapha Chouara	Lebanon	DNS			Did not advance
	Adnan Horns	Lebanon	DNS			Did not advance
	Maurizio Zonzini	San Marino	DNS			Did not advance

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