Yang Wei of China established himself as the world’s best all-round gymnast by winning the gold medal in the Men’s All-Around at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. He entered the final rotation with a clear lead over the rest of the field. The lead was a great help for Yang, who knew that he did not need to do extremely well on the Horizontal Bar, his weakest apparatus. Yang did well in the Rings, the Vault and the Parallel Bars. His 16.625 in the Rings was only improved by his fellow citizen Chen Yibing, who pulled out of his last rotation and concluded last.

 

Yang finished with a total of 94.575 points, which was way off the total score of 91.975 of Japan’s Uchimura Kohei. Uchimura mistake-ridden performance in the Pommel Horse, which brought him 13.275 points, was the worst score. With that many points, Uchimura managed to get the silver medal. Benoit Caranobe of France, who was the top-ranking gymnast on the apparatus, won the bronze medal with a total of 91.925 points.