At the 1976 Summer Olympics, fourteen different artistic gymnastics events were contested, eight for men and six for women. All events were held at the Montreal Forum in Montreal from July 18 through 23.^[1]

For the first time in Olympic competition, countries were limited to having three gymnasts in the all-around competition and two gymnasts in each apparatus final. This was a controversial decision, which prevented many gymnasts of strong teams from competing in the finals. In addition, for the first time the number of countries allowed to bring full teams of six gymnasts and compete in the team competition was limited to twelve. The results of the team competition at the previous world championships determined which countries were allowed to bring teams.

Format of competition

The gymnastics competition at the 1976 Summer Olympics was carried out in three stages:

• Competition I - The team competition/qualification round in which all gymnasts, including those who were not part of a team, performed both compulsory and optional exercises. The combined scores of all team members determined the final score of the team. The thirty-six overall highest scoring gymnasts qualified to the individual all-around competition. The six highest scoring gymnasts on each apparatus qualified to the final for that apparatus.
• Competition II - The individual all-around competition, in which those who qualified from Competition I performed exercises on each apparatus. The final score of each gymnast was composed of half the points earned by that gymnast during Competition I and all of the points earned by him or her in Competition II.
• Competition III - The apparatus finals, in which those who qualified during Competition I performed an exercise on the individual apparatus on which he or she had qualified. The final score of each gymnast was composed of half the points earned by that gymnast on that particular apparatus during Competition I and all of the points earned by him or her on that particular apparatus in Competition III.

Each country was limited to three gymnasts in the all-around final and two gymnasts in each apparatus final.

Medal summary

Men's events

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Individual all-around details	Nikolai Andrianov  Soviet Union	Sawao Kato  Japan	Mitsuo Tsukahara  Japan
Team all-around details	Japan (JPN) Shun Fujimoto Hisato Igarashi Hiroshi Kajiyama Sawao Kato Eizo Kenmotsu Mitsuo Tsukahara	Soviet Union (URS) Nikolai Andrianov Alexander Dityatin Gennady Krysin Vladimir Marchenko Vladimir Markelov Vladimir Tikhonov	East Germany (GDR) Roland Brückner Rainer Hanschke Bernd Jäger Wolfgang Klotz Lutz Mack Michael Nikolay
Floor exercise details	Nikolai Andrianov  Soviet Union	Vladimir Marchenko  Soviet Union	Peter Kormann  United States
Horizontal bar details	Mitsuo Tsukahara  Japan	Eizo Kenmotsu  Japan	Eberhard Gienger  West Germany
			Henri Boerio  France
Parallel bars details	Sawao Kato  Japan	Nikolai Andrianov  Soviet Union	Mitsuo Tsukahara  Japan
Pommel horse details	Zoltán Magyar  Hungary	Eizo Kenmotsu  Japan	Nikolai Andrianov  Soviet Union
			Michael Nikolay  East Germany
Rings details	Nikolai Andrianov  Soviet Union	Alexander Dityatin  Soviet Union	Danuţ Grecu  Romania
Vault details	Nikolai Andrianov  Soviet Union	Mitsuo Tsukahara  Japan	Hiroshi Kajiyama  Japan

Women's events

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Individual all-around details	Nadia Comăneci  Romania	Nellie Kim  Soviet Union	Ludmila Tourischeva  Soviet Union
Team all-around details	Soviet Union (URS) Maria Filatova Svetlana Grozdova Nellie Kim Olga Korbut Elvira Saadi Ludmila Tourischeva	Romania (ROM) Nadia Comăneci Mariana Constantin Georgeta Gabor Anca Grigoraș Gabriela Trușcă Teodora Ungureanu	East Germany (GDR) Carola Dombeck Gitta Escher Kerstin Gerschau Angelika Hellmann Marion Kische Steffi Kräker
Balance beam details	Nadia Comăneci  Romania	Olga Korbut  Soviet Union	Teodora Ungureanu  Romania
Floor exercise details	Nellie Kim  Soviet Union	Ludmila Tourischeva  Soviet Union	Nadia Comăneci  Romania
Uneven bars details	Nadia Comăneci  Romania	Teodora Ungureanu  Romania	Márta Egervári  Hungary
Vault details	Nellie Kim  Soviet Union	Ludmila Tourischeva  Soviet Union Carola Dombeck  East Germany	None awarded

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union	7	8	2	17
2	Japan	3	4	3	10
3	Romania	3	2	3	8
4	Hungary	1	0	1	2
5	East Germany	0	1	3	4
6	France	0	0	1	1
	United States	0	0	1	1
	West Germany	0	0	1	1
Totals (8 entries)		14	15	15	44