What Is a Kovacs Release? | Gymnastics Explained

Key takeaways

The defining feature is a double backward salto over the bar during the release, followed by a re-catch of the same bar.

The basic tucked Kovacs is a D in the 2025–2028 MAG Code of Points; piked or straight it's an E.

Adding twists produces separately named skills, including the Kolman, the Cassina and the Bretschneider.

It's named after Hungarian gymnast Péter Kovács, who first performed it at the 1979 European Championships in Essen.

The Kovacs is one of horizontal bar’s most widely used releases, recognisable by the two backward somersaults the gymnast turns while passing over the bar.

How it works

From a swing, the gymnast lets go of the bar and performs a double salto backward, travelling over the top of the bar, then re-catches the same bar to carry on swinging. The 2025–2028 MAG Code of Points lists it simply as “double salto backward tucked over the bar”, element 88 in the horizontal bar flight group.

Because the gymnast releases, rotates twice and then has to find the bar again while still turning, it’s judged on height, distance from the bar and a clean re-grasp; missing the bar is a fall.

Versions and values

The Kovacs is the base of a whole family of releases. In the 2025–2028 MAG Code of Points:

Version	Name	Value
Double salto backward tucked over the bar	Kovacs	D
Kovacs piked or straight	—	E
Kovacs with a full twist	Kolman	E
Kovacs straight with a full twist	Cassina	G
Kovacs piked with a full twist	Pineda	G
Kovacs with a double twist	Bretschneider	H

For the best-known twisting version, see the Cassina.

On horizontal bar, linking release moves directly together earns connection value, and a Kovacs is often one half of such a connection — see men’s horizontal bar.

How to tell it apart

Kovacs or Gaylord? Both pass over the bar with a salto, but the Kovacs rotates backward and the Gaylord forward.
Kovacs or Tkachev? A Tkachev also passes backward over the bar, but without a somersault — the body stays in a straddle, pike or straight shape rather than turning over.

Why it’s named as it is

The skill is named after Hungarian gymnast Péter Kovács, who first performed it at the 1979 European Championships in Essen, developed over several months of harness training with his coaches. He went on to win a team bronze medal with Hungary at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

For the wider family, see horizontal bar releases.