An Olympic sport since Athens 1896,
gymnastics has three Olympic disciplines: artistic, rhythmic and trampoline.
Gymnastics can be traced back to ancient Greece, where similar skills
featured in the ancient Olympic Games. Ancient Rome, Persia, India and China also used
gymnastic disciplines to prepare their young men for battle.
In the modern Games 14-year-old Romanian, Nadia
Comeneci scored a perfect 10 at the Montreal 1976
Olympic Games, to remain in the memory of most gymnastic fans watching. As such perfection
never entered the minds of the organisers and the scoring technology was only set up for
three digits, her perfect 10.00s appeared as 1.00s.
In artistic events (performed on an apparatus), men compete in floor,
pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bars.
Female gymnasts compete on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam and
floor.
The competition also includes all-round events and team events, scored
over each apparatus.
| Men |
Women |
Floor Exercises
Horizontal Bar
Individual all-round
Parallel Bars
Pommel Horse
Rings
Team Competition
Vault |
Balance Beam
Floor Exercises
Individual all-round
Team Competition
Uneven Bars
Vault |
Solely for women, rhythmic gymnastics is performed to music with an
apparatus (rope, hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon) around a 13-metre-square floor area.
In the individual event, the women athletes perform different routines
with four of the five apparatus.
In the team competition, teams of five perform together, once using
clubs and once with two using hoops and three using ribbons.
Open to both men and women, the trampoline discipline first became a
medal event at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, where
Russia took home both gold medals; Alexander Moskalenko and Irina Karavaeva the winners.
Competing in Melbourne 1956, Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964, Larysa
Latynina is the only athlete in any sport to have won eighteen career medals; one of
only four athletes to have won nine gold medals; the only athlete to have won fourteen
medals in individual events and the Ukrainian gymnast is one of only three women to have
won the same Summer Olympics' event three times.
Vera
Caslavska openly rejected Soviet involvement in Czechoslovakia but this didn't disturb
her concentration at the Mexico City 1968 Olympic
Games, where the Czech gymnast added four gold and two silver medals to her three golds
and a silver from Tokyo 1964.
Caslavska also won a silver medal in the team competition at Rome 1960.
Nikolay
Andrianov, representing the Soviet Union, made Olympic history for winning the most
career medals in any sport (15). He also holds the men's record for winning the most
medals in individual events (12), is the only male gymnast to win three medals in the
vault and the only one to win three in the floor exercise.
Andrianov won a total of 7 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze medals in three
Olympic Games - Munich 1972, Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980
- with seven medals (four of them gold) coming from Montreal.
Aleksandr
Dityatin delighted the home crowd in Moscow 1980,
when he won six medals in one day; gold on the rings and silver medals on the horizontal
bar, parallel bars, pommel horse and the vault. He also earned a bronze medal in the floor
exercise to add to his other gold medals in the team competition and the individual
all-around event. Dityatin also won two silver medals in Montreal
1976.
Vitaly
Shcherbo of Minsk became the first person in Olympic history to win four gold medals
in one day when he won a total of six gold medals in Artistic Gymnastic events at the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games. Representing Belarus, he
followed that with four bronze medals in Atlanta 1996.
Olga Korbut
won three gold medals and a silver at the Munich 1972
Olympic Games and followed that up with another gold and silver in Montreal 1976.
            
       
     
FIG:
Rue des Oeuches 10, Case Postale 359, 2740 Moutier, Switzerland.
The Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique was formed on 23rd July 1881, when
representatives of the gymnastics associations of Belgium, France and the Netherlands met
in Ličge. As a governing body it is held in high esteem by both its member federations
and gymnastics clubs throughout five continents.
National Federations
British Gymnastics:
The British Amateur Gymnastics Association was formed in 1888 and became a limited company
in 1982. Having had a variety of locations during its life, it eventually settled at the
Lilleshall National Sports Centre in 1989. In 1996, as a result of a thorough review, it
evolved into British Gymnastics for all operational purposes, however, the company name
has remained unchanged.
Confederaçăo Brasileira de
Ginástica: (Brazil).
Danmarks Gymnastik Forbund: (Denmark).
Deutscher Turner-Bund:
(Germany)
Fédération Française de
Gymnastique: (France).
Gymnastics Australia:
The Australian Gymnastic Union was formed in 1949, changed its name to Australian Amateur
Gymnastic Union in 1968 and then to Australian Gymnastic Federation in 1977.
Gymnastics Canada:
Gymnastics Canada is the national governing body for the sport of gymnastics in Canada.
First established in 1969, Gymnastics Canada works closely with the twelve Provincial
Federations and the 700 local clubs to provide a broad range of programs and services to
meet the needs of all participants.
Gymnastics New Zealand:
Also provides picture profiles of the New Zealand gymnasts.
Gymnastikförbundet: (Sweden).
Icelandic Gymnastics Federation.
Koninklijke Nederlandse Gymnastiek Unie:
(Holland).
Norges Gymnastikk og
Turnforbund: (Norway).
Österreichischer Fachverband für Turnen:
(Austria).
Real Federación Espańola de
Gimnasia: (Spain).
South African Gymnastics
Federation:
Looks as though it was designed by one of the gymnasts, while doing a triple summersault.
USA Gymnastics:
USA Gymnastics is the sole national governing body for the sport of gymnastics in the
United States and have more than 71,000 athletes are registered competitive programs.
Gymnastic Links
Gymnastics
Link Directory:
Categorised links to almost a thousand websites related to gymnastics.
International Gymnast:
Covering the sport since 1956, this is the online companion to the world's oldest
gymnastics magazine.
International Gymnastics Hall of Fame:
Located in the heart of downtown Oklahoma City, USA.
Rhythmic Gymnastics:
Results, gymnast profiles, photo gallery and discussion forum.
Worldwide Gymnastics:
Gymnastics magazine, based in Ukraine, covering global gymnastics through photographs,
profiles, reports, and interviews. World-wide Gymnastics speaks to coaches and officials
around the world, asking them for their take on things in gymnastics and the issues they
considered pressing.
Gymnastics.
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