What is Artistic Gymnastics?
Introduced in 1894, artistic gymnastics was one of the original disciplines in the modern Olympic Games. Artistic gymnasts are challenged to perfect their skills across a range of equipment, such as the beam and performing on the floor.
By whom, where and when was Artistic Gymnastics invented?
Plato, Aristotle, and Homer heartily advocated the strengthening qualities of gymnastic activity. The Ancient Greek civilisation more than two thousand years ago believed symmetry between the mind and body was possible only when physical exercise was coupled with intellectual activity.
The term "artistic gymnastics" emerged in the early 1800s to distinguish free-flowing styles from techniques used in military training. Gymnastic competitions began to flourish in schools and athletic clubs across Europe, and made a fitting return at the first edition of the modern Olympic Games were revived in Athens in 1896.
Between 1896 and 1924 the sport evolved into what we recognise as modern gymnastics. Among those disciplines discarded were club swinging, rock lifting and even swimming, which appeared in 1922.
In the early days of artistic gymnastics at the Games, participants often had a background in ballet, and would reach their peak in their 20s. Nadia Comaneci’s and Nelli Kim's perfect scores of 10 at the 1976 Montreal Games, at the age of 14, heralded an era of younger champions, trained specifically in gymnastics from childhood, although gymnasts must now be 16 to compete in the Olympic Games.
What are the rules of Artistic Gymnastics? How is Artistic Gymnastics scored?
Gymnasts are awarded a D score for difficulty and an E score for execution.
- The difficulty score is based on the performed moves, earning between 0.1 and 1.0 points per move.
- The top eight moves are counted for women, and top 10 for men, to give them their final D score.
- For the vault, it’s simply the score associated with the vault move.
- For their E score, every gymnast starts with the perfect 10.0 score, with points deducted for any mistakes.
- The gymnast with the highest combined D and E score wins.
- The gymnast with the highest combined score from all events wins the all-around event.
Artistic Gymnastics and the Olympics
Artistic gymnastics was introduced at the very first Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens, and has been present at every edition of the Games since then. At the beginning, it comprised disciplines that are difficult to qualify as “artistic”, such as climbing and acrobatics.
The foundations of the Olympic gymnastics programme were laid at the 1924 Games in Paris, when the men’s apparatus individual and team competitions appeared. In 1928, women were included in the Amsterdam Games. It was not until 1952 that the women’s programme was developed, with seven events, and then stabilised at six events as from the 1960 Games in Rome.
