Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of
gymnastics
Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring Balance (ability), balance, Strength training, strength, Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, agility, Motor coordination, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movem ...
in which athletes perform short routines on different types of apparatus. The sport is governed by the
Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique
The International Gymnastics Federation (French language, French: ''Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique'', abbr. FIG) is the body governing competition in all disciplines of gymnastics. Its headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland. It wa ...
(FIG), which assigns the ''
Code of Points'' used to score performances and regulates all aspects of elite international competition. Within individual countries, gymnastics is regulated by national federations such as
British Gymnastics and
USA Gymnastics
United States of America Gymnastics (USA Gymnastics or USAG) is the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States. It sets the domestic rules and policies that govern the sport, promotes and develops gymnastics on the grassroots ...
. Artistic gymnastics is a popular
spectator sport
A spectator sport is a sport that is characterized by the presence of spectators, or watchers, at its competitions. Spectator sports may be professional sports or amateur sports. They often are distinguished from participant sports, which are mor ...
at many competitions, including the
Summer Olympic Games
The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The 1896 Summer Olympics, inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, ...
.
History
The gymnastic system was mentioned in writings by ancient authors, including
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
,
Aristotle
Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
, and
Plato
Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
. It included many disciplines that later became independent sports, such as swimming,
racing
In sports, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific g ...
,
wrestling
Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...
,
boxing
Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...
, and
horse riding
Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding ( Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting. This broad description includes the ...
. It was also used for military training.
Gymnastics evolved in
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
and what later became
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
at the beginning of the 19th century. The term "artistic gymnastics" was introduced to distinguish freestyle performances from those used by the military. The German educator
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn
(11August 177815October 1852) was a German gymnastics educator and nationalist whose writing is credited with the founding of the German gymnastics (Turner) movement, first realized at Volkspark Hasenheide in Berlin, the origin of modern sports ...
, who was known as the father of gymnastics, invented several apparatus, including the
horizontal bar
The horizontal bar, also known as the high bar, is an apparatus used by male gymnasts in artistic gymnastics. It traditionally consists of a cylindrical metal (typically steel) bar that is rigidly held above and parallel to the floor by a syst ...
and
parallel bars
Parallel bars are floor apparatus consisting of two wooden bars approximately long and positioned at above the floor. Parallel bars are used in artistic gymnastics and also for physical therapy and home exercise. Gymnasts may optionally wear ...
.
Two of the first gymnastics clubs were
Turnverein
Turners (, ) are members of German-American gymnastic clubs called Turnvereine. They promoted German culture, physical culture, and liberal politics. Turners, especially Francis Lieber (1798–1872), were the leading sponsors of gymnastics as ...
s and
Sokols.
The FIG was founded in 1881 and remains the governing body of international gymnastics. The organization began with three countries and was called the European Gymnastics Federation until 1921, when the first non-European countries joined, and it was reorganized into its modern form.
Gymnastics was included in the
1896 Summer Olympics
The 1896 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad () and commonly known as Athens 1896 (), were the first international Olympic Games held in modern history. Organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), wh ...
, but female gymnasts were not allowed to participate in the Olympics until
1928
Events January
* January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly demonstrating that DNA is the genetic material.
* January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris B ...
. The
World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The Artistic Gymnastics World Championships are the world championships for artistic gymnastics governed by the International Gymnastics Federation, Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG). The first edition of the championships was held ...
, held since 1903, were only open to men until
1934
Events
January–February
* January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established.
* January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...
.
Since then, two branches of artistic gymnastics have developed: women's artistic gymnastics (WAG) and men's artistic gymnastics (MAG). Unlike men's and women's branches of many other sports, WAG and MAG differ significantly in technique and apparatuses used at major competitions.
Women's artistic gymnastics
As a team event, women's gymnastics entered the Olympics in 1928 and the World Championships
in 1950. Individual women were recognized in the all-around as early as the 1934 World Championships.
The existing women's program—all-around and event finals on the
vault,
uneven bars
The uneven bars or asymmetric bars is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. It is made of a steel frame. The bars are made of fiberglass with wood coating, or less commonly wood. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is UB or ...
,
balance beam
The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. The apparatus and the event are sometimes simply called "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is BB. The bal ...
, and
floor exercise—was introduced at the 1950 World Championships and at the
1952 Summer Olympics
The 1952 Summer Olympics (, ), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad (, ) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952, were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1952 in Helsinki, Finland.
After Japan declared in ...
.
The earliest champions in women's gymnastics tended to be in their 20s, and most had studied ballet for years before entering the sport.
Larisa Latynina
Larisa Semyonovna Latynina (, née Diriy, Дирий; born 27 December 1934) is a Russian former artistic gymnast. Between 1956 and 1964 she won 14 List of multiple Olympic medalists, individual Olympic medals and four team medals for the Sovie ...
, the first great Soviet gymnast, won her first Olympic all-around medal at age 22 and her second at 26; she became world champion in 1958 while pregnant.
Věra Čáslavská of Czechoslovakia, who followed Latynina and became a two-time Olympic all-around champion, was 22 when she won her first Olympic gold medal. The rules for the
1952
Events January–February
* January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.
* February 6
** Princess Elizabeth, ...
and
1956 Summer Olympics
The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XVI Olympiad and officially branded as Melbourne 1956, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December ...
specified that gymnasts must turn 18 the year of the competition, with female gymnasts turning 16 or 17 only allowed to compete with a doctor's clearance.
In the 1970s, the average age of Olympic gymnasts began to decrease. While it was not unheard of for teenagers to compete in the 1960s –
Ludmilla Tourischeva
Ludmilla Ivanovna Tourischeva ( Russian: Людми́ла Ива́новна Тури́щева; also transliterated as Ludmilla Turischeva, Ludmilla Tourischcheva, and Ljudmila Turichtchieva, born 7 October 1952) is a former Russian gymnast, U ...
was 16 at her first Olympics in 1968 – younger female gymnasts slowly became the norm as the sport's difficulty increased. Smaller, lighter girls generally excelled in the more challenging acrobatic elements required by the redesigned
Code of Points. The 58th Congress of the FIG – held in July 1980, just before the Olympics – decided to raise the minimum age for senior international competition from 14 to 15. However, the change, which came into effect two years later, did not eliminate the problem. By the time of the
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...
, elite gymnasts consisted almost exclusively of "pixies" – underweight young teenagers – and concerns were raised about athletes' welfare.
In 1997, the FIG responded to this trend by raising the minimum age for international elite competition to 16. This, combined with changes in the Code of Points and evolving popular opinion in the sport, led to the return of older gymnasts. While there are still gymnasts who are successful as teenagers, it is common to see gymnasts competing and winning medals well into their 20s. At the
2004 Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece.
The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...
, women captained both the second-place American team and the third-place Russians in their mid-20s; several other teams, including those from Australia, France, and Canada, included older gymnasts as well. At the
2008 Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...
, the silver medalist on vault,
Oksana Chusovitina
Oksana Aleksandrovna Chusovitina (; born 19 June 1975) is an Uzbekistani gymnastics, artistic gymnast who previously represented the Soviet Union and Germany.
Chusovitina's career as an elite gymnast has spanned more than three decades. She wo ...
, was a 33-year-old mother.
By the
2016 Olympics
The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...
, the average age of female gymnasts was over 20, and it was almost 22 at the
2020 Olympics
The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...
. At the
2024 Olympics
The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...
the average age for the medal winning teams were USA: 22.2 years; Italy: 19.6 years; Brazil: 25.2 years.
Apparatus
Both male and female gymnasts are judged for execution,
degree of difficulty, and overall presentation. In many competitions, especially high-level ones sanctioned by the FIG, gymnasts compete in "
Olympic order
The Olympic Order, established in 1975, is the highest award of the Olympic Movement. It is awarded for particularly distinguished contributions to the Olympic Movement, i.e. recognition of efforts worthy of merit in the cause of sport. Tradit ...
", which has changed over time but has stayed consistent for at least a few decades.
For men's artistic gymnastics, the Olympic order is:
:1)
Floor exercise
:2)
Pommel horse
The pommel horse, also known as vaulting horse, is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. Traditionally, it is used by only male gymnasts. Originally made of a metal frame with a wooden body and a leather cover, the modern pommel horse has a metal bo ...
:3)
Still rings
The rings, also known as still rings (in contrast to flying rings), is an artistic gymnastics apparatus and the event that uses it. It is traditionally used only by male gymnasts due to its extreme upper body strength requirements. Gymnasts ofte ...
:4)
Vault
:5)
Parallel bars
Parallel bars are floor apparatus consisting of two wooden bars approximately long and positioned at above the floor. Parallel bars are used in artistic gymnastics and also for physical therapy and home exercise. Gymnasts may optionally wear ...
:6)
Horizontal bar
The horizontal bar, also known as the high bar, is an apparatus used by male gymnasts in artistic gymnastics. It traditionally consists of a cylindrical metal (typically steel) bar that is rigidly held above and parallel to the floor by a syst ...
For women's artistic gymnastics, the Olympic order is:
:1)
Vault
:2)
Uneven bars
The uneven bars or asymmetric bars is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. It is made of a steel frame. The bars are made of fiberglass with wood coating, or less commonly wood. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is UB or ...
:3)
Balance beam
The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. The apparatus and the event are sometimes simply called "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is BB. The bal ...
:4)
Floor exercise
Men and women
Vault
The vault is both an event and the primary equipment used in that event. Unlike most gymnastic events employing apparatuses, the vault is standard in men's and women's competitions, with little difference. A gymnast sprints down a runway, which is a maximum of in length, before leaping onto a
springboard
A springboard or diving board is used for diving and is a board that is itself a spring, i.e. a linear flex-spring, of the cantilever type.
Springboards are commonly fixed by a hinge at one end (so they can be flipped up when not in use), and ...
. Harnessing the energy of the spring, the gymnast directs their body hands-first toward the vault. Body position is maintained while "popping" (blocking using only a shoulder movement) the vaulting platform. The gymnast then rotates their body to land standing on the far side of the vault. In advanced gymnastics, multiple twists and somersaults may be added before landing. Successful vaults depend on the speed of the run, the length of the hurdle, the power the gymnast generates from the legs and shoulder girdle,
kinesthetic
Proprioception ( ) is the sense of self-movement, force, and body position.
Proprioception is mediated by proprioceptors, a type of sensory receptor, located within muscles, tendons, and joints. Most animals possess multiple subtypes of propri ...
awareness in the air, and the speed of rotation in the case of more challenging and complex vaults.
In 2004, the traditional vaulting horse was replaced with a new apparatus, sometimes known as a tongue or table. It is more stable, wider, and longer than the older vaulting horse—about in length and width, giving gymnasts a larger blocking surface—and is, therefore, safer than the old vaulting horse. This new, safer apparatus led gymnasts to attempt more difficult vaults.
Floor exercise
The floor event occurs on a carpeted square consisting of rigid foam over a layer of plywood supported by springs or foam blocks. This provides a firm surface that will respond with force when compressed, allowing gymnasts to achieve extra height and a softer landing than possible on a regular floor.
Men perform without music for 60 to 70 seconds and must touch each floor corner at least once during their routine. Their routines include tumbling passes demonstrating flexibility, strength, balance, and power. They must also show non-acrobatic skills, including circles, scales, and press handstands.
Women perform a 90-second choreographed routine to instrumental music. Their routines include tumbling passes, jumps, dance elements, acrobatic skills, and turns. Elite gymnasts may perform up to four tumbling passes.
Men only
Pommel horse
A typical pommel horse exercise involves both single-leg and double-leg work. Single-leg skills are generally found in the form of "scissors". In double leg work, the gymnast swings both legs in a circular motion (clockwise or counterclockwise, depending on preference). To make the exercise more challenging, gymnasts will often include variations on typical circling skills by turning ("moores" and "spindles") or by straddling their legs (
"flares"). Routines end when the gymnast performs a dismount by swinging his body over the horse or landing after a handstand.
Still rings
The still rings are suspended on
wire cable
Steel wire rope (right hand lang lay)
Wire rope is composed of as few as two solid, metal wires twisted into a helix that forms a composite ''rope'', in a pattern known as ''laid rope''. Larger diameter wire rope consists of multiple strands of ...
from a point off the floor and adjusted in height so the gymnast has room to hang freely and swing. Gymnasts must demonstrate balance, strength, power, and dynamic motion while preventing the rings themselves from swinging. At least one static strength move is required, but some gymnasts include two or three.
Parallel bars
The parallel bars consist of two bars slightly further than shoulder-width apart and usually high. Gymnasts execute a series of swings, balancing moves, and releases that require strength and coordination.
Horizontal bar
The horizontal bar (also known as the high bar) is a thick steel bar raised above the ground. The gymnast performs 'giants' (360-degree revolutions around the bar), release skills, twists, and direction changes. Using the momentum from giants, enough height can be achieved for spectacular dismounts, such as a triple-back somersault. Leather
grips are usually used to help maintain a hold on the bar.
Women only
Uneven bars
The uneven bars (known as asymmetric bars in the United Kingdom) were adapted by the Czechoslovak
Sokol from the men's parallel bars sometime before
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and were shown in international exhibition for the first time at the
1928 Summer Olympics
The 1928 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the IX Olympiad (), was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated from 28 July to 12 August 1928 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The city of Amsterdam had previously bid for ...
in Amsterdam.
They consist of two horizontal bars set at different heights. Gymnasts perform swings, pirouettes, transition moves between the bars, and releases.
Higher-level gymnasts usually wear leather grips to ensure a firm hold on the bars while protecting their hands from painful
blister
A blister is a small pocket of body fluid (lymph, serum, plasma, blood, or pus) within the upper layers of the skin, usually caused by forceful rubbing (friction), burning, freezing, chemical exposure or infection. Most blisters are filled ...
s and tears (known as rips). Gymnasts sometimes wet their grips with water from a spray bottle and may apply chalk to prevent the grips from slipping. Chalk may also be applied to the hands and bar if grips are not worn.
Balance beam
The balance beam existed as early as the 1880s in the form of a "low beam" close to the floor.
By the 1920s, the beam was raised much higher due to Swedish influence on the sport.
Gymnasts perform routines ranging from 70 to 90 seconds long, consisting of leaps, acrobatic skills, turns, and dance elements on a padded spring beam. Apparatus norms set by the FIG specify that the beam must be high, long, and wide. The event requires balance, flexibility, and strength.
Competition format

In Olympic and World Championship competitions, meets are divided into several sessions on different days: qualifications, team finals, all-around finals, and event finals.
During the ''qualification'' round (abbreviated TQ), gymnasts compete with their national squad in all four (WAG) or six (MAG) events. The scores from this session are not used to award medals but rather to determine which teams advance to the team finals and which individual gymnasts advance to the all-around and event finals. For the
2020 Olympics
The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...
, teams will consist of four gymnasts, with up to two additional gymnasts per country allowed to compete as individuals. The format of team qualifications is 4–4–3, meaning that all four gymnasts compete in each event, but only the top three scores count. Individual gymnasts may qualify for the all-around and event finals, but their scores do not count toward the team's total.
In the ''team finals'' (abbreviated TF), gymnasts compete with their national squad on all four or six events. The scores from the session determine the medalists in the team competition. The format is 4–3–3, meaning that of the four gymnasts on the team, three compete in each event, and all three scores count.
In the ''all-around'' finals (abbreviated AA), gymnasts compete individually in all four or six events; their totals determine the all-around medals. Only two gymnasts per country may advance to the all-around finals from the qualification round.
In the ''event finals'' (abbreviated EF) or ''apparatus finals'', the top eight gymnasts in each event (as determined by scores in the qualification round) compete for medals. Only two gymnasts per country may advance to each event final.
Competitions other than the Olympics and World Championships may use different formats. For instance, the
2007 Pan American Games
The 2007 Pan American Games, officially known as the XV Pan American Games () and commonly known as Rio 2007, were a major Americas, continental multi-sport event that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 13 to 29, 2007. A total of ...
had only one team competition day with a 6–5–4 format, and three athletes per country were allowed to advance to the all-around. The team event is not contested in other meets, such as on the
World Cup circuit.
New life
Since 1989, competitions have used the "new life" rule, under which scores from one session do not carry over to the next. In other words, a gymnast's performance in team finals does not affect their scores in the all-around finals or event finals, and marks from the team qualifying round do not count toward the team finals.
Before this rule was introduced, the scores from the team competition carried over into the all-around and event finals. Final results and medal placement were determined by combining the following scores:
; Qualifiers for all-around and event finals: Team compulsories + team optionals
; Team competition: Team compulsories + team optionals
; All-around competition: Team results (compulsories and optionals) averaged + all-around
; Event finals: Team results (compulsories and optionals) averaged + event final
Compulsories
Until 1997, the team competition consisted of two sessions, with every gymnast performing standardized ''compulsory routines'' in the preliminaries and individualized ''optional routines'' on the second day. Team medals were determined based on the combined scores of both days, as were the qualifiers to the all-around and event finals. However, the all-around and event finals did not include compulsory routines.
In meets where team titles were not contested, such as the
American Cup
The American Football Association Challenge Cup (also known as the American Association Cup or simply American Cup) was the first major U.S. soccer competition open to teams beyond a single league. It was first held in 1884, and organised by t ...
, there were two days of all-around competition: one for compulsories and another for optionals.
While each gymnast and their coach developed optional routines in accordance with the Code of Points and the gymnast's strengths, compulsory routines were created and choreographed by the FIG Technical Committee. The dance and tumbling skills were generally less demanding than those in optional routines, but perfect technique, form, and execution were heavily emphasized. Scoring was exacting, with judges taking deductions for even slight deviations from the required choreography. For this reason, many gymnasts and coaches considered compulsories more challenging than optionals.
Compulsory exercises were eliminated at the end of 1996. The move was highly controversial, with many successful gymnastics federations—including the United States, Russia, and China—arguing that the compulsory exercises helped maintain a high standard of form, technique, and execution among gymnasts. Opponents of compulsory exercises believed that they harmed emerging gymnastics programs.
Some members of the gymnastics community still argue that compulsories should be reinstated, and many gymnastics federations have maintained compulsories in their national programs. Often, gymnasts competing at the lower levels of the sport—for instance, Levels 2–5 in USA Gymnastics, Grade 2 in South Africa, and Levels 3–6 in Australia—only perform compulsory routines.
Competition levels
Artistic gymnasts compete only with other gymnasts at their level. Each athlete starts at the lowest level and advances to higher levels by learning more complex skills and achieving qualifying scores at competitions.
United States
In the United States, whose program is governed by
USA Gymnastics
United States of America Gymnastics (USA Gymnastics or USAG) is the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States. It sets the domestic rules and policies that govern the sport, promotes and develops gymnastics on the grassroots ...
, levels range from 1 to
10, followed by elite. Levels 1 to 2 are usually considered recreational or beginner; 3 to 6 intermediate; and 7 to elite advanced. Competitions begin at Level 3 or, in some gyms, Level 2. A gymnast must be able to perform specific skills in each event to advance to the next level. Once a gymnast has competed in a sectional meet at a given level, they may not drop back to a lower level in the same competitive season. Gymnasts in Levels 1–2 perform basic skills such as handstands and cartwheels. Levels 3–5 consist of compulsory routines; 6 is an in-between level with strict requirements but some leeway for gymnasts to show their creativity; and Levels 7–10 consist of optional routines. Only elite gymnasts compete in accordance with the FIG's Code of Points; lower levels have a modified code.
The elite program is divided into two categories: junior for gymnasts younger than 16, and senior for gymnasts 16 and older. (Gymnasts are allowed to compete at the senior level at the beginning of the calendar year in which they will turn 16.) Olympic teams are chosen from the senior elite program.
United Kingdom
The
British Gymnastics level system goes from 5 (lowest) to 2, and there are separate tracks for elite- and club-level competition.
Canada
There are several competitive streams in
Canadian gymnastics: recreational, developmental, pre-competitive, provincial, national, and high-performance. Provincial levels range from 5 (lowest) to 1; national levels are pre-novice, novice, open, and high performance; and high-performance levels are novice, junior, and senior.
Germany
In Germany, there are different competitive systems for recreational and high-performance gymnasts. Recreational gymnasts have a system of compulsory exercises from 1 to 9 and optional exercises from 4 to 1, with modified Code of Points requirements. For high-performance and junior athletes, there are compulsory and optional requirements defined by age, from ages 6 to 18.
Age requirements
The FIG imposes a minimum age requirement on gymnasts competing in certain international meets, but it does not impose a maximum age limit. The term ''senior'' refers to world-class or elite gymnasts who are age-eligible under FIG rules: Female gymnasts must be at least 16 or turning 16 within the calendar year, and the minimum age for men is 18. The term ''junior'' refers to any gymnast who competes at a world-class or elite level but is too young to be classified as a senior.
Juniors are judged under the same Code of Points as seniors and often exhibit the same difficulty level in their routines. Still, they cannot compete at the Olympics, World Championships, or World Cups. Many meets, such as the
European Championships
A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs.
In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...
, have separate divisions for juniors. But some competitions, such as the
Goodwill Games
The Goodwill Games were an international sports competition created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. In 1979, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the United States and other ...
, the
Pan American Games
The Pan American Games, known as the Pan Am Games, is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas. It features thousands of athletes participating in competitions to win different summer sports. It is held among athletes from nations of th ...
, the
Pacific Rim Championships, and the
All-Africa Games
The African Games, formally known as the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, are a continental multi-sport event held every four years, organized by the African Union with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa and the ...
, permit seniors and juniors to compete together.
The age requirement is contentious and is frequently debated by coaches, gymnasts, and other members of the gymnastics community. Those in favor of the age limits argue that they promote the participation of older athletes and spare younger gymnasts from the stress of competition and high-level training. Opponents point out that junior gymnasts are scored under the same Code of Points as the seniors (with some restrictions) and train mainly with the same skills. They also argue that younger gymnasts need the experience of competing in major events to improve as athletes.
Since stricter age requirements were adopted in the early 1980s, there have been several well-documented and many more suspected cases of juniors with falsified documents competing as seniors. The FIG has only taken disciplinary action in three cases: those of
Kim Gwang-Suk of North Korea, who competed at the
1989 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships when she may have been as young as 11;
Hong Su-jong of North Korea, who competed under three different birth dates in the 2000s; and China's
Dong Fangxiao, who competed at the
2000 Olympics
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...
when she was 14.
While the minimum age requirement applies to both women and men, it is more contentious in the women's program because, while most top male gymnasts are in their late teens or early twenties, female gymnasts are typically ready to compete at the international level by their mid-teens. The difference is largely because men's skills emphasize strength more than women's.
Scoring
Scoring at the international level is regulated by the
Code of Points.
Under the system established in 2006, two panels judge each routine, evaluating different aspects of the performance. The ''D score'' covers skill requirements, difficulty value, and connection value (for skills performed back to back with no pause in between); the ''E score'' covers execution and artistry; the two are added together to produce final scores. The maximum E score is 10, but there is no cap on the D score. Theoretically, this means scores could be infinite. However, average marks for routines in major competitions have generally been in the low to mid-teens.
This system, with its open-ended difficulty score, is very different from the one used for most of the sport's history. Before 2006, the highest possible score was a "
perfect 10". Every routine was assigned a start value (SV) based on difficulty. A routine that included all required elements received a base SV—9.4 in 1996, 9.0 in 1997, 8.8 in 2001—and gymnasts could increase their SV to a maximum of 10 by performing more challenging skills and combinations. Then, to score a gymnast's routine, judges deducted from the SV for errors in execution.
Some gymnasts and coaches—including Olympic gold medalists
Lilia Podkopayeva
Lilia Oleksandrivna Podkopayeva (; born 15 August 1978) is a Ukrainian former artistic gymnast. She is the 1995 world all-around champion, and the 1996 Olympic all-around and floor exercise champion. Often thought of as a complete athlete, Pod ...
,
Svetlana Boginskaya,
Shannon Miller, and
Vitaly Scherbo, and Romanian team coach Nicolae Forminte — publicly opposed the new Code of Points when it was first announced. In addition, a 2006 report from the FIG Athletes' Commission cited significant concerns about scoring, judging, and other subjects. Aspects of the code were revised in 2007, but there are no plans to return to the "perfect 10" format.
Major competitions
Global
*
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...
: Artistic gymnastics is one of the most popular events at the Summer Olympics, held every four years. Countries qualify teams based on their performance at the World Championships the year before the Games. Nations not qualifying to send an entire team may be eligible to send one or two individual gymnasts.
*
World Championships
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...
: The gymnastics-only World Championships is open to teams from every FIG member nation. The competition has different formats depending on the year: full team finals, all-around, and event finals; all-around and event finals only; or event finals only. Since 2019, the
Junior World Championships have been held every two years.
* The
Artistic Gymnastics World Cup
The Artistic Gymnastics World Cup is a competition series for artistic gymnastics sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG). It is one of the few tournaments in artistic gymnastics officially organized by FIG, as well as ...
and
World Challenge Cup Series
*
Goodwill Games
The Goodwill Games were an international sports competition created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. In 1979, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the United States and other ...
: Artistic gymnastics was an event at this now-defunct competition.
Regional
Multi-sport
*
All-Africa Games
The African Games, formally known as the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, are a continental multi-sport event held every four years, organized by the African Union with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa and the ...
: Held every four years, and open to teams and gymnasts from African nations.
*
Asian Games
The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...
: Held every four years, and open to teams and gymnasts from Asian nations.
*
Central American and Caribbean Games
The Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC or CACGs) are a multi-sport regional championship event, held quadrennial (once every four years), typically in the middle (even) year between Summer Olympics. The games are for 32 countries and ...
: Held every four years and open to teams and gymnasts from Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico, and the South American countries of Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.
*
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...
: Held every four years, and open to teams and gymnasts from Commonwealth nations.
*
European Games
The European Games is a continental multi-sport event in the Olympic tradition contested by athletes from countries served by national Olympic committees within the European Olympic Committees (EOC), the regional association for such committ ...
: Held every four years, and open to teams and gymnastics from European nations.
*
Mediterranean Games
The Mediterranean Games is a multi-sport event organised by the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (CIJM). It is held every four years among athletes from countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea in Africa, Asia and Europe. The fi ...
: Held every four years, and open to gymnasts from nations around or very close to the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...
, where Europe, Africa, and Asia meet.
*
Pan American Games
The Pan American Games, known as the Pan Am Games, is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas. It features thousands of athletes participating in competitions to win different summer sports. It is held among athletes from nations of th ...
: Held every four years, and open to teams and gymnasts from North, South, and Central America.
*
South American Games
The South American Games (also known as ODESUR Games; Spanish: ''Juegos Suramericanos''; Portuguese: ''Jogos Sul-Americanos''), formerly the Southern Cross Games (Spanish: ''Juegos Cruz del Sur'') is a regional multi-sport event held between nat ...
: Held every four years, and open to teams and gymnasts from South American nations.
*
Southeast Asian Games
The Southeast Asian Games, commonly known as SEA Games is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with sup ...
: Held every two years, and open to teams and gymnasts from Southeast Asian nations.
Gymnastics only
*
Asian Gymnastics Championships: Open to teams and gymnasts from Asian nations.
*
European Championships
A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs.
In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...
: Held yearly, and open to teams and gymnasts from European nations.
*
Pacific Rim Championships (known as the Pacific Alliance Championships until 2008): Held every two years, and open to teams from members of the Pacific Alliance of National Gymnastics Federations, including the US, China, Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and other nations on the Pacific coast.
*
Pan American Gymnastics Championships
The Pan American Gymnastics Union organizes Pan American Gymnastics Championships in different disciplines of gymnastics: men's and women's artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, acrobatic gymnastics, trampolining, trampoline and tumbling (gymna ...
: Held most years when the Pan American Games are not held, and open to teams and gymnasts from North, South, and Central America
*
South American Gymnastics Championships: Held most years, and open to teams and gymnasts from South American countries.
National
Most countries hold a major competition (National Championships, or "Nationals") every year that determines the best-performing all-around gymnasts and event specialists. Based on their scores at Nationals, gymnasts may qualify for their country's national team or be selected for international meets.
Dominant teams and nations
USSR and post-Soviet republics
Before the breakup of the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
in 1991, Soviet gymnasts dominated both men's and women's gymnastics, starting with the introduction of the full women's program into the Olympics and the overall increased standardization of the Olympic gymnastics competition format, which happened in 1952. The Soviet Union's success might be explained by the government's heavy investment in sports to support its political agenda on an international stage.
The Soviet Union had many
male stars, such as Olympic all-around champions
Viktor Chukarin and
Vitaly Scherbo, and
female stars, such as Olympic all-around champions
Larisa Latynina
Larisa Semyonovna Latynina (, née Diriy, Дирий; born 27 December 1934) is a Russian former artistic gymnast. Between 1956 and 1964 she won 14 List of multiple Olympic medalists, individual Olympic medals and four team medals for the Sovie ...
and
Svetlana Boginskaya. From 1952 to 1992 inclusive, the
Soviet women's squad won almost every team title in World Championship and Olympic competition, with only four exceptions: the
1984 Olympics, which
the country boycotted, and the 1966, 1979, and 1987 World Championships.
Most of the top Soviet gymnasts were from the
Russian SFSR
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...
, the
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...
, and the
Byelorussian SSR
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, Byelorussian SSR or Byelorussia; ; ), also known as Soviet Belarus or simply Belarus, was a republic of the Soviet Union (USSR). It existed between 1920 and 1922 as an independent state, and ...
.
Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, its gymnasts performed together for the last time at the
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...
as the
Unified Team, winning both the men's and women's team competitions.
Russia has continued the Soviet tradition, medaling at every World and Olympic competition in both MAG and WAG disciplines, except at the
2008 Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...
.
Ukraine maintained a strong team for more than a decade—Ukrainian
Lilia Podkopayeva
Lilia Oleksandrivna Podkopayeva (; born 15 August 1978) is a Ukrainian former artistic gymnast. She is the 1995 world all-around champion, and the 1996 Olympic all-around and floor exercise champion. Often thought of as a complete athlete, Pod ...
was the all-around champion at the
1996 Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...
—but it has declined in recent years. Belarus has maintained a strong men's team. Other former republics have been less successful.
Romania
The
Romanian team first achieved wide-scale success at the
1976 Summer Olympics
The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal ...
with the performance of
Nadia Comăneci
Nadia Elena Comăneci Conner (; born November 12, 1961) is a Romanian retired gymnast. She is a five-time Olympic gold medalist, all in individual events. In 1976, at the age of 14, Comăneci was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score ...
, who was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 in Olympic competition. After that, using the centralized training system pioneered by
Béla Károlyi, they remained a dominant force in women's team and individual events for nearly four decades.
Romania was one of only two teams ever to defeat the Soviets in head-to-head World or Olympic competition, winning at the
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
and
1987 World Championships. (The other was the Czechoslovak women's team at the
1966 World Championships.) The Romanian women also won team medals at every Olympics from 1976 to 2012 inclusive, including gold medals in 1984, 2000, and 2004.
At the 16 World Championships from 1978 to 2007 inclusive, they failed to medal only twice (in 1981 and 2006) and won the team title seven times, including five victories in a row (1994–2001).
From 1976 to 2000, they placed gymnasts—such as
Daniela Silivaș,
Lavinia Miloșovici, and
Simona Amânar
Simona Amânar (; born 7 October 1979) is a Romanian former artistic gymnast. She is the 2000 Olympic all-around champion, and a seven-time Olympic and ten-time World Championship medalist. Amânar helped Romania win four consecutive world te ...
—on the all-around podium at every Olympics, and usually did the same at the World Championships through 2015, including producing World all-around champions
Aurelia Dobre (1987) and
Maria Olaru (1999).
The decline of Romanian gymnastics began after the
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece.
The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...
. At the
2006 World Championships, they failed to medal in the team competition, and only
Sandra Izbașa won any individual medals.
They won bronze medals at the
2007 World Championships,
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...
, and
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
but failed to medal at the
2010
The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
,
2011
The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...
, or
2014 World Championships.
Things took a drastic turn at the
2015 World Championships, where Romania did not even qualify for the team final. In 2016, it failed to qualify a full team to the
2016 Summer Olympics
The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...
, placing seventh at the
2016 Gymnastics Olympic Test Event. It earned one Olympic spot, which was filled by 3-time Olympic champion
Cătălina Ponor
Cătălina Ponor (; born 20 August 1987) is a Romanian former Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast who competed at three Summer Olympic Games: 2004 Summer Olympics, 2004, 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012, and 2016 Summer Olympics, 2016. She won three ...
.
At the
2018 World Championships, Romania placed 13th in qualifications and did not make the team final. At the
2019 World Championships, it finished 22nd out of 24 teams—beating only the Czech Republic and Egypt—and again failed to qualify a team to the
2020 Summer Olympics
The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...
, with only
Maria Holbură earning an
individual spot. After the Olympics were postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, a second Romanian gymnast,
Larisa Iordache
Larisa Andreea Iordache (; born 19 June 1996) is a Romanians, Romanian former Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. She represented Romania at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Romania at the 2012 Olympic Games, winning a bronze medal with the team, a ...
, earned an individual spot through the
2021 European Championships.
While less successful than the women's program, the Romanian men's program has produced
individual medalists such as
Marian Drăgulescu
Marian Drăgulescu (born 18 December 1980 in Bucharest) is a former Romanian artistic gymnast. During his senior gymnastics career he won 31 medals at Olympic Games at World and European Championships, of which eight are gold medals at the World ...
and
Marius Urzică at World and Olympic competitions.
United States
While isolated American gymnasts, including
Kurt Thomas and
Cathy Rigby
Cathleen Roxanne Rigby (later Mason, later McCoy; born December 12, 1952), known as Cathy Rigby, is an actress, speaker, and former artistic gymnast. Her performance in the 1968 Summer Olympics helped to popularize the sport of gymnastics in th ...
, won medals at World Championship competitions in the 1970s, the United States team was largely considered a "second power" until the late 1980s, when American gymnasts began medaling consistently in major, fully attended competitions.
At the
1984 Olympics, which the Soviet bloc
boycotted
A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict ...
, the
American men won the gold with a team composed of
Bart Conner
Barthold Wayne Conner (born March 28, 1958) is a retired American Olympic gymnastics, gymnast. He was a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team and won two gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics. He owns and operates ...
,
Tim Daggett
Timothy Patrick Daggett (born May 22, 1962) is a former American gymnastics, gymnast and an Olympic gold medalist. He is a graduate of West Springfield High School and University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA, who competed in the 1984 Summer ...
,
Mitch Gaylord,
Jim Hartung,
Scott Johnson, and
Peter Vidmar. The
women's team—composed of
Pam Bileck,
Michelle Dusserre,
Kathy Johnson,
Julianne McNamara,
Mary Lou Retton
Mary Lou Retton (born January 24, 1968) is an American retired gymnast. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, she won a gold medal in the individual all-around competition, as well as two silver medals and two bronze medals.
Retton's per ...
, and
Tracee Talavera—won a silver medal, and Retton became the first American Olympic all-around champion.
In 1991,
Kim Zmeskal became the first American all-around winner at the World Championships. At the
1992 Olympics, the American women won their first team medal (bronze) at a fully attended Games, as well as their highest all-around ranking, a silver medal for
Shannon Miller. In men's gymnastics,
Trent Dimas won the horizontal bar final.
The U.S. women's team has become increasingly successful in the modern era, with the
1996 Olympic team victory of the
Magnificent Seven, the
2003 Worlds team victory, and multiple medals in both WAG and MAG at the
2004 Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece.
The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...
. At the
2012 Olympics and
2016 Olympics
The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...
, the U.S. women won the team gold. The United States has produced the last six women's Olympic all-around champions—
Carly Patterson (2004),
Nastia Liukin
Anastasia "Nastia" Valeryevna Liukin (; ; born October 30, 1989) is an Americans, American former artistic gymnast. She is the Gymnastics at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2008 Olympic Gymnastics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's artistic ind ...
(2008),
Gabby Douglas (2012),
Simone Biles
Simone Arianne Biles Owens ( Biles; born March 14, 1997) is an American Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. Her 11 Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals make her the most decorated gymnast in history. She is widely regarded as one ...
(2016, 2024) and
Sunisa Lee
Sunisa "Suni" Phabsomphou Lee ( ; ; born March 9, 2003) is an American Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. She is the 2020 Olympic Gymnastics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Women's artistic individual all-around, all-around gold medalist and ...
(2021)—as well as individual gymnasts such as World all-around champions Zmeskal (1991),
Shannon Miller (1993, 1994),
Chellsie Memmel
Chellsie Marie Memmel (born June 23, 1988) is an American artistic gymnast. She is the 2005 world all-around champion (the third American woman, after Kim Zmeskal and Shannon Miller, to win that title) and the 2003 world champion on the uneve ...
(2005),
Shawn Johnson
Shawn Johnson East (born Shawn Machel Johnson; January 19, 1992) is an American former artistic gymnast. She is the Gymnastics at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2008 Olympic Gymnastics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's balance beam, balance be ...
(2007),
Bridget Sloan (2009),
Jordyn Wieber
Jordyn Marie Wieber Brooks ( Wieber; born July 12, 1995) is an American former artistic gymnast and current gymnastics coach. Since April 2019, she has been the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks gymnastics team.
Wieber began competing in ...
(2011), Biles (2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2023), and
Morgan Hurd (2017). At the
2005 World Championships, American women won the gold and silver in the all-around and in every event final except vault (where
Alicia Sacramone placed third). They continue to be one of the most dominant forces in the sport.
The men's team made the medal podium at the
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...
,
2008
2008 was designated as:
*International Year of Languages
*International Year of Planet Earth
*International Year of the Potato
*International Year of Sanitation
The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...
, and
2024 Olympics
The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...
, as well as the
2003
2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater.
In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War.
Demographic ...
and
2011 World Championships.
Paul Hamm, the most successful U.S. male gymnast, became the first American man to win a World all-around title in 2003. He followed this up by winning the all-around at the 2004 Olympics.
Jonathan Horton
Jonathan Alan Horton (born December 31, 1985) is a former American artistic gymnast. He was a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team and is the 2008 Olympic silver medalist on horizontal bar, the 2010 World all-ar ...
won a silver medal on the horizontal bar at the 2008 Olympics and a bronze in the all-around at the 2010 World Championships, and
Danell Leyva
Danell Johan Leyva Gonzalez (born October 30, 1991) is a Cuban American former gymnast who competed for the United States. He was a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team and is the 2012 Olympic individual all-arou ...
won the all-around bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics and two silver medals (parallel bars and horizontal bar) at the 2016 Olympics.
China
China has had successful men's and women's programs over the past 25 years. The Chinese men won team gold at the
2000
2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year.
Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...
,
2008
2008 was designated as:
*International Year of Languages
*International Year of Planet Earth
*International Year of the Potato
*International Year of Sanitation
The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...
, and
2012 Olympics and every World Championship team title from 1994 to 2014 (except 2001, when they placed fifth). They have produced
individual gymnasts like Olympic all-around champions
Li Xiaoshuang (1996) and
Yang Wei (2008).
The
Chinese women's team won gold at the
2006 World Championships and
2008 Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...
, and has produced
individual gymnasts like
Mo Huilan,
Kui Yuanyuan,
Yang Bo,
Cheng Fei
Cheng Fei ( zh, c= , p=Chéng Fēi; born May 29, 1988) is a Chinese retired artistic gymnast. She is a three-time World Champion on the vault (2005–2007) and 2006 World Champion on floor exercise. She was a member of the gold medal-winni ...
,
Sui Lu,
Huang Huidan,
Yao Jinnan, and
Fan Yilin. Chinese women who have won individual Olympic gold medals are
Ma Yanhong,
Lu Li,
Liu Xuan,
He Kexin,
Deng Linlin, and
Guan Chenchen.
Though for many years considered a two-event team (uneven bars and balance beam), China has developed successful all-arounders like Olympic bronze medalists
Liu Xuan (2000),
Zhang Nan (2004), and
Yang Yilin
Yang Yilin (born August 26, 1992) is a Chinese retired artistic gymnast. She was the 2008 Olympic Gymnastics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's artistic individual all-around, all-around bronze medalist and a member of the gold medal winn ...
(2008). Like the Soviet Union, they have been accused of grueling and sometimes cruel training methods, as well as age falsification.
Japan
The Japanese men's team was dominant during the 1960s and 1970s, winning every Olympic team title from 1960 through 1976 thanks to
individual gymnasts such as Olympic all-around champions
Sawao Katō and
Yukio Endō. Several innovations pioneered by
Japanese gymnasts during this era have remained in the sport, including the
Tsukahara vault.
More recently, Japanese men have re-emerged as top contenders since winning a team gold at the 2004 Olympics.
Six-time World champion and two-time Olympic all-around gold medalist
Kōhei Uchimura is widely considered to be the best all-around gymnast ever, and
Hiroyuki Tomita won 10 World and Olympic medals from 2003 to 2008.
The women have been less successful, but there have been individual standouts such as Olympic and World medalist
Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda, who competed in the 1950s and 1960s, and more recently
Koko Tsurumi,
Rie Tanaka
is a Japanese voice actress and singer. Notable among her numerous roles in anime are Lacus Clyne in '' Mobile Suit Gundam Seed'' and '' Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny'', Chi in '' Chobits'', Hikari Kujou/Shiny Luminous in '' Futari wa Pre ...
,
Natsumi Sasada,
Yuko Shintake,
Asuka Teramoto,
Sae Miyakawa,
Hitomi Hatakeda,
Aiko Sugihara, and
Mai Murakami. Tsurumi won a bronze medal in the all-around and silver on bars at the
2009 World Championships, and Murakami won gold on floor in
2017
2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly.
Events January
* January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...
, the first Japanese woman to win a World gold medal since Tanaka-Ikeda.
Germany
The German Democratic Republic, or
East Germany
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
, had a very successful gymnastics program before the
reunification of Germany
German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and the integration of i ...
. Its MAG and WAG teams frequently won silver or bronze medals at the World Championships and Olympics, led by
male gymnasts such as
Andreas Wecker and
Roland Brückner, and
female gymnasts such as
Maxi Gnauck,
Karin Janz, and
Erika Zuchold.
The Federal Republic of Germany, or
West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
, had international stars like
Eberhard Gienger,
Willi Jaschek, and
Helmut Bantz.
Since its reunification, Germany has produced some medal-winning gymnasts, including
Fabian Hambüchen
Fabian Hambüchen (also spelled Hambuechen; ; born 25 October 1987) is a retired Germany, German Gymnastics, gymnast who was an Olympic Games, Olympic champion on horizontal bar in Gymnastics at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Rio 2016, World champion ...
,
Philipp Boy, and
Marcel Nguyen among the men and
Pauline Schäfer
Pauline Sieglinde Schäfer-Betz or Pauline Schäfer (born 4 January 1997) is a German Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast who represented Germany at the Gymnastics at the 2016 Summer Olympics, 2016, Gymnastics at the 2020 Summer Olympics, 2020, ...
,
Elizabeth Seitz,
Sophie Scheder, and
Tabea Alt among the women. The former Soviet/Uzbek gymnast
Oksana Chusovitina
Oksana Aleksandrovna Chusovitina (; born 19 June 1975) is an Uzbekistani gymnastics, artistic gymnast who previously represented the Soviet Union and Germany.
Chusovitina's career as an elite gymnast has spanned more than three decades. She wo ...
also competed for Germany from 2006 to 2012, winning two World medals and an Olympic silver on vault.
Czechoslovakia
The
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
n women's team was the main threat to the dominance of the Soviet women's team for decades. They won team medals at every World Championships and Olympics from 1934 to 1970, with the exceptions of the
1950 Worlds and
1956 Olympics.
Among
their leaders were
Vlasta Děkanová, the first women's World all-around champion, and
Věra Čáslavská, who won all five European, World and Olympic all-around titles during the 1964–68 Olympic cycle—a feat never matched by any other gymnast, male or female. Čáslavská also led Czechoslovakia to the world team title in
1966
Events January
* January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko.
* January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...
, making the country one of only two (Romania being the other) ever to defeat the Soviet women's team at a major competition.
The
Czechoslovakia men's success at the World Championships was the greatest of any country before
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
: They were first in the medal table more than any other nation and won the most team titles during the pre-WWII period.
Together, Czechoslovakia and its precursor, the
Austro-Hungarian
Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...
constituent
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
, produced four men's World all-around champions:
Josef Čada in 1907,
Ferdinand Steiner in 1911,
František Pecháček in 1922, and
Jan Gajdoš in 1938.
Their most decorated athlete was
Ladislav Vácha, who won 10 individual World and Olympic medals.
Hungary
Led by individuals such as 10-time Olympic medalist (with five golds)
Ágnes Keleti, the Hungarian women's team medaled at the first four Olympics that included women's artistic gymnastics competitions (1936–1956),
as well as at the
1954 World Championships.
After a long decline, World and Olympic vault champion
Henrietta Ónodi put them back on the map in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The
Hungarian men never had the same level of success as
the women. However,
Zoltán Magyar
Zoltán Magyar (born 13 December 1953) is a Hungarian former gymnast who was the world's leading pommel horse gymnast in the 1970s. In this event he won two Olympic, three world, three European and two World Cup titles. Magyar had two moves n ...
dominated the pommel horse in the 1970s, winning eight of a possible nine European, World, and Olympic titles from 1973 to 1980.
Szilveszter Csollány, a World and Olympic champion on rings, also won medals at major competitions for a decade starting in the early 1990s.
In more recent years,
Krisztián Berki
Krisztián Berki (; born 18 March 1985 in Budapest) is a former Hungarian artistic gymnast. He is a pommel horse specialist. In 2016 a pommel horse element of difficulty level 'E' was named after him.
Sports career
He is the 2012 Olympic Cha ...
has won World and Olympic titles on the pommel horse.
Other nations
Several other nations have been strong competitors in WAG and MAG. The rise of various countries' programs in recent years is partly due to the large exodus of coaching talent from the USSR and other former
Eastern Bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...
countries.
In the past two decades, Australia, Brazil,
Great Britain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and South Korea have produced World and Olympic medalists and have started winning team medals at continental, World and Olympic competitions. Individual gymnasts from Croatia, Greece, North Korea, Slovenia, Spain, and Ireland have also been successful in major competitions.
Health consequences
Physical health
Gymnastics sits on many lists of the world's most dangerous sports. Artistic gymnastics carries an inherently high risk of spinal and other injuries, and in extremely rare cases, gymnasts have sustained fatal injuries.
Julissa Gomez
Julissa D'Anne Gomez (November 4, 1972 – August 8, 1991) was an American gymnast whose rapid rise through the ranks of elite gymnastics in the mid-1980s was cut short by a vaulting accident in 1988 that left her a quadriplegic. She eventual ...
, an American gymnast, died in 1991 after breaking her neck while vaulting three years earlier. Several other gymnasts have been paralyzed from accidents in training or competition, including
Elena Mukhina
Elena Vyacheslavovna Mukhina (; first name sometimes rendered "Yelena", last name sometimes rendered "Muchina"; 1 June 196022 December 2006) was a Soviet Union, Soviet gymnast who won the all-around title at the 1978 World Championships in Stra ...
of the Soviet Union and
Sang Lan
Sang Lan (; born 11 June 1981) is a former China, Chinese gymnast and television personality.
Athletic career and injury
Sang achieved excellence in gymnastics at a young age, winning the all-around and every single event final at the 1991 Zhej ...
of China.
Mental health
The pressure of the sport can make it even more dangerous to athletes. Coaches frequently put pressure on their gymnasts to perform well, which can hinder their visual attention, memory, and ability to focus on the task at hand, in turn negatively affecting performance. Moreover, this pressure often leads to extreme perfectionism in gymnasts, which is correlated with higher rates of anxiety disorders, including general anxiety disorder (GAD) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). During the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, gymnast
Simone Biles
Simone Arianne Biles Owens ( Biles; born March 14, 1997) is an American Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. Her 11 Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals make her the most decorated gymnast in history. She is widely regarded as one ...
took a step back from competition to assess her mental health and ensure she was not putting herself at a greater risk of physical injury. Other athletes have expressed their support and called for a greater emphasis on mental health in gymnastics.
Controversies and abuse
Eating disorder
An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that adversely affect a person's health, physical or mental health, mental health. These behaviors may include eating too much food or too little food. Types of eatin ...
s are also common, especially in women's gymnastics, in which gymnasts are motivated and sometimes pushed by coaches to maintain a below-normal body weight. The problem gained public attention in the 1990s after the death of
Christy Henrich, a U.S. national team member who suffered from
anorexia
Anorexia nervosa (AN), often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by Calorie restriction, food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin.
Individuals wit ...
and
bulimia
Bulimia nervosa, also known simply as bulimia, is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating (eating large quantities of food in a short period of time, often feeling out of control) followed by compensatory behaviors, such as self-induc ...
.
Abusive coaching and training practices in gymnastics gained widespread attention after Joan Ryan's book ''
Little Girls in Pretty Boxes'' was published in 1995. USA Gymnastics began investigating several coaches in their program for abuse. In the late 2010s, many individual gymnasts—including former elite competitors from Australia, Britain, and the United States—began to speak out about the abuse they had experienced. This followed several years of
allegations of sexual abuse by gymnastics coaches and other authority figures, including the former U.S. team doctor
Larry Nassar. In April 2020, Maggie Haney, former coach of Olympian Laurie Hernandez, was suspended for eight years following her allegations of verbal and emotional abuse toward her gymnasts.
During the 1996 Olympics, Kerri Strug injured her foot after her first vault. However, her vault was standing between Team USA and a gold medal. Strug performed her second vault, landing on one foot, and was carried off by her coach, crying in pain. Strug's teammate, Dominique Moceanu also opened up about the abuse she experienced. She said that she competed in the Olympics with a tibial stress fracture. Additionally, she fell on her head during her beam routine and discussed how none of these injuries were properly treated. After being the coordinators for Team USA for nearly three decades in 2016, Bela and Marta Karolyi retired. After allegations that gymnasts were experiencing sexual abuse while training at the Karolyi ranch, it was officially closed in 2018.
Upon investigations of those working closely with Larry Nassar, John Geddert, head coach of the 2012 Women's Olympic Team, was suspended by USA Gymnastics for sexual assault, physical abuse, and human trafficking, and committed suicide shortly after being charged in February 2021. The
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
had heard allegations from gymnasts regarding their sexual abuse as early as 2015 but did not address them until years later when Nassar was sentenced to prison in 2017. At the time of Nassar's court hearing, more than 160 women had spoken up about the abuse they endured. In a Senate hearing from September 2021, the victims and their representatives claimed that Nassar had abused 120 more women from the time the FBI knew about his allegations until the time they took action against him.
See also
*
Artistic gymnastics terms named after people
*
International Gymnastics Hall of Fame
The International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, located in Oklahoma City, USA, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring the achievements and contributions of the world's greatest competitors, coaches and authorities in artistic gymnastics.
The early IG ...
*
List of current female artistic gymnasts
*
List of notable artistic gymnasts
*
List of Olympic medalists in gymnastics (men)
*
List of Olympic medalists in gymnastics (women)
This is the complete list of women's Olympic medalists in gymnastics.
Artistic gymnastics
Current program
All-around, individual
All-around, team
Note: The International Gymnastics Federation recommended to the IOC that the medals of the C ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Artistic Gymnastics
Gymnastics disciplines
Summer Olympic disciplines