International Gymnastics Federation states that today more than 50 million people worldwide participate in some kind of gymnastics. The sport can be traced back over thousands of years to its birth place in Ancient Greece where athletes jumped bulls and climbed ropes in courtyards. Today, the sport is one of the most watched Olympic events, and a popular sport with children and adults across the world.
Origins
The word gymnastics comes from the Greek word gymnos, meaning naked, which at the time suited, as competitors were often naked when taking part in the sport. According to Olympic.org the ancient Greeks believed gymnastics to be the perfect symmetry between mind and body. Athletes did not just take part in physical gymnastics but also received training in philosophy, music and literature at the gymnasiums. The Romans also used gymnastics-style training to train soldiers for battle.
Development of Gymnastics
It was not until the 1800s that the phrase "artistic gymnastics" began to be used. This was said to be to distinguish free-flowing styles from techniques used in military training. The ruling body of gymnastics, the International Gymnastics Federation, known as the FIG was formed. In the early 1900s the gymnastics as known today began to emerge and the ancient events, such as rock throwing, began to filter out. Friedrich Ludwig Jahn is referred to by many as the "father of gymnastics" as he developed the used of modern day equipment, such as the beam, bars and pommel horse during this time.
Olympic History
Gymnastics is one of the only sports to have appeared at every modern Olympic games since the first competition in 1896. Men's artistic gymnastics was the first to appear, followed by the women's artistic events in 1928. According to the British Olympic Association, the first games involved athletes from five countries competing on six apparatus, including the horizontal bar, parallel bars, pommel horse, rings, vault and rope climbing. Although it was not until the late 1950s that the competition structure in place today was evident. Rhythmic gymnastics, an elegant discipline using hand-held apparatus, was first included in the 1984 Los Angeles Games and the most recent Olympic gymnastics discipline is trampolining, which appeared at the Sydney Games in 2000.
Gymnastics Disciplines
The International Gymnastics Federation recognizes six main disciplines of gymnastics. The three Olympic disciplines, men's and women's artistic, rhythmic and trampolining, in addition to acrobatic, aerobic and group gymnastics. The Federation also oversees Gymnastics For All, a non-competitive
Famous Gymnasts
In 1976 teenage Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci scored the first perfect 10 at the Montreal Games. Comaneci went on to earn seven perfect tens, three gold medals, one bronze and one silver medal at the same competition. She won a total of nine Olympic medals in two games and was accepted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1996. One of the most influential American gymnasts during the 1980s was Mary Lou Retton, who in 1984 stunned the world by winning five medals at the Los Angeles Games. Russian gymnast Nikolay Andrianov has won more Olympic medals than any other male gymnast to date. Between 1972 and 1980, over three Olympic Games he won a total of 15 medals including seven Olympic titles.
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