The sport of gymnastics as we know it consists of several different events on a variety of types of equipment. Gymnastics has origins in ancient Greece, but the modern form of the sport arose out of the physical culture of 18th and 19th century Europe. The equipment used today largely derives apparatus developed for this early modern form of the sport.
Greek Gymnastics
Many ancient Greek cities had areas devoted to gymnastic exercises. The events included running, throwing, jumping, swimming and weightlifting events in addition to what we think of as gymnastic events. Many of these events, with their own specialized equipment, have been separated from gymnastics over time, such as track and field with throwing implements. The pursuit of physical excellence was a widely-held belief in ancient Greece, but gymnastic events were not standardized and the equipment used varied widely.
Roman Gymnastics
The Romans adopted many aspects of Greek civilization, including their physical culture. Gymnastics was formalized into physical preparation for the Roman military. The modern pommel horse and vault have distant ancestors in this period; mounting and dismounting horses under physical stress was a required skill for Roman cavalry. Gymnastic rings are also called Roman rings, but this is due to their origin in 18th century Italy, and not because of an actual Roman origin.
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn
Physical culture in the Middle Ages was largely confined to military training. Modern gymnastics did not develop until the 18th century. In 1811, gymnastics instructor and physical culturist Friedtrich Ludwig Jahn helped to found the Turnverein, the German Gymnastics movement. He invented equipment such as the parallel bars, a single horizontal bar and a precursor to the modern vaulting horse built out of a tree stump. The Turnverein movement also used wooden climbing frames and elaborate systems of ladders, which did not continue into modern Gymnastics.
Artistic Gymnastics in Modern Olympics
Men's gymnastics was an event in the first Olympics in Athens in 1896. The events included the horizontal bar, parallel bars, pommel horse, vault, rope climbing and rings. All of these events except the rings originated with the German gymnastics movement.The rings evolved out of a similar gymnastics movement in Italy. Female gymnasts competed in the Olympics for the first time in 1928. The uneven bars and balance beam were eventually added as exclusive women's events.
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