Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shoulders, back, chest, and abdominal muscle groups. Gymnastics evolved from exercises used by the ancient Greeks that included skills for mounting and dismounting a horse, and from circus performance skills.
Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform on a floor with an apparatus: hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon. The sport combines elements of gymnastics, dance and calisthenics; gymnasts must be strong, flexible, agile, dexterous and coordinated. Rhythmic gymnastics is governed by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), which first recognized it as a sport in 1963. It became an Olympic sport in 1984, with an individual all-around event. The group all-around competition was added to the Olympics in 1996. At the international level, rhythmic gymnastics is a women-only sport. The most prestigious competitions, besides the Olympic Games, are the World Championships, World Games, European Championships, European Games, the World Cup Series and the Grand Prix Series. Gymnasts are judged on their artistry, execution of skills, and difficulty of skills, for which they gain points. They perform leaps, balances, and rotations along with handling the apparatus.
At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, three disciplines of gymnastics were contested: artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline. The artistic gymnastics and trampoline events were held at the Olympic Indoor Hall and the rhythmic gymnastics events were held at the Galatsi Olympic Hall.
At the 1996 Summer Olympics, two different gymnastics disciplines were contested: artistic gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics. The artistic gymnastics events were held at the Georgia Dome from July 20–25 and July 28–29. The rhythmic gymnastics events were held at Stegeman Coliseum in nearby Athens, on the campus of the University of Georgia from August 1–4.
Gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics was represented by 15 events: 7 for women and 8 for men. All events were held at the West Melbourne Stadium between December 3 and December 7. It is located some 3.4 km north-west of the main Olympic venue, Melbourne Cricket Ground, and named Festival Hall as of 2006.
At the 1988 Summer Olympics, two different gymnastics disciplines were contested: artistic gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics. The artistic gymnastics events were held at the Olympic Gymnastics Hall in Seoul from September 18 through 25th. The rhythmic gymnastics events were held at the same venue from September 28 through 30th.
At the 1992 Summer Olympics, two different gymnastics were contested: artistic gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics. The artistic gymnastics events were held at the Palau Sant Jordi from July 26 through August 2. The rhythmic gymnastics event were held at the Palau dels Esports de Barcelona from August 6 through 8th.
The men's individual all-around competition was one of eight events for male competitors in the artistic gymnastics discipline contested in the gymnastics at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. The qualification and final rounds took place on August 14 and August 18 at the Olympic Indoor Hall. There were 98 competitors from 31 nations. Each nation could enter a team of 6 gymnasts or up to 2 individual gymnasts. The event was won by Paul Hamm of the United States, the nation's first victory in the men's all-around since the 1904 Games in St. Louis and second overall. It was the first medal of any color for an American in the men's all-around since the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. South Korea took two medals, a silver for Kim Dae-Eun and a bronze for Yang Tae Young. The scoring of the final was disputed; Olympedia calls this "the most controversial men's gymnastic event ever."
The men's horizontal bar competition was one of eight events for male competitors of the artistic gymnastics discipline contested in the gymnastics at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. The qualification and final rounds took place on August 14 and August 23 at the Olympic Indoor Hall. There were 79 competitors from 29 nations, with nations competing in the team event having up to 5 gymnasts and other nations having up to 2 gymnasts. The event was won by Igor Cassina of Italy, the nation's first victory in the horizontal bar and first medal of any color in the event since 1928. Paul Hamm took silver, the United States' first horizontal bar medal since 1992. Bronze went to Isao Yoneda of Japan, the once-dominant nation's first medal in the event since 1984.
This is a general glossary of the terms used in the sport of gymnastics.
The men's vault competition at the 2008 Summer Olympics was held on August 9 and 18 at the Beijing National Indoor Stadium. The eight competitors with the highest scores in qualifying, among the gymnasts electing to make two vaults, proceeded to the men's vault finals. There, each gymnast performed two vaults; the scores from the final round determined final ranking. There were 16 competitors from 13 nations that made a second vault attempt. The event was won by Leszek Blanik of Poland, the nation's first victory in the men's vault. Blanik was the seventh man to win multiple medals in the event, adding to his 2000 bronze. France earned its first medal in the event with Thomas Bouhail's silver. Anton Golotsutskov of Russia took bronze, putting the nation back on the podium after a one-Games absence.
The men's rings competition at the 2008 Summer Olympics was held on August 18 at the Beijing National Indoor Stadium. The eight competitors with the highest scores in qualifying proceeded to the men's rings finals. There, each gymnast performed again; the scores from the final round determined final ranking. There were 70 competitors from 25 nations that competed on the rings, with nations in the team event entering up to 5 gymnasts while other nations could enter up to 2. The event was won by Chen Yibing of China, the nation's first victory in the rings since 1984. Yang Wei, also of China, took silver. Bronze went to Oleksandr Vorobiov, the nation's first medal in the event.
Women's rhythmic individual all-around competition at the 2008 Summer Olympics was held at the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium.
Deng Linlin, is a retired Chinese gymnast. She was a member of the Chinese team that won the team gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, People's Republic of China, and is a three-time World Cup gold medalist. She is the 2009 World and 2012 Olympic champion on balance beam.
The men's individual all-around competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. The qualification and final rounds took place on July 29 and 31 at the Palau dels Esports de Barcelona. There were 93 competitors from 25 nations. Each nation could enter a team of 6 gymnasts or up to 3 individual gymnasts. The event was won by Vitaly Scherbo, one of his six gold medals in 1992. The Unified Team, making its only Summer Olympics appearance, swept the medals, with Scherbo taking gold, Grigory Misutin silver, and Valery Belenky bronze. It was the second consecutive medal sweep in the event and fourth overall.
These are the results of the rhythmic individual all-around competition, the only Rhythmic Gymnastic event at the 1992 Summer Olympics. The four pieces of apparatus used were ball, clubs, hoop, and rope. 42 gymnasts competed in the preliminary round.
Girl's rhythmic individual all-around competition at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics was held at the Bishan Sports Hall.
The girls' rhythmic individual all-around at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics was held on August 26–27 at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre. There were two rounds of competition in the individual competition. In each round, competing gymnasts performed four routines. One routine was performed with each of the four apparatus: rope, hoop, ball and clubs. The combined scores from the four routines made up the preliminary qualifications round score. The top eight gymnasts after the preliminary round advanced to the finals. There, they performed each routine again. Scores from the preliminary will not be carried over, the gymnasts start back their routines with maximum of D10/E10 in base value.
The Women's rhythmic individual all-around competition at the 2020 Summer Olympics was held at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre in Tokyo, Japan, with the qualification taking place on 6 August and the final on 7 August.
These are the results of the men's team all-around competition, one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
