The vault is an artistic gymnastics apparatus which gymnasts perform on, as well as the event performed on that apparatus. Both male and female gymnasts perform the vault. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is VT.
The vault is an artistic gymnastics apparatus which gymnasts perform on, as well as the event performed on that apparatus. Both male and female gymnasts perform the vault. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is VT.
German Friedrich Ludwig Jahn popularized the vault's early forms. The apparatus itself originated as a "horse", much like the pommel horse but without the handles; it was sometimes known as the vaulting horse. The horse was set up with its long dimension perpendicular to the run for women, and parallel for men. [1] The vaulting horse was the apparatus used in the Olympics for over a century, beginning with the Men's vault in the first modern Olympics and ending with the Gymnastics at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Following an accident in 1988 and compounded by incidents in 1998 and 2000, International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) re-evaluated and changed the apparatus, citing both safety reasons and the desire to facilitate more impressive acrobatics. [1] The 2001 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were the first international competition to make use of the "vaulting table", an apparatus made by Dutch gymnastics equipment company Janssen-Fritsen since the mid-1990s. It features a flat, larger, and more cushioned surface almost parallel to the floor, which slopes downward at the end closest to the springboard; gymnasts nicknamed it the "tongue"; [1] it appears to be somewhat safer than the old apparatus. [2]
To perform a vault, the gymnast runs down a runway (the run), which is usually padded or carpeted. They hurdle onto a springboard and spring onto the vault with their hands (the preflight or first flight and block). For vaults in the Yurchenko family, the gymnast will put their hands onto a mat that is placed before the springboard, round-off onto the board, and do a back handspring onto the vault. The off-flight may be as simple as leaping over the apparatus or as complicated as executing several twists and turns in the air. The gymnast then lands on the mat on the other side of the apparatus.
The running speed is correlated with the difficulty of the vault performed, with a stronger correlation for women than men, who may not maximize their sprint speed to achieve even the most difficult vaults. [5]
Gymnasts (both male and female) show one vault in Qualification, Team Final, and All Around Final. The gymnasts must perform a second vault during qualifications to qualify for vault apparatus finals. [6] [7] In the Apparatus Finals gymnasts must also show two vaults. [6] [7] For men, the two vaults must be from different element groups, [7] while women must show two vaults with different repulsion and flight phase from the vault table. [6]
The score combines the D-value, the difficulty, and the E-value, the execution.
The projected difficulty is increased with every skill included. Each skill has its own value; the harder the skill, the higher the start value. In 2009, FIG made some changes to put less emphasis on the difficulty and reduce the number of skills required, making the gymnasts focus harder on the perfect execution of the vault. [8]
The execution score is out of 10.0, looking at the form, height, length, and landing. Judges look through four main phases: the preflight, support, after-flight, and landing. [9] Gymnasts are expected to land cleanly, with no hops or steps, and within a set landing zone on the landing mat. [10] [6] Falling or stepping on landing incurs deduction, as will lack of height off the table, or distance from the table. [6] [11]
Vault styles are broken into various groups or families. To compete in a vault final, a gymnast must perform two vaults from different groups whose second flight phase is not identical. [12] [13]
Vault groups (men)There are four vault categories for men: [12]
| Vault groups (women)There are five vault categories for women: [13]
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The horse has been blamed for several serious accidents over the years. In 1988, American Julissa Gomez was paralyzed in a vaulting accident; she died from complications from her injuries three years later. [14] During warmups at the 1998 Goodwill Games, Chinese gymnast Sang Lan fell and suffered paralysis from a cervical-spine injury. [15] In a series of crashes when the horse's height was set too low at the 2000 Olympics, gymnasts either rammed into the horse's front end, or had bad landings after having problems with their hand placements during push-off. [16]
In 2007, Dutch junior gymnast Imke Glas was seriously injured after a fall on a vault. [17]
A 2021 study suggested that landing scoring criteria for vault in women's gymnastics increased the risk of injury compared to the criteria in men's gymnastics. [18] Both this study and an earlier one from 2015 recommended allowing more flexion at the knees during landing to reduce impact-related injuries. [18] [19]
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, artistry 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.
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 bar that is rigidly held above and parallel to the floor by a system of cables and stiff vertical supports. Gymnasts typically wear suede leather grips while performing on the bar. The current elite-level competition uses a stainless steel core rail. The gymnastics elements performed on the horizontal bar are regulated by a Code of Points. A bar routine, which is a sequence of several bar skills, usually includes giants with various grips, in-bar work, turns, release and regrasp skills, and a dismount. The horizontal bar is often considered one of the most exciting gymnastics events due to the power exhibited by gymnasts during giant swings and spectacular aerial releases and dismounts that frequently include multiple flips or twists and, in some cases, airborne travel over the bar.
In gymnastics, the floor is a specially prepared exercise surface, considered an apparatus. The floor exercise is the event performed on the floor, in both women's and men's artistic gymnastics. The same floor is used for WAG FX and MAG FX, but rules and scoring differ; most obviously, a WAG FX routine is synchronised to a piece of recorded dance music, whereas MAG FX has no musical accompaniment.
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 balance beam is performed competitively only by female gymnasts.
Parallel bars are floor apparatus consisting of two wooden bars approximately 350cm (11'6") long and positioned at 200 centimetres above the floor. Parallel bars are used in artistic gymnastics and also for physical therapy and home exercise. Gymnasts may optionally wear grips when performing a routine on the parallel bars, although this is uncommon.
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 AB, and the apparatus and event are often referred to simply as "bars". The bars are placed at different heights and widths, allowing the gymnast to transition from bar to bar. A gymnast usually adds white chalk to the hands so that they can grip the bar better.
Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different types of apparatus. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (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. Artistic gymnastics is a popular spectator sport at many competitions, including the Summer Olympic Games.
The Code of Points is a rulebook that defines the scoring system for each level of competition in gymnastics. There is not a universal international Code of Points, and every oversight organization — such as the FIG, NCAA Gymnastics, and most national gymnastics federations — designs and employs its own different Code of Points.
Cheng Fei 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-winning Chinese teams for the 2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Aarhus, Denmark and 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. She was also a member of the silver medal-winning Chinese team for the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.
Julissa D'Anne Gomez 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 eventually died from her injury. She was being coached by Al Fong, and had previously been coached by Bela Karolyi.
Yurchenko, also known as round-off entry vaults, are a family of vaults performed in artistic gymnastics in which the gymnast does a round-off onto the springboard and a back handspring onto the horse or vaulting table. The gymnast then performs a salto, which may range in difficulty from a simple single tuck to a triple twist layout. Different variations in the difficulty of the salto lead to higher D-scores. This family of vaults is the most common type of vault in gymnastics and is named after Natalia Yurchenko, who first performed it in 1982.
A springboard is a platform set upon one or usually multiple springs used in artistic gymnastics to propel a gymnast who jumps upon it further than if they had otherwise jumped off a fixed platform. The springboard is a vital part of the vault event and is commonly used in some routines of other events, such as the balance beam, or uneven bars, to start the event by springing onto the apparatus. The springboard is usually about 2 feet (0.6 m) wide and 4 feet (1.2 m) long.
Tumbling, sometimes referred to as power tumbling, is a gymnastics discipline in which participants perform a series of acrobatic skills down a 25 metres (82 ft) long sprung track. Each series, known as a pass, comprises eight elements in which the athlete jumps, twists and flips placing only their hands and feet on the track. Tumblers are judged on the difficulty and form of their routine. There are both individual and team competitions in the sport.
The 40th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart, Germany, from 1 to 9 September 2007.
This is a general glossary of the terms used in the sport of gymnastics.
Ri Se-gwang is a retired North Korean artistic gymnast, representing the April 25 Sports Club. He is often considered a specialist on vault apparatus in the sport of men’s artistic gymnastics (MAG).
The men's vault event was part of the gymnastics programme at the 1924 Summer Olympics. It was one of nine gymnastics events and it was contested for the third time after 1896 and 1904. The competition was held on Monday, July 21, 1924. Seventy gymnasts from nine nations competed. The eight members of each nation's gymnastics team all competed; Czechoslovakia only had six competitors start the vault. The event was won by Frank Kriz of the United States, the nation's second consecutive victory in the event. Jan Koutný and Bohumil Mořkovský of Czechoslovakia took silver and bronze, respectively, the nation's first medals in the event.
The women's artistic individual all-around final at the 2000 Summer Olympics was held on 21 September at the Sydney SuperDome. The event was impacted by three separate scandals. The vault was set at the incorrect height for the first two rotations of the competition, causing several falls and injuries. The athletes who performed on the incorrectly set vault were allowed to vault again at the end of the competition. Initially, Andreea Răducan won the gold medal for Romania, but she tested positive for pseudoephedrine and was stripped of the medal. The gold medal was reallocated to her teammate Simona Amânar while Maria Olaru and Liu Xuan received the silver and bronze medals, respectively. In 2010, it was discovered that Dong Fangxiao was competing at these Olympic Games under a falsified birthdate and was too young to compete. In addition to China losing their team bronze medal, Dong's 25th-place finish in the all-around final was nullified.
Dipa Karmakar is an Indian former artistic gymnast. She is the first Indian female gymnast to compete at the Olympic Games. At the 2016 Olympics, in the vault event, she missed a medal by just 0.15 points. Karmakar is one of only five women in the world to have mastered the Produnova vault. In 2024, she announced her retirement from gymnastics.
The handspring double salto forward tucked, known as a Produnova in women's artistic gymnastics and a Roche in men's artistic gymnastics, is a vault consisting of a front handspring onto the vaulting horse and two front somersaults in a tucked position off it.
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