| Women's gymnastics in Australia | |
|---|---|
 Podium of the beam at the 2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. From left to right on the podium: Ivana Hong (USA, 3rd place), Deng Linlin (China, 1st place) and Lauren Mitchell (Australia, 2nd place). | |
| Country | Australia |
| Governing body | Gymnastics Australia |
| National team(s) | Australia |
While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that date, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created. [1] At the turn of the century, gymnastics was a popular sport for girls at religious schools because it was not a game and competition was not a major aspect of the sport. It helped reinforce traditional gender roles. One of the early schools in Australia to offer gymnastics for women was the Brisbane Girls' Grammar and the All Hallows' Convent school for girls. [2] During the 1900s in Australia, this sport became more socially acceptable to participate in. [3]
Australian women's sports had an advantage over many other women's sport organisations around the world in the period after World War II. Women's sport organisations had largely remained intact and were holding competitions during the war period. This structure survived in the post war period. Women's sport were not hurt because of food rationing, petrol rationing, population disbursement, and other issues facing post-war Europe. [4]
In 1984, there were 32,157 registered female artistic gymnasts in the country. The first national women's championship was held in 1959, 9 years after the first men's national championship. [5]
Monique Allen is one of Australia's most famous female gymnasts. She earned a scholarship for gymnastics at the Australian Institute of Sport in 1984. At the 1989 world championships, she finished 25th overall . She went on to win an individual all around silver medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games. [6] Lisa Skinner and Trudy McIntosh won gold medals in gymnastics at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. [7] [8] Allana Slater also won a gold medal at the games. She was the first Australian woman to be ranked as one of the top-ten all around gymnasts in the world. [9] Bree Robertson is an artistic gymnast who won a silver medal as an individual at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in the ribbon final, text event. [10]
Monette Russo made Australian history by becoming the first Australian gymnast ever to win an individual World Championship medal at the 2005 Melbourne Artistic Gymnastics World Championships when she came third in the all-around competition. [11]
Lauren Mitchell won the World Championships for floor in 2010 and the 2009 World Championships silver medalist on balance beam and floor. Mitchell is only the second Australian woman gymnast to win medals at a World Championships, and the first to win gold. [12] Both Russo and Mitchell were coached by Peggy Liddick, the former coach of USA champion, Shannon Miller, and current National Coach of the Australian Women's Team.
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.
Julianne Lyn McNamara is an American former artistic gymnast, who was born to Australians Jean and Kevin McNamara. She was the winner of the U.S. women's first individual event gold medal in Olympic history.
Monette Simone Russo is an Australian former artistic gymnast. She made history by becoming the first Australian gymnast ever to win an individual world championship medal at the 2005 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Melbourne, Australia, when she came third in the all-around competition and also was awarded the prestigious Longines Prize for Elegance. She also competed in three apparatus finals, finishing seventh on bars and fifth on beam and floor. Although more of an all-arounder than an events finalist, during her career she was one of the few women competing two vaults. She was also a part of the 2003 World Championships Team for Australia and won a bronze medal, another first for Australian gymnastics.
Daria "Dasha" Joura is a retired Australian gymnast. She is a triple Australian senior all-around champion and competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in 2006 and 2007.
Louis Antoine Smith MBE is a retired English artistic gymnast.
Lauren Stephanie Mitchell is an Australian former artistic gymnast. She is the 2010 World champion on the floor exercise and the 2009 World Championships silver medalist on the balance beam and floor exercise. Mitchell is only the second Australian female gymnast to win a medal at the World Championships, and she is the first to win a gold medal. She is the 2010 Commonwealth Games champion in the all-around, uneven bars, and balance beam, and with the Australian team, and she is the 2008 World Cup Final balance beam champion. She also represented Australia at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.
Ashleigh Jade Brennan is an Australian former gymnast who was on the Australia Gymnastics Artistic Women's National Team. She participated in the 2008 Summer Olympics, finishing sixth in the team event. She won a pair of team gold medals in the Commonwealth Games at the 2006 and 2010 Games. She won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2006 and a bronze in 2010. She was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She is also the sister of star Berwick footballer, Tom Brennan.
Joshua Jefferis is an Australian artistic gymnast. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. He has won medals at the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Paul O'Neill was an American gymnast most noted for his work on rings.
The 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Tokyo, Japan, from October 7–16, 2011, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. Due to uncertainty over the nuclear situation following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the International Federation of Gymnastics revealed it was considering moving the event, but on May 22 FIG president Bruno Grandi announced that the World Championships would take place in Tokyo as planned.
While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that date, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created. For swimming, the rapid expansion of facilities took place during the 1880s and the 1890s. Compared to the past when the whole of the swimming community was made up of males, currently 55 percent of the Australian swimming membership is made up of women. Not only do females dominate swimming in the pool but there are more than 5,500 female coaches in the swimming world in Australian and over 2,000 female technical officials.
While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that date, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created. One of the reason women were encouraged to play croquet, tennis and golf during the late 1800s was because it was seen as beneficial to their health. These sports were also seen as passive, non-aggressive and non-threatening to the period's concepts of masculinity and femininity.
Emily Little is an Australian artistic gymnast. She won a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in the team women's artistic gymnastic events. She was chosen to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Georgia-Rose Brown is an Australian artistic gymnast who currently represents New Zealand in international competition. She represented New Zealand at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The United States women's national artistic gymnastics team represents the United States in FIG international competitions.
The Australia women's national artistic gymnastics team represents Australia in FIG international competitions.
Rhys Joshua McClenaghan is an artistic gymnast from Northern Ireland who competes internationally both for Ireland and Northern Ireland. McClenaghan is widely recognised as one of the best pommel horse specialists of his generation.
Ju Ping Tian AM is a Chinese Australian gymnastics coach who was Head Coach of the Australian Women's Artistic Team and Australian Institute of Sport women's artistic program.
Belinda Archer is an Australian former artistic gymnast. She won a bronze medal at the 2003 World Championships in the team competition, which was Australia's first team medal at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
| Individual sports | |
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| Team sports | |
