Spotlight Sport - Gymnastics

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Gateway to the Summer Games - Spotlight Sports

Gymnastics
To the ancient Greeks, physical fitness was paramount and all Greek cities had a "gymnasia," a courtyard for jumping, running, and wrestling. Over the years, gymnastics has undergone many changes. Originally, men's competition included swimming and running events, and did not acquire its present form until the 1924 Games in Paris. During the 1920s, women organized and participated in gymnastic events. The first women's Olympic competition was held at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam.


		Competition \| The Apparatus \| Rhythmic Gymnastics \| News, History, Fast Facts \| All About Athletes \| More Sports

Competition
Gymnastics competitions are divided into three parts. On the first two days, all gymnasts perform compulsory and optional exercises on each piece of equipment, referred to in gymnastics as "apparatus." Those scores determine the winners of the team event. The 36 gymnasts who achieve the highest combined individual scores move on to the individual all-around competition. Based on the combined scores from the team and the all-around, the top eight scorers on each apparatus advance to the finals.

The Apparatus
In the following order, men must perform the floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal bar. Women must perform the vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise.

Rhythmic Gymnastics
This newest Olympic gymnastics discipline is a cross between the floor exercise and classical ballet. Unlike the floor exercise, however, there are no airborne acrobatic moves. Rhythmic gymnastics requires smooth, graceful body movements while performing with a hand-held apparatus such as the hoop, ball, clubs, rope, or ribbon. Rhythmic events are judged on the same 10-point scale and evaluated according to choreographic quality and originality, harmony, precision, and execution.

News, History, and Fast Facts

Keep up with the latest gymnastics news by reading feature articles and viewing related links on the CBS Sportline's Olympics 2000 site.

Gymnastics can be one of the most difficult sports for spectators to watch because it has a very specialized terminology. Click on the links below for glossaries to get you primed for the Games ahead.

To get a feel for the history of Olympic gymnastics, go to the USOC site, which describes the sport at length. Then watch twists and tumbles on a USOC mini-movie.
The Sydney 2000 site is so descriptive that it has special pages for artistic, rhythmic, and trampoline gymnastics.
A children's Web site called All About Gymnastics features a brief history of the sport, fun facts, a glossary, and even training and warm-up tips.

All About Athletes

For biographies and great personal accounts of Olympians, visit the NBCOlympics.com site or the U.S.A. Gymnastics site.
Find out which Americans struck gold.

More Sports

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General Sports Links
Olympians will compete in dozens of sports this summer. Even though Gateway to the Summer Games can't feature them all, you can learn about each and every one by visiting the sites listed below.

Griffin Publishing Group's Official Olympic Sports page
For information straight from the source, click on a sport to connect to its organization's official Web site.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation News
This site provides excellent information about Olympic sports and their rules. It also sizes up the best international competitors.
CBS Sportsline's Olympics 2000
Get top news stories and in-depth features about every sport.
CCN/SI
In addition to news on every sport, this site contains athlete diaries.
NBCOlympics.com
Select a sport to study or hear firsthand from an athlete who plays it.
Sydney 2000
The official site of the Sydney Olympics covers the events in detail.
Sydney 2000 Kids' Guide to Olympic Sports
Visit the Sportzone for sports-related information written especially for young students.
USOC
The United States Olympic Committee site includes the rules and history of events as well as athlete bios, diaries, and chats.
Sydney 2000 Fans
This unofficial site provides basic description of events and useful links to more information.

Portions of the above text were excerpted from Share the Olympic Dream--Volume II.
(c) 1995 by Griffin Publishing Group/United States Olympic Committee.

For information on purchasing Griffin materials, please visit the Griffin Publishing Group Web site at http://www.griffinpublishing.com.