Gymnastics History

Gymnastics has appeared in every Olympics since 1896, although until 1928 only men were allowed to compete.

The competition was held in artistic gymnastics until 1984, when the rhyhmic gymnastics discipline was added to the programme. Since 2000, trampolining is also competed in.

But artistic gymnastics remains at the competitive heart of the sport, and although it is performed on different apparatus gymnasts are often adept at more than one, so multiple medallists are common.

 Larisa Latynina (1952-1960) won a record 18 Olympic medals, Nikolai Andrianov (1972-1980) 15 and Vitaly Scherbo (1992) won four in a day.

But in terms of popularity, none of them was a match for the diminutive Russian Olga Korbut, who stole hearts and minds in 1972 but won just two titles.

In 1976, the 14-year-old Nadia Comaneci achieved perfection in scoring terms when the judges awarded her seven 10s.

The first American to win an all-around title was the 4ft 9in Mary Lou Retton, who was successful in 1984 when the Russians stayed away but the Romanians did not.

No British gymnast has won an Olympic title, though we started out quite well when Walter Tysal won a silver in the all-around in 1908.

Technical details

There three Olympic disciplines: artistic, rhythmic and trampoline.

In artistic gymnastics, men compete on six apparatus: floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar. Women compete on four apparatus: vault, uneven bars, beam and floor.

There are eight teams competing in the team finals (for both men and women). Each team comprises six gymnasts with five competing on each apparatus and the top four scores counting towards the team total (preliminaries). For the final, each country nominates three gymnasts per apparatus with all three scores counting.

For the individual all-around final there are 24 competitors (for both men and women - with a maximum of 2 per nation). The gymnasts do not perform the apparatus in the same order. Each gymnast competes on every apparatus, with each score contributing to his or her overall score.

Rhythmic gymnastics is performed exclusively by women and is a combination of gymnastics and dance. The gymnasts perform choreographed movements with musical accompaniment using hand apparatus such as rope, hoop, ball, clubs and a ribbon.

Trampoline competitions have changed a great deal with advances in equipment design and materials used in trampolines and as competitions have grown the levels of skill and the degree of difficulty involved in some of the combinations have also grown.

Modern trampolines can propel athletes 30 feet into the air and with this increase in height so more twists and turns can be incorporated into each routine, including a range of double and triple somersaults and twists.

The Major Players

For many years the women's sport was dominated by tiny Eastern Europeans before the Americans enjoyed a golden period. But now the dominant country are China, winning an incredible 11 out of the 18 golds at the 2008 Games in Beijing. Japan remain a potent force, particularly on the men's side, and the 28 gold medals they have won in the sport makes it their second most successful in the Olympics behind judo.

Bluffer's guide

Tsukahara - a vault routine named after the Japanese gymnast Mitsuo Tsukahara which was deemed adventurous in its day, but now everyone does it.

Useless Information

George Eyser was the dominant gymnast at the 1904 Olympic Games in St Louis, winning the parallel bars and the vault, but the American did not enter the all-around competition. This was probably because it included a 100-yard run, and Eyser wasn’t very good at that - he had a wooden leg.