Olympic-sized Bites: Gymnastics (Artistic)
Gymnastics is one of the most popular attractions at the Olympics. As a sport it is unique because of the precision, training, discipline and hard work that is required of the participant. It is very graceful, but is just as strenuous as any other sport and needs much practice. Both men and women compete in the Gymnastics.
Gymnastics is contested in 2 parts- artistic and rhythmic. Artistic gymnastics involves performance of short 30 to 90 second routines. It is one of the most popular spectator sports at the Summer Olympic Games, and in numerous other competitive events. Points are awarded on a 10 point scale with a perfect 10 the most coveted score.
Training for the sport begins at an early age. Many of the current gymnasts in the Olympics have been learning since the age of 5 or 6.
The history
Gymnastics was used to train people for sports in Ancient Greece about 20,000 years ago. It was never classified as a sport in the ancient Olympic Games. Because there was a lot of interest, men’s gymnastics was introduced in the Olympics in 1896 as part of the first modern Olympic Games. Women’s gymnastics was introduced first in 1928 at the Amsterdam Olympics.
Men compete in 6 events - Vault, Floor, Pommel Horse, High bar, Rings and Parallel bars while women compete in 4 events - Beam, Vault, Bars and Floor.
At the Olympics, gymnastics is a team sport. However, each gymnast competes individually to earn a score. Then scores of all the gymnasts are combined to get a team score
Famous Gymnasts
One can certainly say that gymnastics is very popular considering the number of gymnasts that have become household names. Nadia Comaneci of Romania certainly charmed the world being the first one to score a perfect 10 with her impeccable routine at the Olympics. Several others including Mary Lou Retton, Shawn Johnson and Kohei Uchimura, are great names in the sport.
Predictions
It is a tough sport to predict. At the 2008 Olympics, Team China surprised the world by taking the Gold in both the Men and Women segment despite strong contention from veterans - Russia, Romania and the USA and Japan.
Predictions: All eyes will be on the US, Russian and Chinese teams for this year for the top three spots
In Part 2 we will take a look at Rhythmic gymnastics…
I'm not in Gymnastics right now, and i wasn't before but i can do a front flip and land it (only on my trampolien) , i can do a cartwheel, one handed cartwheel, a backbend, and a roundoff.
OMG, I love gymnastics. I am really good at floor exercise. I love Mckayla Marony.
This article was informational and inspiring! Great article, Diamond!
Gymnastics is not for me!!
YEAH!! i'm SSOO glad Gabby Douglas won! did anybody other than me watch the all-around finals last night?
It has been 16 years since USA won a gold medal for this sport. I wish I could see the magnificent 7.
Oh my goodness!!! Gabby won! I felt so bad for Ally though.
Did anybody else watch it? Gabby's mom was so happy.
Last night the gymnastics was so sad and yet happy. I felt so bad for the Russian team. I am glad that my team won though.
I LOVE watching gymnastics. I was so happy for Great Britain for winning a medal in gymnastics after 100 years! Still, go team USA!!! Great job, Diamond. :)