The Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) was founded in 1881, making it the world’s oldest international sport organisation.
Gymnastics has been contested since the inaugural modern Olympic Games in 1896.
Artistic competition
In artistic events (performed on an apparatus), men compete on the floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bars. Female gymnasts compete on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor. The competition includes all-round events and team events, also scored over each apparatus.
Perfect 10
Nadia Comeneci’s perfect score of 10 at the 1976 Montreal Games transformed the sport. By achieving the seemingly impossible seven times, the 14-year old Romanian raised standards to a new level.
Trampoline competition
Trampolining made its debut at the 2000 Sydney Games featuring both men’s and women’s individual events.
Rhythmic competition
Rhythmic gymnastics is a women-only event. The gymnasts, accompanied by music, perform on a 13 square-metre floor area with rope, hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon. In the individual event, they perform different routines with four of the five apparatus. In the team competition, teams of five perform together once using clubs and once with two team members using hoops and three using ribbons.
