ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS

What sort of training is involved to become an Olympic gymnast?

Gymnasts decide that they are going to go to the Olympics when they are very young. Their parents basically decide that they are going to be an Olympic gymnast when the child is born. They endure very hard training. The beginning competitive gymnast trains from 4-10 hours a week, intermediate competitive gymnast trains 12-25 hours a week and elite gymnast may train 20-40 hours a week  

What happens in a gymnastics competition?

In a regular competition, gymnasts compete on four (or six for men’s) events. The different gymnastics clubs march in, and then they have about half an hour for general warm up. After that, they separate into their different groups to compete. When everyone has competed on each event, there is a break while the judges tally up everyone’s scores. Then, the results are announced. They call out usually the top eight gymnasts for each event, then the all around score (all of your scores added together).

Where did gymnastics originate?

Gymnastics starts in ancient Greece. Unfortunately, in 393 AD the Emperor Theodosius got rid of the Olympic Games, and the sport was forgotten. Johann Friedrich GutsMuth and Friedrich Ludwig Jahn created exercises for young men on different structures (or apparatus) which later became known as modern gymnastics. At the time, men’s gymnastics was more popular than woman’s gymnastics. Now, there are more women gymnasts.

How do gymnasts get judged?

When this sport first started, the scoring was based on a one to ten system. But in 2006, the scoring changed. Now, gymnasts can get higher than ten, depending on the difficulty of the routine.

What happens in artistic gymnastics?

In women’s gymnastics, they compete on four events, or apparatus which are the floor, vault, bars or beams. In men’s gymnastics, there are six events. These are pommel horse, parallel bars, rings, floor, high bar and vault. The gymnast performs a routine on each event, and then gets judged.

Is gymnastics dangerous?

Yes. More than half of all elite-level participants (national level) may eventually develop chronic injuries. In the United States, injury rates range from a high 56% for high school gymnasts to 23% for club gymnasts.