Gymnastics Artistic

Artistic gymnastics is composed of a number of individual competitions on different apparatus, as well as a team competition involving gender-specific apparatus. Each piece of apparatus requires different skills. Men compete across the floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal bar, while women’s events include the vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise. Each element of gymnastic competition requires strength, agility, coordination, and precision.

Up until 2004, gymnastic routines at the Games were evaluated with a maximum of 10 points, but from 2005 the mode of scoring changed to a combination of a D score (difficulty/content of the exercise) and an E score (execution) to allow for a greater variation between athletes’ performances.

Changes to the scoring system were first considered following the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games, when Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci became the first competitor in history to earn a perfect score of 10.0 for her routine on the uneven bars during the team competition.

Balance Beam

In this women-only event, a suede-clad beam measuring just 10cm in width and 5 metres in length provides the stage for spellbinding 90-second routines that include turns, leaps and other gravity-defying acrobatic elements. 

Rings

A male-only event, the Rings has its competitors demonstrate incredible upper body strength, gripping an 18cm suspended ring in each hand and presenting routines that include a range of controlled swings, handstands, and static positions – all while keeping the rings themselves as still as possible. 

Uneven Bars

Women competing in this event perform on a pair of flexible fibreglass bars positioned as high as 2.5 metres from the ground, building spectacular routines from balanced handstands, swings, and flying transitions between the bars. 

Pommel Horse

A crowd favourite, this discipline is based around a padded horse-like body with two sturdy handles. Gymnasts compete in technically demanding routines that can include turns, handstands and other balanced positions, all interspersed with the whirling of straightened legs and pointed feet in a circular motion, all the while maintaining good form and balance. 

Vault

Both men and women compete in the Vault, an exciting event which requires them to build up speed in a sprint before propelling themselves from a springboard, vaulting over a platform hands-first, completing mind-boggling flips and twists, and finally landing in a stable and upright position. 

Fighting Chalk

You might have noticed gymnasts in these events dusting their hands with clouds of white powder before competing. This is a type of powdered chalk, and has the function of absorbing sweat from the athletes’ hands – minimizing the risk of slipping off – while at the same time allowing them to swing freely around the apparatus.