Artistic gymnastics
Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses, with less time for vaulting. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, which designs the code of points and regulates all aspects of international elite competition. Within individual countries, gymnastics is regulated by national federations, such as Gymnastics Canada, British Gymnastics, USA Gymnastics. Artistic gymnastics is a popular spectator sport at many competitions, including the Summer Olympic Games; the gymnastic system was mentioned in works by ancient authors, such as Homer and Plato. It included many disciplines that would become separate sports, such as swimming, wrestling and riding, was used for military training. In its present form, gymnastics evolved in Bohemia and what is now at the beginning of the 19th century, the term "artistic gymnastics" was introduced at the same time to distinguish free styles from the ones used by the military.
The German educator Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, known as the father of gymnastics, invented several apparatus, including the horizontal bar and parallel bars, which are used to this day. Two of the first gymnastics clubs were Sokols. In 1881, the FIG was founded, it remains the governing body of international gymnastics, it included only three countries and was called the European Gymnastics Federation until 1921, when the first non-European countries joined the federation and it was reorganized into its present form. Gymnastics was included in the program of the 1896 Summer Olympics, but women have been allowed to participate in the Olympics only since 1928; the World Championships, held since 1903, were open only to men until 1934. Since that time, two branches of artistic gymnastics have developed: women's artistic gymnastics and men's artistic gymnastics. Unlike men's and women's branches of many other sports, WAG and MAG differ in apparatus used at major competitions and in techniques. Women's gymnastics entered the Olympics as a team event in 1928 and was included in the 12th gymnastics world championships in 1950.
Individual women were recognized in the all-around as early as the tenth world championships in 1934. Two years after the full women's program was introduced at the 1950 World Championships, it was added to the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki and the format has remained to this day; the earliest champions in women's gymnastics tended to be in their 20s, most had studied ballet for years before entering the sport. Larisa Latynina, the first great Soviet gymnast, won her first Olympic all-around medal at the age of 22 and her second at 26. Věra Čáslavská of Czechoslovakia, who followed Latynina to become a two-time Olympic all-around champion, was 22 before she started winning gold medals. In the 1970s, the average age of Olympic gymnasts began to decrease. While it was not unheard-of for teenagers to compete in the 1960s—Ludmilla Tourischeva was 16 at her first Olympics in 1968—younger female gymnasts became the norm as the sport's difficulty increased. Smaller, lighter girls excelled in the more challenging acrobatic elements required by the redesigned Code of Points.
The 58th Congress of the FIG—held in July 1980, just before the Olympics—decided to raise the minimum age for senior international competition from 14 to 15. The change, which came into effect two years did not eliminate the problem. By the time of the 1992 Summer Olympics, elite competitors consisted exclusively of "pixies"—underweight, prepubertal teenagers—and concerns were raised about athletes' welfare; the FIG responded to this trend by raising the minimum age for international elite competition to 16 in 1997. This, combined with changes in the Code of Points and evolving popular opinion in the sport, led to the return of older gymnasts. While the average elite female gymnast is still in her middle to late teens and of below-average height and weight, it is common to see gymnasts competing well into their 20s. At the 2004 Olympics, both the second-place American team and the third-place Russians were captained by women in their mid-20s. At the 2008 Olympics, the silver medalist on vault, Oksana Chusovitina, was a 33-year-old mother.
She received another silver medal on vault at the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo, when she was 36. At the age of 41, Chusovitina competed at her 7th consecutive Olympics at the 2016 Olympics, a world record for gymnastics. Both male and female gymnasts are judged on all events for execution, degree of difficulty, overall presentation skills. Vault The vault is an event as well as the primary piece of equipment used in that event. Unlike most of the gymnastic events employing apparatuses, the vault is common to both men's and women's competition, with little difference between the two categories. A gymnast sprints down a runway, a maximum of 25 m in length, before leaping onto a springboard. Harnessing the energy of the spring, the gymnast directs his or her body hands-first towards the vault. Body position is maintained while "popping" the vaulting platform; the gymnast rotates his or her body so as to land in a standing position on the far side of the vault. In advanced gymnastics, multiple twists and somersaults may be added before landing.
Successful vaults depend on the speed of the run, the length of the hurdle, the power the gymnast generates from the legs and shoulder girdle, kinesthetic awareness
Horizontal bar
The horizontal bar known as the high bar, is an apparatus used by male gymnasts in artistic gymnastics. It traditionally consists of a cylindrical metal bar, rigidly held above and parallel to the floor by a system of cables and stiff vertical supports. Gymnasts wear suede leather grips while performing on the bar. Current elite-level competition uses a more elastic fiberglass core rail similar in material to the rails used in the women's uneven bars and men's parallel bars apparatus; the gymnastics elements performed on the horizontal bar are regulated by a Code of Points. A bar routine, a sequence of several bar skills includes giants with various grips, in-bar work, turns and regrasp skills, a dismount; the horizontal bar is considered one of the most exciting gymnastics events due to the power exhibited by gymnasts during giant swings and spectacular aerial releases and dismounts that include multiple flips or twists and, in some cases, airborne travel over the bar. The horizontal bar was used by acrobats in ancient Greece and Rome, on through the Middle Ages.
It was introduced into gymnastics by Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths in his 1793 book Gymnastik für die Jugend, which in turn inspired further use and development by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn in 1811. The mechanical dimensions of the horizontal bar apparatus are specified in FIG's Apparatus Norms brochure: Height: 278 cm Length: 240 cm Diameter of the bar: 2.8 cm The manner in which the horizontal bar is grasped by a gymnast is called the grip. Each grip is used for a particular set of skills; when gymnasts compete on the horizontal bar they are required by the Code of Points to use specific grips. The overhand grip, or regular grip, is the standard grip used for the horizontal bar. On the overhand grip the hands circle the bar with the backs of the hands facing the gymnast. A dorsal grip is an overhand grip employed while the gymnast's legs pass through the arms into a "skin the cat" position; the overhand grip is used in giant swings, the dorsal grip in German Giant Swings. The reverse grip and underhand grip, is the opposite of the overhand grip.
The palms of the hands face the gymnast. It is similar to the grip used in chin-ups. Forward giant swings are among the skills; the elgrip is an underhand grip, In an elgrip or L-Grip or eagle grip a gymnasts hands are turned 180 degrees outward from an over grip. Thumbs are in the opposite direction of an undergrip; this position requires flexible shoulders to swing comfortably. The mixed grip is a combination of the underhand grips with one hand in each position; this grip can be used to gain more height on release skills
Floor (gymnastics)
In gymnastics, the floor refers to a specially prepared exercise surface, considered an apparatus. It is used by both male and female gymnasts; the event in gymnastics performed on floor is called floor exercise. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is FX. A spring floor is used in all of gymnastics to provide more bounce. Cheerleading uses spring floors for practice; the sprung floor used for indoor athletics, however, is designed to reduce bounce. The apparatus originated as a'free exercise' for men similar to the floor exercise of today, it wasn't until 1948. Most competitive gymnastics floors are spring floors, they contain springs and/or a rubber foam and plywood combination which make the floor bouncy, soften the impact of landings, enable the gymnast to gain height when tumbling. Floors have designated perimeters—the "out of bounds" area is always indicated by a border of white tape or a differently colored mat; the allowed time for a floor exercise is up to 70 seconds for males and up to 90 seconds for females.
Unlike men, women always perform routines to music. Measurements of the apparatus are published by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique in the Apparatus Norms brochure; the dimensions are the same for female competitors. Performance area: 1,200 centimetres x 1,200 centimetres ± 3 centimetres Diagonals: 1,697 centimetres ±5 centimetres Border: 100 centimetres Safety zone: 200 centimetres Floor exercise routines last up to 90 seconds; the routine is choreographed in advance, is composed of acrobatic and dance elements. This event, above all others, allows the gymnast to express her personality through her dance and musical style; the moves that are choreographed in the routine must be precise, in sync with the music and entertaining. At the international elite level of competition, the composition of the routine is decided by the gymnast and her coaches. Many gymnasiums and national federations hire special choreographers to design routines for their gymnasts. Well-known gymnastics choreographers include Lisa Luke, Adriana Pop, Nancy Roche, Geza Pozar.
Others opt to choreograph their FX routines in-house. Some gymnasts adopt a new FX every year, it is not uncommon for coaches to modify a routine's composition between meets if it is used for an extended length of time. It is uncommon for gymnasts to use more than one different FX routine in the same season but it is not unheard of, like at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta for instance, Russian Dina Kotchetkova's routine in the FX event finals had different music and composition than that of her all-around exercise; the music used for the routine is the choice of the gymnast and her coaches. It may be of any known musical style and played with any instrument, but it may not include spoken words or sung lyrics of any kind. Vocalization is allowed, it is the responsibility of the coach to bring the music to every competition on CD. Scores are based on difficulty, demonstration of required elements, overall performance quality. Deductions are taken for poor form and execution, lack of required elements, falls.
The gymnast is expected to use the entire floor area for her routine, to tumble from one corner of the mat to the other. Steps outside the designated perimeters of the floor incur deductions; the gymnast will incur a deduction if there are lyrics in the music. For detailed information on score tabulation, please see the Code of Points article Routines can include up to four tumbling lines, several dance elements and leaps. A floor routine must consist of at least: Connection of two dance elements Saltos forward/sideways and backward Double saltos Saltos with a minimum of one full twist A floor exercise for men is made up of acrobatic elements, combined with other gymnastic elements of strength and balance and handstands; the routine must be choreographed forming a harmonious rhythmic exercise using the whole floor area. The whole routine may last no longer than 70 seconds; as with other gymnastic events, scores are based on difficulty and overall performance quality. Deductions are taken for lack of flexibility, not using the whole floor area, pausing before tumbling lines, using the same diagonal more than twice.
Handstand skills must show gymnasts' intent clearly. A floor routine should contain at least one element from all element groups: I. Non-acrobatic elements II. Acrobatic elements forward III. Acrobatic elements backwards, & Arabian elementsThe dismount can come from any element group other than group I. Floor exercises is a category in the rhythmic gymnastics, but it considers only the youngest gymnasts, up to 10 years old, who perform their routines freehand, which means without any apparatus, their length and content is still specified and differs in each age category. Acro dance, which incorporates many FX elements in a dance context. Gym floor cover Performance surface Sprung floor Wushu, which uses a floor. Acrobatic gymnastics Tumbling Drills The 2006 Code of Points US Gym Net's glossary of floor skills US Gym Net's glossary of hops and leaps FM Online - Floor Instructions Description of gymnastics technique by animation
Gymnastics at the 1964 Summer Olympics
At the 1964 Summer Olympics, fourteen different artistic gymnastics events were contested, eight for men and six for women. All events were held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium in Tokyo from October 18 through October 23; the scoring in all the events was the same, as for gymnastics events at the previous Olympics. Six best gymnasts on the apparatus in the team competition qualified for that apparatus finals; each of the women's events was judged by five judges. The highest and lowest marks were dropped and an average of three remaining ones constituted the score; each of the men's events were judged by four judges. The highest and lowest marks were dropped and an average of two remaining ones constituted the score. Gymnastics at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games. Sports-reference.com Official Olympic Report www.gymnasticsresults.com www.gymn-forum.net
Nadia Comăneci
Nadia Elena Comăneci is a Romanian retired gymnast and a five-time Olympic gold medalist, all in individual events. Comăneci is the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10.0 at the Olympic Games, at the same Games, she received six more perfect 10s en route to winning three gold medals. At the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, she won two more gold medals and attained two more perfect 10s. During her career, Comăneci won nine Olympic medals and four World Artistic Gymnastics Championship medals. Comăneci is one of the world's best-known gymnasts and is credited with popularizing the sport around the globe. In 2000, she was named as one of the Athletes of the 20th Century by the Laureus World Sports Academy, she has lived in the United States since 1989 and is married to American Olympic gold medal gymnast Bart Conner. Nadia Elena Comăneci was born on 12 November 1961, in Onești, a small town in the Carpathian Mountains, in Bacău County, Romania, in the historical region of Western Moldavia.
Comăneci was born to Gheorghe and Ștefania Comăneci, has a younger brother. Her parents separated in the 1970s, her father moved to Bucharest, she and her younger brother Adrian were raised in the faith of the Romanian Orthodox Church. In a 2011 interview, Nadia's mother Ștefania said that she enrolled her daughter into gymnastics classes because she was a child, so full of energy and active that she was difficult to manage. Comăneci graduated from Politehnica University of Bucharest with a degree in sports education that gave her the qualifications to coach gymnastics. Comăneci began gymnastics in kindergarten with a local team called Flacăra, with coaches Duncan and Munteanu. At age 6, she was chosen to attend Béla Károlyi's experimental gymnastics school after Károlyi spotted a friend and her turning cartwheels in a schoolyard. Károlyi was looking for gymnasts he could train from a young age and saw the two girls during recess; when recess ended, the girls ran inside. Károlyi went around the classrooms trying to find them, spotted Comăneci.
Comăneci was training with Károlyi by the time she was seven years old, in 1968. She was one of the first students at the gymnastics school established in Onești by Béla and his wife, Márta. Unlike many of the other students at the Károlyi school, Comăneci was able to commute from home for many years because she lived in the town. In 1970, she began competing as a member of her hometown team and became the youngest gymnast to win the Romanian Nationals. In 1971, she participated in her first international competition, a dual junior meet between Romania and Yugoslavia, winning her first all-around title and contributing to the team gold. For the next few years, she competed as a junior in numerous national contests in Romania and dual meets with countries such as Hungary and Poland. At the age of 11, in 1973, she won the all-around gold, as well as the vault and uneven bars titles, at the Junior Friendship Tournament, an important international meet for junior gymnasts. Comăneci's first major international success came at the age of 13, when she nearly swept the 1975 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Skien, winning the all-around and gold medals on every event but the floor exercise, in which she placed second.
She continued to enjoy success that year, winning the all-around at the "Champions All" competition and placing first in the all-around, vault and bars at the Romanian National Championships. In the pre-Olympic test event in Montreal, Comăneci won the all-around and the balance beam golds, as well as silvers in the vault and bars behind accomplished Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim, one of her greatest rivals over the next five years. In March 1976, Comăneci competed in the inaugural edition of the American Cup at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, she received rare scores of 10, which signified a perfect routine without any deductions, for her vault in the preliminary stage and for her floor exercise routine in the final of the all-around competition which she went on to win. During this event, Comăneci first met American gymnast Bart Conner. While he remembered this meeting, Comăneci noted in her memoirs that she had to be reminded of it in life, she was 14 and Conner was celebrating his 18th birthday.
They both were photographed together. A few months they participated in the 1976 Summer Olympics that Comăneci dominated while Conner was a marginal figure. Conner stated, "Nobody knew me, didn't pay attention to me." At Montreal received four of her seven 10s on the uneven bars. The apparatus demands such a spectacular burst of energy in such a short time—only 23 seconds—that it attracts the most fanfare, but it is on the beam. She scored three of her seven 10s on the beam, her hands speak there as much as her body. Her pace magnifies her balance, her command and distance hush the crowd. On 18 July 1976, Comăneci made history at the Montreal Olympics. During the team compulsory portion of the competition, she was awarded the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics for her routine on the uneven bars. However, Omega SA—the traditional Olympics scoreboard manufacturer— was led to believe that it was impossible to receive a perfect ten, thus the scoreboard was not programmed to display that score. Comăneci's perfect 10 thus appeared as "1.00," the only means by which the judges could indicate that she had indeed received a 10.
During the remainder of the Montreal Game
Handstand
A handstand is the act of supporting the body in a stable, inverted vertical position by balancing on the hands. In a basic handstand the body is held straight with arms and legs extended, with hands spaced shoulder-width apart and the legs together. There are many variations of handstands, all of which require the performer to possess adequate balance and upper body strength. A athlete must always have their head in. Handstands are performed in many athletic activities, including acro dance, circus, yoga and gymnastics; some variation of a handstand is performed on every gymnastic apparatus, many tumbling skills pass through a handstand position during their execution. Breakdancers kicks. Armstand dives—a category found in competitive platform diving—are dives that begin with a handstand. Swimmers perform underwater handstands as a game, with their heads and bodies underwater with their legs and feet extended above the surface having contests with the winner being the person who can remain in an underwater handstand the longest.
Handstands are known by various other names. In hatha yoga, the handstand is known as Adho Mukha Vrksasana translating to Downward-facing Tree Pose. In capoeira it is named bananeira. There is one basic handstand style in modern gymnastics: straight back "Different Styles of Handstands". Retrieved 2010-09-29. </ref> Straight-back style is employed when the aesthetics of straight body lines are desired and feasible. In many cases. All basic gymnastic handstands have these characteristics: Straight arms with hands placed on the ground shoulder-width apart. Straight legs, held together and tight. Pointed toes so as to continue the lines of the legs. Head in ears always hid by your arms. In addition, straight-back handstands have these characteristics: Tucked head as if standing upright. Straight spine, with hips pushed forward. If performed while lying flat, this would cause the small of the back to contact ground. Handstand "freezes" are common in breakdance, in which dancers strive to assume visually interesting body shapes that are not subject to formal rules.
Common handstand variations include: Straight legs held in a side or front split. Stag split, in which legs are front split with bent knees. Back arched, with bent knees and toes touching the back of the head. Hollowback, with hyperextension of the back so that legs are held further back than the head. One-handed, in which only one hand contacts the ground. Handstand pushups, in which one raises and lowers the body while standing inverted on the hands. Straddle split handstand Hand balancing Hand walking Head stand List of asanas
Ágnes Keleti
Ágnes Keleti is a Hungarian-Israeli retired Olympic and world champion artistic gymnast and coach. While representing Hungary in the Summer Olympics, she won 10 Olympic medals including five gold medals, three silver medals, two bronze medals, is considered to be one of the most successful Jewish Olympic athletes of all time. Keleti holds more Olympic medals than any other individual with Israeli citizenship, more Olympic medals than any other Jew, except Mark Spitz, she was the most successful athlete at the 1956 Summer Olympics. In 1957, Keleti immigrated to Israel, where she resides. Keleti is Jewish, was born in Budapest, Hungary, she began gymnastics at the age of 4 and, by 16, was the Hungarian National Champion in gymnastics. Over the course of her career, between 1937 and 1956, she won the Championships title ten times. Keleti was considered a top prospect for the Hungarian team at the 1940 Olympics, but the escalation of World War II canceled both the 1940 and the 1944 Games, she was expelled from her gymnastics club in 1941 for being a non-Aryan.
Keleti was forced to go into hiding to survive the war. Because she had heard a rumor that married women were not taken to labor camps, she hastily married Istvan Sarkany in 1944. Sarkany was a Hungarian gymnast of the 1930s who achieved national titles and took part in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, they divorced in 1950. Keleti survived the war by purchasing and using identity papers of a Christian girl and working as a maid in a small village, her mother and sister were saved by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. Her father and other relatives were killed by gassing in Auschwitz concentration camp by the Nazis. In the winter of 1944-45, during the Siege of Budapest by Soviet forces near the end of World War II, Keleti would in the mornings collect bodies of those who had died and place them in a mass grave. After the war, Keleti resumed training. In 1946, she won her first Hungarian championship. In 1947, she won the Central European gymnastics title, she qualified for the 1948 Summer Olympics, but missed the competition due to tearing a ligament in her ankle.
She is listed on the Official List of Gymnastic Participants as Agnes Sarkany. At the World University Games of 1949 she won four gold, one silver, one bronze medal, she continued training and competed at the Olympics for the first time at the age of 31 at the 1952 Games. She earned four medals: gold in the floor exercise, silver in the team competition, bronze in the team portable apparatus event and the uneven bars. Keleti continued on to the 1954 World Championships, where she won on the uneven bars, becoming world champion. At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Keleti won six medals including gold medals in three of the four individual event finals: floor and balance beam, placed second in the all-around; the Hungarian team second in the team competition. At the age of 35, Keleti became the oldest female gymnast to win gold; the Soviet Union invaded Hungary during the 1956 Olympics. Keleti, along with 44 other athletes from the Hungarian delegation, decided to remain in Australia and received political asylum.
Keleti emigrated to Israel in 1957, competing in the 1957 Maccabiah Games, was able to send for her mother and sister. In 1959, she married Hungarian physical education teacher Robert Biro whom she met in Israel, they had two sons and Rafael. Following her retirement from competition, Keleti worked as a physical education instructor at Tel Aviv University, for 34 years at the Wingate Institute for Sports in Netanya, she coached and worked with Israel's national gymnastics team well into the 1990s. As of 2005, she lives in Israel. Keleti has been the oldest Hungarian Olympic champion since Sándor Tarics died on 21 May 2016, she became the oldest living Olympic champion when Lydia Wideman died on 13 April 2019. Keleti was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1981, the Hungarian Sports Hall of Fame in 1991, the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 2001, the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2017, she was announced laureate of the Israel Prize in the field of sports.
List of Eastern Bloc defectors List of Jews in sports List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games List of Olympic female gymnasts for Hungary List of top Olympic gymnastics medalists Ágnes Keleti at the International Federation of Gymnastics List of competitive results "The Forgotten Olympians" at the Wayback Machine
