101 Gymnastics
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History of Gymnastics

Gymnastics or the pre-cursor to modern gymnastics, it is thought, had its beginnings as early as 2000 years, but gymnastics as an officially competitive sport, is still relatively young at a few more more than 100 years old.

Gymnastics hads its competitive beginnings outside of the US and was later popularized in the US by ethnic gymnasts like Francis Lieber and Charles Beck in the 1830's. Given the obvious benefits of gymnastics, in terms of fostering good health and developing discipline, it did not take long for gymnastics to become a regular part of the sporting curriculum in US schools.

Despite gymnastics growing popularity as both a competitive and spectator sport, regular international competition did not really appear until the end of the nineteenth century. The year was 1896 and the event was the first holding of the modern Olympic Games, in Greece. But 15 years prior to this event, in 1881, the foundations for launching gymnastics onto the world stage were already being laid, beginning with the formation of the Federation of International Gymnastics (FIG). The Federation of International Gymnastics was almost solely responsible for pioneering modern international gymnastics.

While gymnastics was still building respect and recognition in the international sporting community, gymnastics in the United States came under the protection of the American Athletic Union (AAU), formed in 1883, which was responsible for fostering the development of several sports (gymnastics now has its Us body with the formation of what is now known as USA Gymnastics in 1970). Soon after, numerous gymnastics championships began to appear and provided a venue for gymnastics clubs to compete against each other. Gymnastics now had a place along side the traditional athletic disciplines both in the USA and internationally.

The first test of gymnastics as a truly international sport was the 1896 Olympics in Greece. Despite the growing popularity of gymnastics in the US and the formation of the AAU 13 years earlier, the games were dominated by European countries, in particular Germany, who came away with nearly every medal in the gymnastics event. There was only mens competition and the disciplines included rings, vault, pommel horse, horizontal bar and parallel bars, similar to todays competition except with the notable absence of the floor - there was also no team event.

Despite the success of the gymnastics event at the 1896 Olympics, it was another 7 years before the next International event was held. The event, now thought of as the first world championships, was held in Antwerp, Belgium in 1903 and was attended mostly by European countries. Gymnastics as an international sport was now assured.

As you may imagine, gymnastics, like most other sports has evolved to become the highly respected and spectacular sport it is today. But it may surprise you to learn that gymnastics underwent some dramatic changes between the time of its international debut in 1896 and today. For example, in 1930, the 9th world championships were held in Luxemburg and included events now considered separate sports unto themselves. Events such as the long jump, 100 meter dash, shot put and pole vault. It also included events that have completely disappeared from the world championships athletic program, like the rope climb. Indeed, during this time the gymnastics event would have been better suited to modern day decatheletes and pentatheletes.

The identity of gymnastics continued to develop as time went on. As international competition continued to increase in all forms of competitive sport, international gymnastics competition dropped many of the superfluous events and by the world championships in 1954 they had all completely disappeared.

In contrast, Olympic competition has been the same as it is today (with the exception of changes in equipment specifications) since the France Olympics of 1924. And by the following Olympics in Amsterdam in 1928, womens gymnastics was also officially introduced as an Olympic sport. The innaugural event was dominated by the host nation, Netherlands - the US did not field a womens Olympic gymnastics team until 8 years later at the 1936 games in Berlin, the so called "Hitler Games".

Another notable change in international gymnastics has been the introduction of womens rhythmic gymnastics. It did not receive recognition as an international sport from the Federation of International Gymnastics until 1962. Soon after, the first world rhythmic gymnastics championships were held in Budapest, Hungary the following year. Again the the US were slow to field a team, not sending a team to compete at the world rhythmic gymnastics championships until the eleventh year of competition in 1973.

Eventhough rhythmic gymnastics made its international debut in 1963, some of todays young athletes may be shocked to learn the individual all-round rhythmic gymnastics competition was not an Olymic sport until the LA games in 1984 and the rhythmic group event was not a medal event until the 1996 games in Atlanta.

Gymnastics continues to develop and grow in popularity, both as a competitive sport and spectator sport. Its beauty captures the attention of yound and old around the world, whether they have a background in gymnastics or not. And as the level of competition heads ever upward, so does the level of commitment and sacrifice expected of our young athletes, a burden far to great to be laid solely across their young shoulders. As such, the importance of ancillary support from family and friends is paramount to the success, and of course more importantly, the happiness of our young gymnasts.

With the above sentiment in mind, I have written a book especially for the parents of young gymnasts. Few sports tax their athletes like gymnastics and few sports are dominated at an international level by athletes as young as 12 and 13 years old. The stress, expectations and physical demands are tremendous and without proper support they will never cope. I figured if my child is prepared to practice for 6 hours a week to achieve success, as a parent I can at least take the time to learn how to provide the 'right kind of support'. Many months later my efforts culminated in the writing of my book entitled 'Gymnastics Secrets Revealed' - written especially for the parents of gymnasts. To learn more click here Gymnastics Secrets Revealed!

Written by Murray Hughes
Author of Gymnastics Secrets Revealed!
http://www.gymnasticssecretsrevealed.com/101gymnastics.html