Arvin Jude P.

Garbo History of Gymnastics PE1 1:30 - 2:30

Gymnastics started as ancient civilizations doing strength and acrobatic exercises. The
word gymnastics comes from the Greek words “gymnos” and “gymnazo” meaning roughly to
train, to exercise naked. The verb had this meaning, because athletes in ancient times exercised
and competed without clothing. It came into use in the 1570s, from Latin gymnasticus, from
Greek gynmastikos "fond of or skilled in bodily exercise," from gymnazein "to exercise or train".

In the late 18th and early 19th century, Johann Friedrich GutsMuths and Friedrich
Ludwig Jahn, created exercises for boys and young men on apparatus they had designed that
ultimately led to what is considered modern gymnastics. Don Francisco Amorós y Ondeano
introduce educative gymnastic in France. Johann promoted the use of parallel bars, rings and
high bar in international competition.

The Federation of International Gymnastics (FIG) is the governing body of competitive

gymnastics. Its headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was founded on July 23, 1881 in
Liège, Belgium, making it the world’s oldest existing international sport organisation. Originally
called the European Federation of Gymnastics, it had three member countries, Belgium, France
and the Netherlands, until 1921, when non-European countries were admitted, and it was
renamed to its current name. By the end of the nineteenth century, men's gymnastics competition
was popular enough to be included in the first "modern" Olympic Games in 1896.

From then on until the early 1950s, both national and international competitions involved
a changing variety of exercises gathered under the rubric, gymnastics, that would seem strange to
today's audiences and that included for example, synchronized team floor calisthenics, rope
climbing, high jumping, running, and horizontal ladder.

During the 1920s, women organized and participated in gymnastics events. The first
women's Olympic competition was primitive, only involving synchronized calisthenics and track
and field. These games were held in 1928, in Amsterdam.

By 1954, Olympic Games apparatus and events for both men and women had been
standardized in modern format, and uniform grading structures had been agreed upon. Nadia
Comăneci received the first perfect score, at the 1976 Summer Olympics held in Montreal,
Canada. She was coached in Romania by coach, Béla Károlyi.

In 2006, a new points system for Artistic gymnastics was put into play. With an A Score
(or D score) being the difficulty score, which as of 2009 is based on the top 8 high scoring
elements in a routine. The B Score (or E Score), is the score for execution, and is given for how
well the skills are performed.