Athens,
23 August, Games of the XXVIII Olympiad. Women's artistic gymnastics:
Catalina PONOR of Romania competes on the balance beam during the
individual competition at the Olympic Sports Complex Indoor Hall.
Credit: Getty Images/Ezra Shaw
A perfect fusion of athletics and aesthetics, gymnastics ranks among the
defining sports of the Olympic Games. Mixing strength and agility with style and
grace, the high-flying acrobats have provided many of the most breathtaking
Olympic spectacles of the past quarter-century.
Nadia Comeneci's perfect 10 score at the 1976 Montreal Games, the first ever
awarded, remains the high-water mark for most gymnastics fans. The 14-year-old
Romanian achieved the seemingly impossible seven times in Montreal, a feat so
unexpected that the scoring technology was set up for only three digits. Her
10.00s were displayed as 1.00.
Gymnastics has a long, proud history. The sport can be traced back to ancient
Greece, where such skills featured in the ancient Olympic Games. Ancient Rome,
Persia, India and China practised similar disciplines, mostly aimed at preparing
young men for battle. The word itself derives from the Greek word gymnos,
meaning naked - dress requirements for athletes in those days were minimal, to
say the least.
Competition
In artistic events (performed on an apparatus), men compete in floor, pommel
horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bars. Female gymnasts compete
on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor. The competition includes
all-round events and team events, also scored over each apparatus.