Olympic Gymnastics

Gymnastics is one of the most popular and oldest sports in the world, and has existed for about 2000 years. The origin of the sport can be traced back to Greece, where athletes received physical training in a special field. In 1800, the Greek city of Athens hosted gymnastic tournaments, which included tumbling, rope climbing, and other interesting activities. Their love for gymnastics made them sponsor the ancient Olympic games. When the Roman's conquered Greece, they discovered that gymnastics was very valuable in their military training. However, soon after the fall of the Roman Empire, gymnastics vanished from the sport scene.
In the 1880s, gymnastic competitions started gaining importance and flourished in schools, athletic clubs and ethnic organizations across Europe. In 1896, the Olympic movement was revived at the first Olympics Games in Athens that led to establishing gymnastics as a regular event of the Olympics. Germany won most of the medals, with men from five countries competing in the horizontal bar, parallel bars, pommel horse, rings and vault.
In 1881, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) was formed. This organization established gymnastic as an international competition. In 1883, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) was formed in United States. In 1903, first international gymnastic event, after the 1896 Olympics was held in Antwerp, Belgium. The gymnasts hailed from Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. This event is now considered as the first World Championship. The first men's team competition was added and held in 1904 Olympics at St. Louis.
In 1924, the Olympics held in France began the form of modern gymnastics. In each gymnastic event, men started to compete for individual Olympic titles. During the 1928 Olympics, the first women's gymnastic team was introduced. The first women's event during 1928 Olympics was the team-combined exercise, where it was dominated by Netherlands. The first U.S. women's gymnastic team competed in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany.
In 1962, rhythmic gymnastics got recognition as a sport by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). In 1973, the United States became a part of rhythmic gymnastics in the Rhythmic World Championships. In 1970, the United States Gymnastics Federation, which is now formally called USA Gymnastics, was prepared to become the governing body of gymnastics. Olympic gymnastic is highly enjoyed by both performers and viewers and it has evolved as a colorful and most popular sport.