All About Gymnastics: From Leotards and Basic Skills to Competitions and the Olympics

Gymnastics is a popular type of sport that focuses on physical strength, agility, and artistry. Performing at a high level, like in the Olympics, requires years of training, with many competitors beginning to learn gymnastics as young as age 2. Gymnastics consists of three disciplines: artistic, rhythmic, and trampoline. Artistic gymnastics is actually the type that’s less artistic; it’s the one Americans most commonly think of when they think of gymnastics, including events like the vault, the balance beam, the pommel horse, and the floor exercise. Famous gymnasts like Simone Biles, Kerri Strug, and Mary Lou Retton won Olympic gold in artistic gymnastics. Rhythmic gymnastics combines athleticism and dance to create expressive routines incorporating different props, such as a ball, a hoop, or a ribbon attached to a stick. And trampoline, the most recently added Olympic gymnastics discipline, consists of acrobatic jumps and flips performed on a trampoline.

• Artistic Gymnastics: Learn about the history of artistic gymnastics and its rules from the official website of the Olympics.
• Rhythmic Gymnastics: The Federation Internationale de Gymnastique, the international gymnastics governing body, outlines the basics of rhythmic gymnastics and its major world competitions.
• The Bizarre and Utterly American History of Trampolining: Find out more about this type of gymnastics and how it became part of the Olympics.
• Gymnastics as Exercise: This page gives a good introduction for those considering taking up gymnastics as a way to get a good workout.
• Simone Biles Cements Status as Greatest Gymnast: Simone Biles is the most decorated gymnast of all time, earning more than three dozen gold metals in international competition.
• Alexei Nemov: This Russian gymnast won multiple Olympic medals and led the Russians to their first team gold.
• Magnificent Seven Reflects on Their Historic Gold: The 1996 American women’s artistic gymnastics team was the first to win gold at the Olympics.
• Kerri Strug’s Iconic Olympic Moment: Kerri Strug stuck the landing on her final vault with two torn ligaments in her ankle to clinch the gold for her team.
• Mary Lou Retton: In 1984, Mary Lou Retton became the first American woman to win all-around gold at the Olympics.
• Evgenia Kanaeva: A Dominant Force in Rhythmic Gymnastics: Russian gymnast Evgenia Kanaeva is the only rhythmic gymnast to have won two all-around Olympic gold medals.
• Nadia Comaneci’s Perfect 10: Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci was the first ever to earn a perfect score of 10 in Olympic competition.
• The Perfect 10 and the Man Who Fought to Change Gymnastics Scoring: Following Comaneci’s feat in 1976, an increasing number of gymnasts began earning 10s, drawing attention to the problems that come with capping scores at 10 and not building in rewards for increased difficulty.
• Dong Makes History on Trampoline: China’s Dong Dong became the first to earn four trampoline medals in four Olympic Games in 2021.
• Nastia Liukin Reveals Ten Fashion Rules Every U.S. Gymnast Must Follow: American gymnasts can show their personality a bit in their leotards for individual events, but women have to make sure to keep their bra straps hidden under the top of their costume.
• What Do Men Wear for Gymnastics? Male gymnasts wear leotards like women do, but they often wear stirrup pants or shorts as well.
• What’s the Difference Between Rhythmic and Artistic Gymnastics? Rhythmic gymnastics focuses more on artistic presentation, while artistic gymnastics is more precise and technical. However, both disciplines require incredible amounts of strength and skill.
• A History of Gymnastics, From Ancient Greece to the Present: Gymnastics has been an Olympic sport since the beginning of the modern Olympics, but it’s been a form of athletic competition for far longer.
• Another Gymnastics Skill Once Called Impossible Now Called Biles: Simone Biles has five different skills named after her, meaning that she was the first to successfully perform those skills in an international competition.
• 11 Female Gymnasts With Skills Named After Them: Some of the world’s most famous gymnasts were also the first to execute moves in competition that would later be named after them.
• Before Simone Biles, These Women Broke Barriers: High-level gymnastics has been dominated by white competitors for many years, but a series of medal-winning black women have paved the way for greater diversity in the sport.
• Components of Men’s Artistic Gymnastics: Male gymnasts compete in six different events in international competition.
• Gymnastics 101: Scoring: Events in gymnastics are scored using a system that combines how well an athlete executes their routine with how difficult it is.
• Olga Korbut’s Banned “Dead Loop”: Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut performed a risky move in the 1972 Olympics that would subsequently be banned from competition.
• Ten Gymnastics Skills From the Past That Aren’t Performed Anymore: Some skills are banned from competition because they’re too dangerous, while others have just fallen out of favor.
• Long Dominated by Russia, Rhythmic Gymnastics Rising in U.S.: American gymnastics has long been dominated by artistic gymnasts, but in recent years, rhythmic gymnastics has been getting more attention.
• “I Never Became an Olympian”: Rhythmic gymnast Jasmine Kerber shares her experience of becoming a national champion but having to accept that she wouldn’t go on to compete at the Olympics.
• Women’s Gymnastics Is Changing in More Ways Than One: While gymnastics used to be dominated by young, white girls, today’s top-tier gymnasts are more diverse as well as older.