The Ordinary World

Before it had a name

People have always run, climbed, jumped and tumbled. Art from ancient Egypt and from Minoan Crete shows acrobats and athletes, and the Minoan frescoes of bull-leaping show people vaulting over the back of a bull. This is the ordinary world of our hero: movement as training, play and ceremony, with no rulebook and no scoreboard.

Greece gives it a name

The word "gymnastics" comes from the Greek gymnos, meaning naked, because Greek athletes trained and competed without clothes. The gymnasion was the place where young men trained their bodies, and also where they studied and talked. Fitness was part of education and citizenship.

The ancient Olympic Games, traditionally dated to 776 BCE, celebrated running, wrestling, jumping and throwing. Training for these sports built the strength, balance and control that gymnastics would later turn into a sport of its own.

Then a long quiet

For many centuries the hero stays at home. Physical training continued mainly as preparation for war and for games, and organised gymnastics as we know it did not yet exist. Something had to call it away. Turn the page to meet the call.