Trials and Allies
Athens, 1896
When the modern Olympic Games opened in Athens in 1896, gymnastics was on the programme from the start. Only men competed. Events included the rings, pommel horse, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar, along with rope climbing.
The apparatus
Over time, the sport settled into the shape we know. Men compete on six apparatus: floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar. Women compete on four: vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. Each one tests a different mix of strength, balance, flexibility and nerve.
Women enter the arena
Women took part in Olympic gymnastics for the first time in 1928 in Amsterdam, in a team event. Individual apparatus events for women followed in the 1950s. The trials were slow: women had to win a place before they could win a medal.
More branches of the sport
Gymnastics grew into several disciplines. Rhythmic gymnastics, with ribbon, hoop, ball and clubs, joined the Olympics in 1984, and trampoline followed in 2000. Artistic gymnastics remained the best known.