Flipping Legends: Women’s Olympic Gymnastics
Fascinating facts, impressive stats and wonderful women who have dominated the vast world of gymnastics
Gymnastics was introduced at the first Olympic Games of Athens in 1896. The grace, style, elegance, and strength that a gymnast needs to perform at their best is matched only by the required mental fortitude to fight through inevitable pain. Complex routines have been practised and ingrained in the minds of young gymnasts, with the belief that someday they will be Olympic gymnast champions. At the Tokyo Olympic Games there will be many eyes and ears watching the gymnastics portion of the Games. Women’s rhythmic and artistic gymnastics are events at the Olympics that some countries are stronger at than others, and therefore, earn most of their medal count in these sports.
Artistic gymnastics was introduced to the world before rhythmic gymnastics made it to the Olympic program. Each sport has its own set of rules, and in artistic gymnastics, one of the limits of the rules is how many apparatus (four) are available to female competitors, compared to the (six) that men can use in the same event. Rhythmic gymnastics is an event reserved for female competitors but uses dance routines as part of the final scoring system. Although artistic gymnastics is a more technically inspired event, it has created just as many dramatic moments at the Olympics as its gymnastics relative (rhythmic), both for individuals and teams. So, what’s the difference between artistic and rhythmic?
Artistic gymnastics was an original part of the very first Olympics. Obviously, as with most sports then, men were the only ones allowed to compete initially. Unlike other sports, however, artistic gymnastics became a forerunner in progressing the participation of female athletes not only in this sport but in other sports such as Olympic wrestling. In 1928 in Amsterdam, the first opportunity for female gymnasts interested in artistic gymnastics to compete like the men was created, with some adjustments to the rules, of course.
Artistic gymnasts must perform a more technical routine. Women use four apparatus (the men are allowed to use six apparatus). The vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise comprise the women’s artistic gymnastics performance apparatus. Women’s scores in artistic gymnastics are based on how difficult their movements were, how well each competitor uses various apparatus both individually, and even better for the gymnast, how well they can master combining their apparatus usage. The Olympics officially proclaim that artistic gymnastics has fourteen events. Artistic gymnasts fight for the team and individual medals. The individual medals are handed out for each of the four apparatus, in the case of the female divisions, which are a requirement during the events. Medals at the Olympics exclusively are awarded to both teams and individual all-around women gymnasts. Individual competitors, in particular, have their various skill levels tested on all four apparatus. As per Olympic rules, only two women per country are permitted in the all-around event.
Balance beam challenges every artistic gymnast to flip, turn, and jump, then land on a thin layer of foam cushioning. The beam is five metres long, ten centimetres wide, and stands approximately four feet in height. Each move must be executed with the precision of a surgeon, including catapulting into the air, twisting, and performing somersaults. The “Produnova” is well known as the most challenging move to attempt and, therefore, rarely is at the Olympics. The Produnova is a vault that requires the gymnast to do a front handspring onto the vault apparatus, then back-to-back somersaults off while tucked, landing perfectly. Also known as the “Vault of Death” for its difficulty level, it was named after Russian Yelena Produnova because she was the first person to perform the vault in 1999 successfully. Quite the challenge, indeed.
In terms of physicality, no apparatus will require the maximum amount of upper body strength other than the uneven bars. The bars are a series of swinging and twisting motions that the artistic gymnasts have to go back and forth from the low and high bars, fly through the air, and then with their feet together, land perfectly still. Achieving a perfect score in the uneven is a gratifying accomplishment, in addition to winning the gold medal. Demonstrating exactly how difficult and rare a perfect score is on the bars, the first score of perfection was not accomplished until the 1976 Montreal Olympics. The answer to who was the first is Romanian Nadia Comaneci.
As the name suggests, the vault is approached at top speed by the gymnast, launching themselves onto a springboard and the vault on their hands. Both female and male gymnasts using the vault must land cleanly, meaning no wobbling, hopping around to maintain balance, or stepping outside of a marked zone. Another unique aspect of using the vault is the height — the better — and is a key factor in judging the participants’ final scores.
Floor exercises, with their pageantry and elegance, bring a different form of drama to women’s artistic gymnastics. Dance and gymnastics are as creatively as possible woven into the fabric of a ninety-second routine. The floor is spring-loaded, and the gymnasts use it while trying to gain some height, which will benefit their pirouettes, tumbles, and graceful leaps.
Rhythmic gymnastics has a major difference that all who watch, participate, coach, and the judge should know. Only female gymnasts can participate in rhythmic gymnastics. Not included in the Olympics until 1984 at the Los Angeles Summer Games, rhythmic gymnastics are divided into two categories: individual all-around and group all-around are the only areas of concern for the gymnasts. Gymnasts have their selection of a hoop, ball, rope, clubs, or ribbon for use in their rhythmic routines. After 2013, the rope was removed from the list of available equipment. Similar to artistic gymnastics, the women in rhythmic gymnastics have their physical strength pushed to their maximum limits.
Officially, it should be noted that individual all-around competition was the only aspect debuting in 1984 at the Los Angeles Olympics. The all-around group division of rhythmic gymnastics was created in 1963 but did not become an official Olympic sport until the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games. Thirty years after it was conceptualized, it was available for women to showcase their skills in a sport only for females, free of competition against the eyes of male events.
A delicate and nearly flawless routine typically is made up of leaping, balancing, and pivoting, all while testing their flexibility. Making rhythmic gymnastics dramatic and more of performance is that these movements are done in combination to using a hoop, ball, clubs, or ribbon.
Regardless of which pieces of equipment are used in their routines or how each is incorporated, one thing remains a constant within rhythmic gymnastics, and that is that the routines must not stop. Each routine is performed to music, and every gymnast has to maintain use of their chosen apparatus from the start until the end.
The 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games will feature an impressive array of gymnastic talents, all with their eyes on gold. There are a set of twins who are expected to win the individual all-around competitions. Russian twins Dina Averina and Arina Averina have dominated the last few seasons in rhythmic gymnastics. Dina won world championships in 2017, 2018, and 2019, totalling thirteen gold medals, so naturally, she is the odds-on favourite for a gold medal. Unfortunately for her twin, Arina, she has had to contend with being a runner-up to Dina, managing, however, to win four world titles.
Israel’s Linoy Ashram is next in line as a favourite if either of the Averina sisters does not bring home the first-place hardware, a gold medal. Ashram finished second runner-up at the 2018 World Championships and a respectable third in 2019. Linoy is the current European all-around defending champion. Russia decided not to enter the competition over concerns with the COVID-19 pandemic. You can decide if Ashram’s title was a result of the absence of the Averina twins, who have been her nemesis, or simply that this was her time regardless and that she was crowned as Europe’s best.
The United States of America was to challenge who many would call the most dominant rhythmic gymnast of all time, Simone Biles. Biles medal and championship count is mountainous, instantly showing why she was to be a medal hopeful for the US. In 2019, Biles was to represent her native USA at the Tokyo Summer Games in 2020. Quite naturally, as with Olympic athletes all over the world, Biles elected to skip the Tokyo Games. Biles has won an astonishing thirty combined gold medals from her Olympic and world championships. Biles is technically third in medals behind Belarus’ Vitaly Scherbo’s thirty-three medals and Russia’s Larisa Latynina’s thirty-two medals. Biles took time away from gymnastics and then returned. Those who consider her to be the greatest are basing their assumption of Biles smashing all medal records, whether she remained in the competition, and if she were still interested in competing at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021.
Around the globe, amateur athletes anxiously await the start of the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, which are set to start on Friday, July 23. An exclusive quality unique to women’s gymnastics is that the sport commands the same amount of respect for the female athletes as the males, if not more respect. Many women look out for those who will be stepping out of the pandemic with pride to represent their respective countries. So, with fingers crossed and bated breath, the world will have an opportunity to see how far women’s artistic and rhythmic gymnastics has genuinely evolved into one of the Olympics’ most exciting events.
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