| Artistic Gymnastics- Grace That Exhorts Energy |
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Gymnastics has always been considered as one of the best combinations of grace and energy. This is the game which brings the beauty of precise rhythmic movements with the high energy levels required to execute those movements and maneuvers.
Artistic gymnastics are performed by men and women and continue to be among the most popular spectator sports at summer Olympics as well as other sporting events like Asian games, Commonwealth games and Afro Asian games. The game is classified as an indoor sport and has been in the Olympics since 1896. Federation Internationale de Gymnastique, or FIG is the supreme global governing body for this sport which lays down the various rules and regulations to govern this sport. The early history of gymnastics can be traced back to Ancient Greece where it was performed first as many as 2000 years back. Before this period, rudimentary forms of gymnastics exercises were performed in Ancient India and China, though they were more for medicinal purposes and were not really seen as a sporting activity. Many Greek authors like Homer, Aristotle and Plato have mentioned gymnastics in their works. At the beginning, gymnastics was also a key part of the military training and to differentiate the military style gymnastics, a more freeform system was evolved which is now known as artistic gymnastics. The father of modern gymnastics is German educator Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. He invented the horizontal bars, the parallel bars and a number of other gymnastics equipment which are being used today in artistic gymnastics. This is one of the few games where significantly different equipment is used in exercises by men and women. Men who compete in artistic gymnastics use the Pommel Horse, Still rings, Parallel Bars and High Bar. In the women's competitions, the equipment is either a Balance Beam or Uneven bars. The only common instance is Floor Exercise where, for all intents and purposes, no equipment is used at all. The competitions are held at four levels, team qualifying, team finals, all around finals and event finals. For the most part of the history of artistic gymnastics in Olympic and other world scale competitions, the former Soviet Union and East European countries have been the dominating force in gymnastics. Even after the breakup of the Soviet union, these countries form the leading group in any gymnastics medals tally. United States was considered a second rate team until 1970s when it emerged to give serious competition to the dominant East Europeans. Gymnasts from Far East, particularly China and Japan have also established themselves along with Germany. At one time, Italy was also a power to reckon with but has since only had mediocre success. Artistic Gymnastics is truly a pleasure to watch. Related Articles
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