The Fédération
Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) was formed on 23 July
1881 when representatives of the gymnastics associations of
Belgium, France and the Netherlands met in Liège. As a
governing body it is held in high esteem by both its member
federations and gymnastics clubs throughout five continents.
In 1897, seventeen national associations joined together to
form the basis of the European Gymnastics Federation.
However, when the USA was admitted in 1921, the Committee
changed its name to the Fédération Internationale de
Gymnastique or FIG, as it is known today.
FIG comprises
three Olympic disciplines: artistic, rhythmic and
trampoline.
Each
discipline is controlled by a Technical Committee made up of
a Technical President and six members.The Technical
Committees are responsible for the coordination and control
of their specific discipline in terms of the technical
requirements for competition as they relate to each specific
discipline.
Artistic
A perfect fusion of athletics and aesthetics, gymnastics
ranks among the
defining sports of the Olympic Games. Mixing
strength and agility with style and grace, the high-flying
acrobats have provided many of the most breathtaking Olympic
spectacles of the past quarter-century.
Nadia
Comeneci's perfect 10 score at the 1976 Montreal Games, the
first ever awarded, remains the high-water mark for most
gymnastics fans. The 14-year-old Romanian achieved the
seemingly impossible seven times in Montreal, a feat so
unexpected that the scoring technology was set up for only
three digits. Her 10.00s were displayed as 1.00.
Gymnastics
has a long, proud history. The sport can be traced back to
ancient Greece, where such skills featured in the ancient
Olympic Games. Ancient Rome, Persia, India and China
practised similar disciplines, mostly aimed at preparing
young men for battle. The word itself derives from the Greek
word gymnos, meaning naked - dress requirements for athletes
in those days were minimal, to say the least.
Competition
In artistic events (performed on an apparatus), men compete
in floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and
horizontal bars. Female gymnasts compete on the vault,
uneven bars, balance beam and floor. The competition
includes all-round events and team events, also scored over
each apparatus.
Rhythmic
A perfect fusion of athletics and aesthetics, gymnastics
ranks among the defining sports of the Olympic Games.
When rhythmic
gymnastics first caught the attention of the Fédération
Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) in the middle of the
20th century, its devotees were calling it "modern
gymnastics". Yet its hazy history can clearly be traced to
at least the last century.
Competition
Rhythmic gymnastics (performed with an apparatus) is
strictly a women's competition. The gymnasts, accompanied by
music, perform on a 13-metre-square floor area with rope,
hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon. In the individual event they
perform different routines with four of the five apparatus.
In the team competition, teams of five perform together once
using clubs and once with two using hoops and three using
ribbons.
Trampoline
A perfect fusion of athletics and aesthetics, gymnastics
ranks among the defining sports of the Olympic Games.
As of 1
January 1999, trampoline became a discipline of gymnastics
at the Olympic Games.
Competition
Trampoline gymnastics debuted at the Sydney 2000 Games
featuring both men's and women's individual events. The
Russian Federation took home two gold medals at the Sydney
2000 Olympic Games as Alexander Moskalenko and Irina
Karavaeva were crowned with gold medals.
Trampoline
competitions are open to both men and women.
|