Gymnastics is one of the oldest Olympic sports. It formed part of the ancient Olympic games and has always featured in the modern editions. The term "gymnastics" derives from the Greek word "gymnos", meaning naked. In 1881, Belgium, France and the Netherlands formed a gymnastics federation which expanded into a European federation in 1897 and into the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) with the admission of the United States in 1921. Artistic gymnastics is a popular sport in eastern Europe, with the former Soviet Union dominating the sport for many years. United States athletes have also proved to be strong competitors in recent years. Romania's Nadia Comaneci changed the face of artistic gymnastics during the 1976 Montreal Olympics when she scored the first perfect 10. Rhythmic gymnastics became an Olympic discipline in 1984 in Los Angeles and trampoline was added to the Games in Sydney in 2000. A new code of points will be used in Beijing. The old 10.0 system was abolished following several judging controversies at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Now an accumulative points system, modelled on the format introduced in figure skating, is used with gymnasts being rewarded for more daring routines.
Artistic gymnastics and trampoline for men and women, rhythmic gymnastics for women. Artistic: Men: Team competition, individual all-round, vault, parallel bars, horizontal bar, pommel horse, floor exercise, rings. Women: Team competition, individual all-round, vault, floor exercise, balance beam, asymmetric bars. Rhythmic: Team, individual Trampoline: Individual, men and women
Artistic Men Team: Japan Individual all-round: Paul Hamm (USA) Floor exercise: Kyle Shewfelt (Canada) Pommel horse: Teng Haibin (China) Rings: Dimosthenis Tampakos (Greece) Vault: Gervasio Deferr (Spain) Parallel bars: Valeri Goncharov (Ukraine) Horizontal bar: Igor Cassina (Italy) Women Team: Romania Individual all-round: Carly Patterson (USA) Vault: Monica Rosu (Romania) Asymmetric bars: Emilie Le Pennec (France) Beam: Catalina Ponor (Romania) Floor exercise: Catalina Ponor (Romania) Rhythmic Individual all-round: Alina Kabaeva (Russia) Team all-around: Russia Trampoline Men: Yuri Nikitin (Ukraine) Women: Anna Dogonadze (Germany)
Aug. 12 ? men's team artistic gymnastics Aug. 13 ? women's team Aug. 14 ? men's individual all-round Aug. 15 ? women's all-round Aug. 17 ? men's floor, women's floor, men's pommel horse, women's vault Aug. 18 ? men's rings, women's asymmetric bars, men's vault; women's trampoline Aug. 19 ? men's parallel bars, women's beam, men's horizontal bar; men's trampoline Aug. 23 ? individual all-round rhythmic gymnastics Aug. 24 ? team all-round
Artistic gymnastics and trampoline at the National Indoor Stadium; rhythmic gymnastics at the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium. *Reuters