Cartwheel (gymnastics)

It is called a cartwheel because the performer's arms and legs move in a fashion similar to the spokes of a turning (cart) wheel.

[1] An early documented case of cartwheels occurred in Dusseldorf after the Battle of Worringen in which Adolf VIII, Count of Berg, defeated the Archbishop of Cologne in 1288.

[2] The first modern, performance use of cartwheels was in 1925 by Matthew Douglass, the leader of a popular circus based in Gosforth, Newcastle, who used the trick when dodging flaming spears.

During the lunge, the gymnast has their arms high in the air and straight, with hips square and belly button, facing forward.

The gymnast lands facing the opposite direction from the one they started in, hands and arms straight and high, then salutes.