Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, artistry and endurance.

[1] The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shoulders, back, chest, and abdominal muscle groups.

The original term for the practice of gymnastics is from the related Greek verb γυμνάζω (gumnázō), which translates as "to train naked or nude," because young men exercised without clothing.

[7] On Philostratus' claim that gymnastics is a form of wisdom, comparable to philosophy, poetry, music, geometry, and astronomy,[6] the people of Athens combined this more physical training with the education of the mind.

[8] Don Francisco Amorós y Ondeano—a Spanish colonel born on 19 February 1770, in Valencia, who died on 8 August 1848, in Paris—was the first person to introduce educative gymnastics in France.

[15] By the end of the nineteenth century, men's gymnastics competition was popular enough to be included in the first modern Olympic Games, in 1896.

[16] From then until the early 1950s, both national and international competitions involved a changing variety of exercises gathered under the rubric, gymnastics, which included, for example, synchronized team floor calisthenics, rope climbing, high jumping, running, and horizontal ladder.

By 1954, Olympic Games apparatus and events for men and women had been standardized in a modern format, and uniform grading structures (including a point system from 1 to 15) had been agreed upon.

[18] At this time, Soviet gymnasts astounded the world with highly disciplined and difficult performances, setting a precedent that continues.

The gymnast performs a choreographed routine of up to 90 seconds in length consisting of leaps, acrobatic skills, somersaults, turns, and dance elements on a padded beam.

The routine should consist of tumbling passes, series of jumps, leaps, dance elements, acrobatic skills, and turns, or pivots, on one foot.

Men's floor routines usually have multiple passes that have to total between 60 and 70 seconds and are performed without music, unlike the women's event.

The gymnast swings both legs in a circular motion (clockwise or counterclockwise depending on preference) and performs such skills on all parts of the apparatus.

To make the exercise more challenging, gymnasts often include variations on a typical circling skill by turning (moores and spindles) or by straddling their legs (flares).

Routines end when the gymnast performs a dismount, either by swinging his body over the horse or landing after a handstand variation.

Men perform on two bars set in parallel by executing a series of swings, balances, and releases that require great strength and coordination.

This is a sport that combines elements of ballet, gymnastics, dance, and apparatus manipulation, with a much greater emphasis on the aesthetic rather than the acrobatic.

Difficulty is open-ended and based on the value given to the elements performed in the routine, and execution and artistry start at ten points and are lowered for specific mistakes made by the gymnasts.

One was developed in Japan in the 1940s and was originally practiced by both boys and girls for fitness, with women still occasionally participating on the club level today.

Additional points (with no maximum at the highest levels of competition) can be earned depending on the difficulty of the moves and the length of time taken to complete the ten skills which is an indication of the average height of the jumps.

Tumbling was originally contested as one of the events in Men's Artistic Gymnastics at the 1932 Summer Olympics, and in 1955 and 1959 at the Pan American Games.

Currently, acrobatic gymnastics scores are marked out of 30.00 for juniors, and they can be higher at the Senior FIG level based on difficulty: There are five competitive event categories: The World Championships have been held since 1974.

[needs update] The first Parkour World Championships were planned for 2020, but were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[34][35][36] and instead took place from 15 to 16 October 2022 in Tokyo, Japan.

[37] The events consist of: Para-gymnastics, gymnastics for disabled athletes with para-athletics classifications, was recognized as a new FIG discipline in October 2024.

It differs from rhythmic gymnastics in that body movement is large and continuous and teams are larger, and athletes do not use apparatus in international AGG competitions.

The sport requires physical qualities such as flexibility, balance, speed, strength, coordination and sense of rhythm where movements of the body are emphasized through the flow, expression and aesthetic appeal.

[44] Mallakhamba (Marathi: मल्लखम्ब) is a traditional Indian sport in which a gymnast performs feats and poses in concert with a vertical wooden pole or rope.

Elena Mukhina, the 1978 World all-around champion, broke her neck while practicing the skill in an exhausted state and became quadriplegic.

[54] In a tumbling pass, dismount, or vault, landing is the final phase, following take-off and flight[55] This is a critical skill in terms of execution in competition scores, general performance, and injury occurrence.

"[57] A successful landing in gymnastics is classified as soft, meaning the knee and hip joints are at greater than 63 degrees of flexion.