At the 1968 Summer Olympics, fourteen different artistic gymnastics events were contested, eight for men and six for women.

The six best gymnasts on the apparatus in the team competition (by sum of two scores - for compulsory and optional routine) qualified for that apparatus finals.

Larisa Petrik's gold medal on floor was very controversial because originally, Čáslavská won outright.

After the competition was concluded, Petrik's prelims scores were changed to let her tie with Čáslavská, an action which caused Čáslavská to publicly defy the Soviets who had recently invaded her home country.

A similar controversy occurred in the balance beam, where Čáskavská was denied gold altogether.