The Ultimate Revelation Of Gymnastics Olympic Medals!

It was a normal day in the Greek civilization when out of nowhere someone started a sport that got popularized as gymnastics.

Around 2,500 years ago, Athens in Greece became the birthplace of gymnastics. In the beginning. Gymnastics was performed in tournaments with climbing ropes, tumbling, and more.

Over the years, gymnastics took major transformations especially by the arrival of the 1900s. Gymnastics, as we know it today, began around the 1700s by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn and he has later titled the father of gymnastics.

He was the one who introduced the horizontal bar, vaulting horse, pommel horse, and balance beam. The styles performed in gymnastics are aesthetic, artistic, tumbling, aerobic, rhythmic, and trampolining.

The association that sponsors gymnastics is the Federation of International Gymnastics (FIG). There are different apparatus for men and women. Women apparatus are uneven bars, balance beam, and vault while men’s apparatus includes still rings, parallel bars, the pommel horse, high bar, and vault.

When it comes to US women gymnastics, Simone Biles can be regarded as the defining figure. Before we discuss gold, silver, and bronze medal winners in various gymnastics events, also check gymnastics facts for kid and gymnastics history facts.

Empowering Facts About Gymnastics Olympic Medals

One of the initial Olympic sports was gymnastics. The Summer Olympics that are organized every four years now feature gymnastics.

Artistic gymnastics hold eight various events: vault, uneven bars, horizontal bar, pommel horse, balance beam, and parallel bars.

You may have noticed that gymnasts have their hands and feet covered in powder, this is because they apply chalk on their hands and feet to protect them for certain events.

Women gymnasts have to wear leotards of the color that represents their nation during a competition, otherwise, they can choose to wear the color they like.

Antwerp, Belgium in 1903 organized the world's first non-Olympic gymnastic event in an international competition.

This event was considered the World Title of Gymnastics.

The first Olympics event was organized in 1896, it had five gymnastics teams against each other and Germany came out as the winning team.

A gymnastics school was opened by Fredrich Ludwig Jahn in Berlin in 1811.

Dt. Dudley Allen, a Sergeant, invented more than 30 instruments that are now used in gymnastics.

During the civil war, Dudley started training gymnasts all over the US universities.

FIG (Federation of International Gymnastics) was founded in 1881 and manages European gymnastics events and then it began to manage world gymnastics.

Inspirational Facts About Gymnastics Olympic Medals

Simone Biles, an American woman gymnast, has earned a total of 30 medals in the Olympics and World Champion medals.

Larisa Latynina, the USSR Olympic gymnast, is the successful women gymnast with the most medals with a total of 32 medals.

Larisa won 18 medals in the years 1956-1964 alone in women's gymnastics.

Kurt Thomas became the first American gymnast in 1978 to be titled a World Champion after he won the floor exercise.

The first African American to have won the Olympic all-around event in women's gymnastics was Gabby Douglas.

The 14 years and 252 days old Nadia Comaneci of Romania scored seven perfect 10s in 1976 in women's gymnastics.

A separate World Gymnastic Championships was hosted in Australia’s Brisbane city in April 1994.

A new mark was set in history as this was the first event in 100 years held outside Europe.

In the 1904 Olympics, USA gymnast George Eyser bagged six medals.

He also got famed as the most remarkable gymnast in history, this was because he competed with a wooden leg.

The Women’s All-Around event was won by the 16 years old Mary Lou Retton in the vault.

She was the first American gymnast to win this Olympic event.

In 2004, the Women's All-Around event was won by Carly Patterson.

Powerful Facts About Gymnastics Olympic Medals

A total of 184 medals have been bagged by the Soviet Union since their first win in 1896 making it the nation with the most medals.

The US is the second nation with the most medals with a total of 101.

Female gymnasts work more on strength and artistry and compete in mostly balance beams and uneven beams.

Male gymnasts have the main focus on power and strength and compete mostly in parallel bars, pommel horse, uneven bars, and still rings.

Both male and female gymnasts compete in floor exercises and vaults.

In ancient times, pommel horses were part of soldiers' battle training for mounting and dismounting quickly.

Friedrich Ludwig Jahn is the father of modern gymnastics.

Rhythmic gymnastics for competitions is only practiced by women gymnasts.

Trampolining was made part of the Olympics in 2000.

The oldest sports organization in the world is the Federation of International Gymnastics (FIG).

Perfect tens are no longer part of gymnastics in Olympic games.

Some of the most accomplished names in Olympic gymnast competitions are Betty Okino, Simone Biles, Peter Vidmar, Amy Chow, Suni Lee, and Scott Johnson.

Worthful Facts About Gymnastics Olympic Medals

In the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Nadia Comaneci scored the very first perfect 10s, perfect 10s are no longer part of the Olympic gymnastics.

The first US gymnast to score two perfect 10s was Mary Lou Retton, during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

In the 1996 Olympics, Kerri Strung won gold in the vault. She also had an injured ankle at the time.

Twin gymnasts, Paul and Morgan Hamm competed in the 2004 Olympics and ended up winning a gold medal and a silver medal.

Women’s events in the Olympics were first introduced in the 1928 games.

When it comes to discipline, gymnastics is both mental and physical discipline.

Gymnasts start practicing at a very young age and children who practice gymnastics develop higher self-esteem,  strength, agility, posture, coordination, and fitness.

The competitions in rhythmic gymnastics are the clubs, the hoop, the rope, the ball, and the ribbon.

Phenomenal gymnasts have some tough gymnastic moves titled after them.

Kelly Garrison has been honored with three different gymnastics moves being named after her.

Gymnastics used by entertainers such as Cirque du Soleil is mostly displayed and aerobic gymnastics.

Fantastic Facts About Gymnastics Olympic Medals

Other than knowing that winners are awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals, you will also find these facts about gymnastics interesting too:

The Soviet Union has the record for the highest Olympics medal tally in the history of the games.

Vaulting was performed over bulls in ancient times.

The word ‘gymnastics’ is derived from the Greek word ‘gymnazein’ which translated to ‘exercise naked’.

In ancient times in Greece, gymnastics was practiced nude.

Team competition events in Olympics also include uneven bars and balance beam events along with floor exercises.

The Amsterdam 1928 Olympic games marked those who permitted the participation of women gymnasts.

In the 1904 Olympic games, 111 American gymnastics took part.

An acrobatic trapeze artist, Jules Leotard, was the inspiration behind the leotard uniform worn by women participants across the world. He used to perform in a form-fitting costume in 1859.

Shannon Miller has bagged three bronze, two silver, and two Olympic gymnastics gold medals.

‘The Magnificent 7’ was the moniker of the women's USA gymnastics team in the 1996 Olympics.

'The Magnificent 7' were the first to win a gold for America in the Olympic gymnastics success.

In order to be eligible for all-around competition, individual competition, or artistic gymnastics, athletes must qualify for Olympic trials.

The total number of gymnastics events in the Olympics is 14. Gold medals, silver medals, and bronze medals are given to the winning individual or team.

Simone Biles was the first woman to perform the Yurchenko double pike vault in Olympics.

In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, after Biles's withdrawal, Russia proceeded to win the team a gold medal in the team competition.

The United States won team gold in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2019 World Championships.

At the 1960 Rome Olympics, the only Olympic death connected to performance-enhancing drugs occurred. According to a 1989 Australian research on the 1980 Summer Olympics, "There isn't a single medalist at the Moscow Olympics, much alone a gold medal winner, who isn't on some sort of drug or another: frequently several.

The Chemists' Games might have been a better name for the Moscow Games."

Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, a Swedish pentathlete who won the bronze medal in the 1968 Summer Olympics, was the first Olympic athlete to test positive for the usage of performance-enhancing substances for the competition.

After the 1988 Summer Olympics, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson (who won the 100-meter dash) tested positive for stanozolol, resulting in one of the most well-publicized doping-related disqualifications. Athletes or teams who place first, second, or third in each event get medals.

Gold medals are awarded to the winners, which were solid gold until 1912, then gilded silver, and finally gold-plated silver. At least six grams of pure gold must be present in every gold medal.

Silver medals are given to the runners-up, and bronze medals are given to the third-place finishers.

Third place may not be chosen in single-elimination tournaments (most notably boxing), and the losers of both semi-finals each earn a bronze medal. Only the champion and runner-up in each sport got silver and bronze medals at the 1896 Olympics—silver for first and bronze for a second, with no gold.

The recent Olympic games 2021 were held in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo Olympic Games were held in Japan to respect the sport despite the pandemic.

The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics in Japan were postponed owing to the COVID-19 epidemic and were hosted in Tokyo in 2021 for well-being. For the second time, Tokyo was the first Asian city to host the Olympics.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for gymnastics Olympic medals then why not take a look at arms race facts, or Brazil sports facts.