Women's Artistic Gymnastics

Women’s Artistic Gymnastics is an incredibly challenging sport, demanding strength, power, flexibility, agility, courage, and a combination of technical precision and artistic creativity. When these elements are mastered, the performances appear almost effortless and are riveting to watch.

The women’s artistic gymnastics competition program includes the vaulting table, uneven bars, beam, and floor.

For the women, the vaulting table is 1.25 m high; it is placed perpendicularly to the approach, and a springboard is placed in front of it. The gymnasts perform two vaults, of which the better one counts for the score.

The uneven bars consist of two wooden or fibreglass bars, each resting on vertical supports of different heights. The lower bar is 1.61 meters from the floor, while the upper bar is at 2.41 meters.

Perhaps the most dramatic piece of apparatus in women's gymnastics is the beam, a band 10 cm wide and 5 m long, on which competitors perform daring exercises, while perched at 1.25 m above the floor. Routines must include a variety of acrobatic elements, such as jumps and leaps, turns, steps, combinations of walking and running steps, as well as wave and balance elements performed in a standing, sitting, or lying position. The gymnast must use the entire length of the apparatus while expressing simultaneously elegance, flexibility, confidence, and self-control. The maximum required time for the beam exercise is 1 minute and 30 seconds.

While the competitor's courage is tested on the beam, floor exercises are the gauge for skills and free expression. Accompanied by music, this performance is a blend of dance movements and a wide range of tumbling and acrobatic elements. The gymnastic or acrobatic elements vary according to the tempo, the mood or the direction taken over the 12 m x 12 m floor area. Individuality, originality, maturity, mastery, and artistic quality are the key ingredients for the highest score.