Athens, 23 August, Games of the XXVIII Olympiad. Women's artistic gymnastics: Catalina PONOR of Romania competes on the balance beam during the individual competition at the Olympic Sports Complex Indoor Hall. Credit: Getty Images/Ezra Shaw

A perfect fusion of athletics and aesthetics, gymnastics ranks among the defining sports of the Olympic Games. Mixing strength and agility with style and grace, the high-flying acrobats have provided many of the most breathtaking Olympic spectacles of the past quarter-century.

Nadia Comeneci's perfect 10 score at the 1976 Montreal Games, the first ever awarded, remains the high-water mark for most gymnastics fans. The 14-year-old Romanian achieved the seemingly impossible seven times in Montreal, a feat so unexpected that the scoring technology was set up for only three digits. Her 10.00s were displayed as 1.00.

Gymnastics has a long, proud history. The sport can be traced back to ancient Greece, where such skills featured in the ancient Olympic Games. Ancient Rome, Persia, India and China practised similar disciplines, mostly aimed at preparing young men for battle. The word itself derives from the Greek word gymnos, meaning naked - dress requirements for athletes in those days were minimal, to say the least.

Competition

In artistic events (performed on an apparatus), men compete in floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bars. Female gymnasts compete on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor. The competition includes all-round events and team events, also scored over each apparatus.

Discipline's origin

When gymnastics began in ancient Greece more than 2000 years ago, the gymnasium was the centre of cultural activity. Men gathered there not only to practise sport, but to understand art, music and philosophy. The Greeks believed symmetry between the mind and body was possible only when physical exercise was coupled with intellectual activity.

Today, gymnastics is often termed the ultimate combination of sport and art, but the idea is nothing new. Plato, Aristotle and Homer heartily advocated the strengthening qualities of gymnastic activity. It is a philosophy that can be found in much of their work.

The term "artistic gymnastics" emerged in the early 1800s to distinguish free-flowing styles from the techniques used by the military. Although viewed as a novelty by many, gymnastics competitions began to flourish in schools, athletic clubs and various organisations across Europe in the 1880s. When the Olympic movement was resurrected at Athens in 1896, gymnastics made a fitting return.

Olympic history

The early Olympic Games featured some gymnastic disciplines which could scarcely be deemed "artistic", however. Rope climbing, tumbling and club swinging were among the events that failed to survive the refining process. At the World Championships, first held in Antwerp in 1903, field events such as the pole vault, broad jump and shot-put even featured occasionally until 1954. Swimming appeared once, at the 1922 championships.

The Olympic programme began to settle in 1924, with men competing for individual medals and in team events on each apparatus. Four years later, women began competing in Olympic gymnastics at Amsterdam. By 1952, the Soviet Union had become the leading force in Olympic gymnastics, its profile rising slowly after a group of social reformers - including playwright Anton Chekhov - formed the Russian Gymnastic Federation in 1883.

Gymnastics has been present at every Olympic Games.

Rules

There are Qualifying Team and Individual Competitions, All- Around Finals, Apparatus Finals and Team Finals for men and women in the Artistic Gymnastics Programme of the Olympic Games. In principle, the duration of the event is from 6 to 8 days. Entry for these competitions is restricted by qualification.

In the case of Artistic Gymnastics, and in the circumstances mentioned in the preceding paragraph, a team or group may not interrupt the competitions for longer than a maximum of 10 minutes. If after this lapse of time, the gymnast is still unable to perform, the team or group continues the competition without the person who is injured or ill.

Judges in good standing are appointed by the FIG taking into account the degree of the brevet, the experience and the quality of the judges as well as the particular demands of the Olympic Regulations and the requirements of the National Olympic Committees.

This competition is organized by a rotation of Groups, a Group comprising either a team of 4 to 6 gymna