Gymnastics

Gymnastics revolve around flexibility, timing and balance. Most apparatus events are individually used, only the country team event is group work. Then there’s the all-around competition in which the young gymnasts compete on all the apparatuses and competition on one specific apparatus. For boys the apparatuses used are floor, vault, pommel horse, still rings, parallel bars and high bar. For girls it’s floor, vault, balance beam and uneven bars.

Points for the gymnastics events are awarded by a jury. Jury members take into account the difficulty of a certain movement and its execution by the gymnast. More difficult routines mean more possible points for a gymnast, but also more risks. It’s very important a gymnast never loses his or her concentration: one wrong move can mean the loss of points. Especially if it results in a fall, which means one full point is deducted from the score.