About

Gymnastics started in Ancient Greece, where physical fitness was a prized attribute and body development was pursued through athletics in its purest form: running and jumping. The Romans also practiced Gymnastics but with an eye on physically prepare their soldiers to be unstoppable in battle. Pommel Horse was one of the ancient events introduced by the Romans to teach soldiers complex ways to mount and dismount a horse. After the Olympic Games were suppressed by Theodosius the Great in 394 AD, Gymnastics disappeared for millennia in Europe, with the exception of tumbling and some acrobats, who performed as entertainment or novelty.

But after the Age of Enlightenment reintroduced ancient philosophies on achieving well-being in body and mind, the Scientific Revolution gave way to better understanding of physical education. It was not only the philosophers and the thinkers who saw the merits of physical exercise; for the military, once again, it became an invaluable tool for training troops.

The father of modern Gymnastics, German Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778-1852), was the first to lay down foundations and a set of rules for group-based exercise. Competitions soon followed. In 1832, Switzerland became the first country to establish a national Gymnastics federation, followed by Germany (1860), Belgium (1865), Poland (1867), Italy (1869) and France (1873). On 23 July 1881, the European Gymnastics Union was created in Antwerp, and evolved into the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).