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Artistic Gymnastics is usually divided into Men's Gymnastics and
Women's Gymnastics. Each group competes in different events: Men compete on Floor Exercise,
Pommel Horse, Still Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars, and High Bar, while women compete on Vault, Uneven Bars, Beam, and Floor Exercise. In some
countries, women at one time competed on the rings, high bar, and parallel bars (for example, in the 1950s in the USSR). Though routines performed
on each event may be short, they are physically exhausting and push the gymnast's strength, flexibility, endurance and awareness to the limit.
Traditionally, at the international level, competitions on the various apparatus consisted of two different performance categories: compulsory
and optional. For the compulsory event, each gymnast performing on a specific apparatus executed the same required routine. At the optional level,
the gymnast performed routines that he or she choreographed. Nowadays, each country may use compulsory and optional routines at their discretion
in the training of young gymnasts.
The discipline of Rhythmic Gymnastics is competed only by women (although there is a new version of this discipline for
men being pioneered in Japan), and involves the performance of five separate routines with the use of five apparatus — ball, ribbon, hoop,
clubs, rope — on a floor area, with a much greater emphasis on the aesthetic rather than the acrobatic. Rhythmic routines are scored out of a
possible 20 points, and the music used by the gymnast can contain vocals, but may not contain words.
Trampolining consists of four separate disciplines: individual, synchronized, double mini and
power tumbling. Only individual trampoline is
included in the Olympics. Individual routines in trampolining involve a build-up phase during which the gymnast jumps repeatedly to achieve
height, followed by a sequence of 10 leaps without pauses during which the gymnast performs a sequence of aerial tumbling skills. Routines are
marked out of a maximum score of 10 points. Additional points (with no maximum at the highest levels of competition) can be earned depending
on the difficulty of the moves. Synchronized trampoline is similar except that both competitors must perform the routine together and marks
are awarded for synchronicity as well as the form of the moves. Double mini trampoline involves a smaller trampoline with a run-up, two moves
are performed and the scores marked in a similar manner to individual trampoline. In power tumbling, athletes perform an explosive series of
flips and twists down a tumbling track. Scoring is similar to trampolining.
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