# Gymnastics at the 2004 Summer Olympics

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, three disciplines of gymnastics were contested: artistic gymnastics (August 14–23), rhythmic gymnastics (August 26–29) and trampoline (August 20–21). The artistic gymnastics and trampoline events were held at the Olympic Indoor Hall and the rhythmic gymnastics events were held at the Galatsi Olympic Hall.

## Artistic gymnastics
### Format of competition

The competition format was largely the same as at the 2000 Summer Olympics. All participating gymnasts, including those who were not part of a team, participated in a qualification round. The results of this competition determined which teams and individuals participated in the remaining competitions, which included:
* The team competition, in which the eight highest scoring teams from qualifications competed. For the first time, each team of six gymnasts could only have three gymnasts perform on each apparatus, and all three scores counted toward the team total.
* The all-around competition, in which only the twenty-four highest scoring individuals in the all-around competed. For the first time, each country was limited to only two gymnasts in the all-around final.
* The event finals, in which the eight highest scoring individuals on each apparatus competed. Each country was limited to two gymnasts in each apparatus final.

### Medalists - Men's Events

| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Team all-around details | Japan (JPN) Takehiro Kashima Hisashi Mizutori Daisuke Nakano Hiroyuki Tomita Naoya Tsukahara Isao Yoneda | United States (USA) Jason Gatson Morgan Hamm Paul Hamm Brett McClure Blaine Wilson Guard Young | Romania (ROU) Marian Drăgulescu Ilie Daniel Popescu Dan Nicolae Potra Răzvan Dorin Şelariu Ioan Silviu Suciu Marius Urzică |
| Individual all-around details | Paul Hamm United States | Kim Dae-eun South Korea | Yang Tae-young South Korea |
| Floor Exercise details | Kyle Shewfelt Canada | Marian Drăgulescu Romania | Yordan Yovchev Bulgaria |
| Pommel horse details | Teng Haibin China | Marius Urzică Romania | Takehiro Kashima Japan |
| Rings details | Dimosthenis Tampakos Greece | Yordan Yovchev Bulgaria | Jury Chechi Italy |
| Vault details | Gervasio Deferr Spain | Jevgēņijs Saproņenko Latvia | Marian Drăgulescu Romania |
| Parallel bars details | Valeri Goncharov Ukraine | Hiroyuki Tomita Japan | Li Xiaopeng China |
| Horizontal bar details | Igor Cassina Italy | Paul Hamm United States | Isao Yoneda Japan |

### Medalists - Women's Events

| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Team all-around details | Romania (ROU) Oana Ban Alexandra Eremia Cătălina Ponor Monica Roșu Nicoleta Daniela Șofronie Silvia Stroescu | United States (USA) Mohini Bhardwaj Annia Hatch Terin Humphrey Courtney Kupets Courtney McCool Carly Patterson | Russia (RUS) Ludmila Ezhova Svetlana Khorkina Maria Krioutchkova Anna Pavlova Elena Zamolodchikova Natalia Ziganshina |
| Individual all-around details | Carly Patterson United States | Svetlana Khorkina Russia | Zhang Nan China |
| Vault details | Monica Roșu Romania | Annia Hatch United States | Anna Pavlova Russia |
| Uneven bars details | Émilie Le Pennec France | Terin Humphrey United States | Courtney Kupets United States |
| Balance beam details | Cătălina Ponor Romania | Carly Patterson United States | Alexandra Eremia Romania |
| Floor exercises details | Cătălina Ponor Romania | Nicoleta Daniela Șofronie Romania | Patricia Moreno Spain |

## Rhythmic gymnastics

| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Individual all-around details | Alina Kabaeva Russia | Irina Tchachina Russia | Anna Bessonova Ukraine |
| Group all-around details | Russia (RUS) Olesya Belugina Olga Glatskikh Tatiana Kurbakova Natalia Lavrova Yelena Posevina Elena Murzina | Italy (ITA) Elisa Blanchi Fabrizia D'Ottavio Marinella Falca Daniela Masseroni Elisa Santoni Laura Vernizzi | Bulgaria (BUL) Zhaneta Ilieva Eleonora Kezhova Zornitsa Marinova Kristina Rangelova Galina Tancheva Vladislava Tancheva |

## Trampoline

| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Men's individual details | Yuri Nikitin Ukraine | Alexander Moskalenko Russia | Henrik Stehlik Germany |
| Women's individual details | Anna Dogonadze Germany | Karen Cockburn Canada | Huang Shanshan China |

## Medal table

| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Romania (ROU) | 4 | 3 | 3 | 10 |
| 2 | United States (USA) | 2 | 6 | 1 | 9 |
| 3 | Russia (RUS) | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| 4 | Ukraine (UKR) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 5 | Japan (JPN) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 6 | Italy (ITA) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 7 | Canada (CAN) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | China (CHN) | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| 9 | Germany (GER) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 9 | Spain (ESP) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 11 | France (FRA) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | Greece (GRE) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 13 | Bulgaria (BUL) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 14 | South Korea (KOR) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 15 | Latvia (LAT) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Totals (15 entries) | Totals (15 entries) | 18 | 18 | 18 | 54 |

## Participating nations

A total of 252 gymnasts from 45 nations competed at the Athens Games.
* Argentina (1)
* Australia (9)
* Azerbaijan (1)
* Belarus (8)
* Belgium (1)
* Bolivia (1)
* Brazil (7)
* Bulgaria (5)
* Canada (15)
* Cape Verde (1)
* China (15)
* Colombia (1)
* Cuba (3)
* Czech Republic (2)
* Denmark (1)
* France (13)
* Georgia (2)
* Germany (11)
* Great Britain (9)
* Greece (7)
* Hungary (2)
* Iceland (1)
* Israel (2)
* Italy (10)
* Japan (10)
* Kazakhstan (2)
* Latvia (2)
* Malaysia (1)
* Mexico (2)
* Netherlands (4)
* North Korea (8)
* Portugal (2)
* Puerto Rico (1)
* Romania (12)
* Russia (18)
* Slovakia (2)
* South Africa (2)
* South Korea (7)
* Spain (13)
* Sweden (1)
* Switzerland (4)
* Tunisia (1)
* Ukraine (16)
* United States (14)
* Uzbekistan (2)

## Controversies

The gymnastics competition had scoring controversies, most prominently with the South Korean competitor Yang Tae-young.
The Korean team contested Tae-Young's parallel bars score after judges misidentified one of the elements of his routine. The effect of this misidentification was that the start value was recorded as 9.9 rather than 10. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed the Korean Olympic Committee's appeal on the grounds that the appeal, coming after the end of competition, was made too late, and insufficient evidence of corruption or bad faith on the part of the judges was presented to overturn a strong preference for a "field of play" judgment rather than one made after the fact.
Further problems occurred in the men's horizontal bar competition. After performing a routine with six release skills in the high bar event final (including four in a row – three variations of Tkatchev releases and a Gienger), the judges posted a score of 9.725, placing Nemov in third position with several athletes still to compete. This was actually a fair judging decision because he took a big step on landing which was a two tenths deduction. The crowd became unruly on seeing the results and interrupted the competition for almost fifteen minutes. Influenced by the crowd's fierce reaction, the judges reevaluated the routine and increased Nemov's score to 9.762, but this did not improve his placement and he finished without a medal.
The controversies led to the reconstruction of the scoring system which was implemented in 2006. The rule changes are credited as having encouraged more acrobatic activity and increasing difficulties on the high bar apparatus seen in later competitions.