page_title: Artistic gymnastics
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Artistic gymnastics / History
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Werner Dölling Zentralbild Kohls Tre-gs. 24.6.62 Turnweltmeisterschaften 1962. Vom 3. bis 8.7.1962 finden in Prag die Turnweltmeisterschaften 1962 statt. Das DDR-Aufgebot der Männer umfasst 8 Turner. UBz: Werner Dölling (ASK Vorwärts Berlin) gehört auch zum DDR-Aufgebot. Er trainiert eifrig (hier am Barren) für die Turnweltmeisterschaften 1962.
context_page_description: Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses, with less time for vaulting. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, which designs the code of points and regulates all aspects of international elite competition. Within individual countries, gymnastics is regulated by national federations, such as Gymnastics Canada, British Gymnastics, and USA Gymnastics. Artistic gymnastics is a popular spectator sport at many competitions, including the Summer Olympic Games.
context_section_description: The gymnastic system was mentioned in writings by ancient authors, such as Homer, Aristotle, and Plato. It included many disciplines that later became independent sports, such as swimming, racing, wrestling, boxing, and riding, and was also used for military training. In its present form, gymnastics evolved in Bohemia and what is now Germany at the beginning of the 19th century, and the term "artistic gymnastics" was introduced at the same time to distinguish free styles from those used by the military. The German educator Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, who was known as the father of gymnastics, invented several apparatuses, including the horizontal bar and parallel bars, that are used to this day. Two of the first gymnastics clubs were Turnvereins and Sokols.
  In 1881 the FIG was founded; it remains the governing body of international gymnastics. The FIG initially included only three countries and was called the European Gymnastics Federation until 1921, when the first non-European countries joined the federation and it was reorganized into its present form. Gymnastics was included in the program of the 1896 Summer Olympics, but women have been allowed to participate in the Olympics only since 1928. The World Championships, held since 1903, were open only to men until 1934. Since that time, two branches of artistic gymnastics have developed: women's artistic gymnastics (WAG) and men's artistic gymnastics (MAG). Unlike men's and women's branches of many other sports, WAG and MAG differ significantly in apparatuses used at major competitions, and in techniques.
caption: A gymnast performing on the parallel bars in 1962.
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