RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil.- Artistic gymnastics is one of the exclusive sports that opened the Olympic Games in Athens the first edition of 1896 and during the first 32 years the share was exclusive of men. Amsterdam 1928 debuted in women, although it was not until the appointment of Helsinki 1952 when they began competing in each of the devices individually.
The Soviet Union was the great dominate of the sport until its demise after the 1992 Summer Olympics, where they competed under the IOC flag and under the name of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Soviet gymnasts won 25% of the medals in dispute, while Japan, the United States, China and Romania have been the other great powers.
Of course, since the Soviet break-up the amount of medals has spread among its former members, mostly Russia and Ukraine.
Japanese Sawao Kato is the top winner of gold medals in the history of artistic gymnastics in the Olympic Games. He won eight titles between 1968 and 1976, although the Soviet Nikolai Andrianov garnered 15 medals between 1972 and 1980 and exceeded the total.
In the ladies was the Soviet Larisa Latynina also the absolute queen. He won 18 medals, nine of them gold, between 1956 and 1964; Michael Phelps just surpasses the number of medals won by an athlete in the history of the games.
Although the harvest was not as prolific, Romanian Nadia Comaneci never be erased from the Olympic records gym after being the first athlete, regardless of sex, to get a perfect score: ten points. His performance on the uneven bars was just that, perfect.
WHAT DEVICES UP THE ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS?
Men and women compete in the individual competition (all-around) and team. They also share the jump and floor exercises. Men complete their six aircraft with the rings, pommel horse, sets the bar and parallel bars. Women have only two modes, the uneven bars and the balance beam.
The ideal way to start practicing gymnastics is between four and five years and in adolescence the peak of performance is achieved as it is when the body gets the best combination of strength, flexibility and coordination age. In the second decade of life, and this balance is far from optimal.
In addition to a strong athletic-engine component, artistic gymnastics also encompasses elegance, dexterity and acrobatics. Only those who seamlessly combine its entirety can reach the elite.
Artistic gymnastics is one of the most spectacular sports on the Olympic program, so much so that always takes place at the beginning of the game and never alongside swimming and athletics, the other two jewels of the summer festival.
HOW gymnasts qualify for RIO DE JANEIRO 2016
All participants must have been born before December 31, 2000 and each country may classify two athletes in each individual discipline and team competition groups. This classification was made by the results achieved in the 2015 World Championship and Olympic qualifying event held in the city of Rio de Janeiro in April 2016.
The International Olympic Committee also reserves a seat at best located on each continent and Brazil, as the host country, if they fail to include a representative in each test. In addition, a tripartite commission has the power to invite an athlete in each gender. Places are not registered so that each national federation has the right to send to a particular athlete even if not that who got the qualification.
At the World Championships in Stuttgart last year there was an undisputed queen among the ladies, Simone Biles American, winner of four gold medals, ie 67% of the gold medals in dispute. I won the all-around, as a member of the winning team, plus exercises on the floor and balance beam.
In the uneven bars there was an unusual event, four gymnasts were rated with the same highest score and so many gold medals were awarded, but no silver or bronze.
Among men, there was no such absolute domain of an athlete. Japan won the team competition, Kohei Uchimura while won the gold medal in the all-around and on the horizontal bar.
Classifying Olympics at 40 years is a feat, but to do so in the women ’s gymnastics and is something from another planet. For this it is what has made ​​the Uzbek Oksana Chusovitina and will become the longest Olympic gymnast in history. Chusovitina has a son of 16 year olds, the same approximate age of his rivals in Rio de Janeiro 2016 ! Perfectly all other athletes can call “Mom.” Even at Rio, its seventh games come with 41 years as the will meet in June.
Chusovitina participate in the all-around after having surrendered a very acceptable job in the qualifying event held in the same Brazilian city that will host the games in August. His best device, jump, he sealed the passage.
This living legend of artistic gymnastics Olympic champion was crowned in 1992 with the CIS in the team tournament. He then participated with Uzbekistan in Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, with Germany in Beijing 2008 and London 2012 and now will do so under the Uzbek flag.
This constant change of nationality has not been random. His son was diagnosed with leukemia three years and moved to Germany for medical care. “Chuso” had retired from the sport, but returned to compete to earn some money to pay medical expenses of treatment.
Another no less important detail gymnastics Rio de Janeiro in 2016 is one of the historical of the sport, Romania, did not qualify his women’s team