Gymnastics is one of the most favorite events in the Olympics wherein young women compete on the balance beam, vault, floor exercises,and uneven parallel bars. Unlike in the men's division of this field where power and strength are measured, women in the artistic gymnastics are judged on grace and movement. Technically that is the principle but literally and realistically speaking, the focus of this game is to be able to jump higher than your competitors and still land gracefully on the floor/beam.

In history, there are three great women gymnasts that had been a pioneer and outstanding in their performances. One was Olga Korbut (1972), a 17-year-old gymnast from the Soviet Union, who captivated everyone with her backward somersault off the uneven parallel bars, the Korbut Salto and the Korbut Flip, which  she and her coaches invented. The second one was Romania's Nadia Comaneci (1976), becoming the first gymnast in Olympic history to earn perfect scores. Not only did she become the first gymnast at the Olympics Games to receive the perfect score of ten (a feat she managed seven times), she also won three gold medals; for individual all-around, the beam and the uneven bars; a silver medal in the team all-around, and a bronze for floor exercises. The third was Larissa Latynina (USSR), with 18 Olympic medals. She also holds the joint record for golds, nine, with runners Paavo Nurmi and Carl Lewis and swimmer Mark Spitz. She also won nine world championship gold medals including two in the individual all-around event, in 1958 and 1962.

 Nadia Comaneci: The Perfect 10 - uneven bars

Nadia Comaneci: floor exercises

Nadia Comaneci: balance beam

1981 Interview with Nadia Comaneci

The long-awaited showdown of gymnasts for the Olympic 2008 gold medal in the individual all-around title had come to it's end. Clinching the title was American Nastia Liukin who had a close and stiff fight over China's Yang Yilin in the floor exercises. Shawn Johnson, also an American took the silver medal. 

 Nastia Luikin in floor exercises

 Yang Yilin with same floor exercise at 2008 World Cup Tianjin Finals FX

 Shawn Johnson

Cheng Fei (China) may not be far behind the 3 other winners, watch her in this link (click on Highlights by Sports then Gymnastics).

This is the final result of the game:

China Team

There had been an argument that some of the women (girls really) on the Chinese gymnastics team may be underage. Honestly, sometimes looks can be deceiving. You couldn't compare a 16 year old Asian with an American. Asians, for a fact, look younger than their age compared to a Westerner. The argument is, if a 15-year-old gymnast is as good as or better than a 21-year-old, why shouldn't she get to compete?

Elaine

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