How Gymnastics Has Evolved Throughout History

[@AnnekaMorgan]

I've always loved watching gymnastics evolution videos. I wish these clips had labels for what year they were though, some I can tell if I recognize the gymnast or routine but not all.

[@iomoon3608]

Korbut sure loved to do deadly skills!

[@WienGolf]

Apart from the development of the skills it’s interesting to so how the bodies of the gymnasts developed: women - children - athletes

[@michnathalie]

I don't know much, but it looks like in the past it was more elegant and now it's more powerful and that's the reason the atlethe's bodies are different nowadays

[@courtneycoley8487]

Bc most of them started out with ballet

[@anthonygordon9483]

Its about innovation. Every Gold Medalist won by doing something different. Simone Biles is considered the greatest gymnast of all time because she has 8 moves, some you saw in the video that can not be replicated by anyone else in the world. It seems more powerful now days simply because the moves have gotten way more challenging. You can't go home with a gold doing something they did 60 years ago. Its almost like skating boarding. You do the basic tricks and original tricks first for easy points. Then you do the new and challenging tricks at the end to bring home the gold.

[@YGardenRose]

I agree

[@rickwrites2612]

In past it was more emphasis on control and strength , whereas later the emphasis on acrobatics and tumbling.

[@saragrant9749]

In the past there was also a significant focus on the appearance of the gymnast- a stereotypical mold that the girls were expected to fit into. Many dealt with body image issues, eating disorders, psychological issues etc because of it… and some died far too young as a consequence. The gymnasts of today are encouraged to be strong, athletic and healthy.

[@mostucker1624]

Skimming through the comments, this will be an unpopular opinion, but... I think it's incredible what women's gymnastics has grown to become (obvious fallbacks being when athletes are pushed too far, abused, viewed as objects, etc. -- we need improvements across the board to protect and support these athletes). Artistry was the name of the game back in the day, but dance has its own place in society. (Also my opinion that dance appreciation should grow and develop even more!) Gymnastics should be about showing what the human body is capable of. I do enjoy watching artistic elements in a gymnastic routine, particularly when it comes to flow and connections, but when a gymnast demonstrates their sheer power and skill, I am captivated! Just as I am captivated by the endurance, flexibility, and artistry of a dancer - but they are different fields and should be appreciated with different platforms.

[@robinrichards6577]

I wholeheartedly agree.

[@AveryWeinstein]

Dang. I could’ve been an amazing gymnast back in the day.

[@nate24]

this has got to be one of THE best formatted videos ever. kudos to packing so much into 13 minutes!!

[@darrylrutledge6719]

The changes made to the equipment over the years has also helped skill advancements and safety (spring-loaded floors, wider bars. Padded beams. Vaulting tables).

[@lesmith939]

Excellent story here!! The comparison of the 1936 Olympic gymnasts to today's is incredible. What quantum leaps taken. :^)

[@saragrant9749]

Gymnastics of yesteryear was incredible. Gymnastics of today is STILL incredible. It has evolved, been revolutionized, modernized and so on. One is not any better than the other, all is great. Let’s get that through our heads people!!!

[@angelafisher5726]

Uneven bars and vault have sure changed a LOT

[@saragrant9749]

So has floor in truth. The advent of a spring floor made more difficult tumbling possible- and saved many a gymnast’s back, hips and ankles.

[@terrimartinez6547]

It used to be all about grace, poise, flexibility and form...now it's about power and the wow factor.

[@iomoon3608]

Well, I guess that’s what rhythmic gymnastics is for now.

[@ktownsend8622]

Poise and flexibility are still very much needed items in gymnastics, flexibility and poise are the foundation that it’s hard to see in the elite levels but it is still very much taught.

[@Katelovesanimalsmost2134]

Can you even imagine it evolving any further than it has in our current time? It's hard to imagine !

[@faosparkNeo]

@@iomoon3608 well Rhythmic should then be called Artistic Gtmnastics then and Artistic Gymnastics should be called show and stunts.

[@cesarquintanavinau2251]

@@faosparkNeo well, Artistic should be directly called cheerleading (a new olympic routine, by the way along with break dance....LOL) or circus. Gruesome!

[@elsiebert2273]

Excellent compilation of women's gymnastics through the years. Great to see Cathy Rigby included from the early 70s! She captured the attention of many young girls in the 1972 Olympics at a rime when sports for girls started to become much better funded and developed.

[@gymcoach95]

Being a Gymnastics coach and personally training girls who compete today, it is interesting to see the control and artistic form the gymnast used to have. While the girls gymnastics of today has gained more power skills, it has lost much of its artistic elements which is what really separates the women's difficulty level from the men's gymnastics. My unpopular opinion is that while gymnastics is still quite difficult, the women of today would have a hard time doing gym the way the women like Ulga and Nadia did. They have not been trained this type of control any longer.

[@gymcoach95]

side note, in the day of Nadia and even into the 90's, much of the equipment was very different; a lot harder, as well as a lot less springy

[@courtneycoley8487]

Most of those girls also looked like they started in ballet

[@semicarbazone1]

Have you read about the torture that Ulga and Nadia endured when they were in training?

[@robertvirnig638]

@@courtneycoley8487 I was going to mention that gymnastics used to have more in common with the artistry and precision of ballet and modern dance. Now we have routines that are so difficult that the gymnast can't perform them cleanly even on their very best day. They're not really the same sport at all.

[@charlotte_piglover]

Yes! First! Love this!! :) Once again, amazing.

[@niclogan]

This just makes me wonder what gymnastics will become years on out, where today's is considered ancient practice. It's mind blowing.

[@jcortese3300]

1. Olga Korbut still makes you pucker a bit to watch her. Some of the things she did were terrifying. The whole sport changes with her. 2. Glad to see Retton here -- she was the first of the fireplugs, the incredible little bundles of muscle that own the sport nowdays. What a deity. 3. Would like to have seen a full Raisman pass. 🙂 4. Simone Biles shows up and you go, "Oh Lord, here we go ... !"

[@OnlyJalenPhd]

Watching Simone Biles’ performance is incredible!

[@azaleasmart6455]

Fantastic video, thank you.

[@girrl88]

I miss watching sheep jumps on beam, they are so much prettier than wolf spins.

[@paulaa-nk2hk]

Wow! I like it so much

[@ailiicat]

does the new style of floor mat having more spring make it more difficult to truly stick the landing without a bounce? Or is that just because they are running faster / jumping higher / landing with more force than they used to? Old floor videos - the floor does not seem to bounce/spring the way it does now

[@mistybenjamin9009]

I think that the uneven bars were harder than they are now. And more elegant and exciting. Now it's the same ole, same ole.

[@saragrant9749]

Don’t watch then. Uneven bars of yesteryear caused many a girl to experience infertility, severe back and hip issues, and even digestive issues from the constant beating against the low bar. Today’s uneven bars have great originality, new skills and connections that come along all the time and are much SAFER.

[@neminan]

Olga Korbut is the Legend

[@rickwrites2612]

The Old way emphasized control and strength, the newer emphasizes acrobatics and tumbling.

[@saragrant9749]

And nothing is wrong with either!

[@charleyanne]

Great show of evolution in the sport! Can we get men's also?

[@CCRoxtar]

Indeed, I don't see much of the men, though I did grow up hearing of Peter Vidmar. And more recently I've heard of Bart Conner who won 2 gold medals in his glory days & is now married to Nadia Comaneci.

[@tracygaylor9505]

Incredible, a documentary hosted by a gymnat who knows many things about this history would be awesome. Just saying

[@83shaunam]

Just when you think the human body can't be pushed further, they push it further. Kinda makes you wonder where we top out. In 30 years, will Simone biles' skill level be just average among the elite?

[@kantbtamed1032]

Not without trans humanist futurism. Very smart ppl have done the math on the limits of the human body. We are topping out on most of these skills as a species. Improvements really only occur with changes in equipment for most sports.

[@nelia07]

Can you do a video with the best german gymnasts?

[@girrafesaretall1446]

I wanna start rhythamic gymnastics but i am turning 13 this year should I start or should I just do something easier?

[@elena-cosminamelinte3299]

If you want to do rhytmic gymnastics go for it. At least see how you will handle it. Its best than to leave with regret and what ifs, take it from me, an ex gymnast that quit because i was too afraid of beam, but damn, besides that i had flexibility, strenght and i really loved being în the gym.

[@saragrant9749]

If you have the desire to do something, never hesitate to give it a go. It’s better to give something a shot than not do so and regret the decision.

[@gojewla]

I am pretty sure I could do those early vaults, and I have never set foot inside a gym.

[@sadiebeast97]

Depending on your physical strength and athletic abilities. But, please do not underestimate those early gymnasts. Even those vaults are difficult. Just look at their bodies, strong and toned.

[@jessicamays8892]

I wonder what gymnasts like Olga, Nadia, Mary Lou think of Simone Biles

[@azieldaly2965]

they love her

[@queencerseilannister3519]

Oh I'm sure they admire her. ❤

[@c.h.1066]

@@queencerseilannister3519 Simone Biles is overrated.

[@queencerseilannister3519]

@@c.h.1066 Right. lmao

[@saragrant9749]

@@c.h.1066not like you are. She is a multi time world champion, multi time Olympic champion, the winner of the most medals in the history of gymnastics. You are? Oh right, a mouthpiece on a keyboard and nothing more.

[@MrJbee1982]

Does anyone know if the difficulty of the moves have gotten harder or easier since the 80-90s? Seems like gymnast where better then than now looking at the moves...I dunno

[@kiminimuchu__]

Depends on the apparatuses and the types of moves. There's a lot more regulations nowadays to ban dangerous moves, if a move has too much pottential for serious injuries chances are nowadays it's banned. Difficulty has overall consistently increased, but it's in part also thanks to changes to the appartuses. The uneven bars is probably the one that has changed the most, they're are now so much further apart because now most routines focus on swing and release moves, not to mention having the bars closer together is more dangerous (accidentally hitting the lower bar while swinging on the higher one can lead to serious spine injuries). Moves like the Korbut Flip (2:23) are very much banned now for being so dangerous. The ballance beam has clearly become much more difficult. On 2:27, also by Olga Korbut in '72, that backflip she did on the beam was basically unheard of back then, they didn't use to do risky moves like that on the beam before, but since she did that athletes started doing harder and harder jumps on the beam. Nowadays backflips are quite common. The floor back then used to have no trampolines and was hardly padded at all, so it was much harder to jump high and the landing was much thougher (in some interviews some of these athletes would mention how some of their moves actually hurt to perform), but it also meant that doing some of the harder jumps they do nowadays would have been pretty much impossible. The vault's tampoline was also harder and didn't have as much spring to it compared to now. These changes allow for harder moves to be performed, and, of course, athletes are always trying to push the limits further and further, so technically the difficulty of the moves themselves has increased, although it was thanks to modifications to the apparatuses that allow for that to happen, because no one would be performing some of those jumps on a hard floor, and it's quite impressive what athletes used to do when you consider the floors used to have no springs at all.

[@jenniferlaine3817]

@@kiminimuchu__ well said. Thank you for the information.

[@tatapamy8174]

Could someone tell me in which year Martha and Bela Karolyi competed please?Did they win golden medals as gymnasts?I mean..I sourced for some information or video about it but I've never find out nothing...

[@naturalbluti6823]

Gymnast bsck then look so much taller than the current Gymnast. I wonder why??

[@squadup22]

Lawrence Kenshin video vibes!

[@boraxsopanic2670]

Nonsense. Take away the springed surfaces of today we'd see far more injuries. Also the gymnasts are smaller. It's not the same and ridiculous to compare. It did "evolve".

[@vivianne6317]

its a horrible development, the female elegants floats away in this new world of power and the girls get younger and younger. I love the old version

[@saragrant9749]

The girls were at their youngest in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Today many are competing well into their 20’s. They are still elegant but with the allowance to be strong and athletic instead of starved little dolls. Get over it.

[@c.h.1066]

I liked gymnastics more in the 70s/80s, when it was all about elegance. Nowadays it's only about who can put more jumps in it. So sad.

[@petalchild]

Yeah, so sad that teenage girls aren't being forced to starve themselves anymore. Right.

[@jak6744]

@@petalchild Now they are force to look muscular nothing change

[@courtneycoley8487]

90s was awesome too

[@cesarquintanavinau2251]

@@petalchild No, they are directly molested by their trainers, they are forced to take steroids and to deform their bodies risking their health and forced to attempt extemely difficult routines risking to get painful injuries and their lifes sometimes. Yes, the change is subsancial. :)

[@jaguar6414]

@@jak6744 they become muscular because their bodies are trained. Then gymnasts back then we’re only thin because they were starved, controlled, and forced to vomit up their meals. The shift in gymnastics from aerobics to power is a good one, it allows us all to enjoy the sport knowing the athletes are safer.

[@oscard9643]

It just gets worse and worse, they turned into little power tanks with no grace, no body, nothing. It's almost like watching dumb 'murican wrestling. That is a shame.

[@saragrant9749]

What’s a shame is that there are judgemental foolish toddlers like you out there who have nothing better to do than body shame amazing, strong HEALTHY ATHLETES. Go root around in someone else’s pigpen.

[@leelab8307]

Putting together randomly gymnasts you like and only very famous ones and leaving out many others doesn't show/explain how gymnastics evolved.

[@misskitty3351]

Make your own video with gymnasts you prefer

[@jasminebaum9343]

Oh shut up!

[@joyfuljaj]

It showed the ones who won competitions throughout the years so it shows what top scoring gymnastics has looked like.

[@1itslaurahere1]

@@joyfuljaj I mean some of them got good results but I didn't see a lot of gymnasts that had a huge impact on gymnastics there. Khorkina, Silivas, Chuso, just to name a few. Also, if they were there, there wasn't any indication, which is already bad. Most of the examples shown specially from the mid 80s forward were American gymnasts, and in a lot of examples, in domestic competitions, and I'd argue that results from international events, from many different countries, are better examples

[@joyfuljaj]

@@1itslaurahere1 good points. I am not great at remembering the specific era of the famous gymnasts.

[@blackangel1690]

Japan and Soviet is the best gymnastics nation in the world, not USA and China !