Jimnastik

Jimnastik, or gymnastics, is a sport that emphasizes strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, and control as athletes perform routines on specialized apparatus or in floor-based programs. It is practiced across several disciplines that cater to different skills, styles, and competitive formats, from athletic performances to artistic expressions and group routines.

Artistic gymnastics is the best-known branch; men compete on floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal bar, while women compete on vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor. Rhythmic gymnastics blends dance with apparatus handling and is dominated by female competitors, using rope, hoop, ball, clubs, and ribbon. Trampoline gymnastics focuses on routine combinations of jumps on a trampoline, including synchronized events. Other disciplines include tumbling, acrobatic gymnastics, and aerobic gymnastics, each with specialized formats and judging.

The sport is governed internationally by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), with national federations organizing activities within their countries. Gymnastics is a central sport of the Olympic Games: artistic gymnastics has been contested since 1896, rhythmic gymnastics since 1984, and trampoline since 2000. The World Championships in each discipline provide major biennial or annual competition, and the sport uses a Code of Points that balances difficulty and execution in scoring.

Historically, Jimnastik traces to 18th- and 19th-century European gymnastic traditions, notably the Turnen movement in Germany led by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, which promoted physical culture and national unity. The sport evolved toward standardized apparatus, judging, and international competition in the 20th century.