It’s almost unthinkable for the Summer Olympics to not include gymnastics. With superhuman skills, mesmerizing performance elements, glittering uniforms and nail-biting competition, it’s no wonder that gymnastics is one of the most watched and beloved sports at the Olympics. But for all its glory, Olympic gymnastics as we know it today hasn’t been around for very long. Just 100 years ago, it was barely recognizable.
At the 1908 Summer Olympics, instead of a colorful gymnasium filled with high-tech cameras, you might look around the outdoor arena and see a woman in a knee-length skirt performing on a pommel horse in a non-competitive skills show. Female gymnasts were first officially allowed to compete in 1928, and since then, there have been some pretty big changes in both men’s and women’s competitions. Older gymnastics events like rope climbs have been eliminated, classic apparatus has been swapped between the sexes, and new events like the balance beam have appeared in 1954. Even events that have long been staples of the sport, like the women’s balance beam, have evolved dramatically with changes in technology, gender norms, and skill levels.
Scrolling through these archival photos, I not only saw the sport advance technically, but also witnessed the establishment of a bona fide cultural phenomenon. I grew up doing cartwheels in my living room while watching the Summer Olympics, listening to my mom recount the moment Kelly Strug landed on her broken ankle in 1996, and talking about each member of the 2016 Fierce Five as if they were close friends. When I think of the Olympics, I think of gymnastics, with names like Olga Korbut, Nadia Comaneci, and Mary Lou Retton remembered as sporting legends. While many of us take for granted the sheer spectacle of the sport at the Olympics, these photos made me realize just how far the sport has come (…and made Simone Biles’ achievement of GOAT status less than 100 years after women were first allowed to compete that much more satisfying).
As we eagerly await the first gymnastics broadcasts from Paris, enjoy this snapshot of the past century of Olympic competition. (It balances “Was that humanly possible?” with “Was that socially normal?”) A little background might make you enjoy the 2024 Olympics even more.
1908
1908
