Artistic Gymnastics became its own discipline by specializing in distinguished athletic performance and artistry, different from the military aspect of gymnastics used by the ancient Greeks. The prominence of modern artistic gymnastics began in the 19th century with the invention of apparatus events like the horizontal and parallel bars, both of which are still used to this day. This discipline of gymnastics is characterized by athletes who perform short and intense routines on various different apparatuses. It is a discipline that strives for perfect execution and true mastery of the various apparatus and demands special dedication, time, and effort to excel in the sport.
Separated into men’s and women’s events, male gymnasts compete in a total of 6 apparatus events: Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse, Still Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar, whereas the female gymnasts compete in a total of 4 apparatus events: Vault, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam, and Floor Exercise, which totals up to 8 apparatus events in total as the Floor Exercise and Vault events are shared among both men and women. Each apparatus is unique and distinct, requiring different specialization as different events favour different body types and necessitates different techniques. True mastery of all the apparatus events takes exceptional skill and determination but will result in the perfect all-around gymnast. The women’s event of Floor Exercise is exceptionally unique as the routines are accompanied by music. Over and above the technical elements similar to that of a men’s Floor Exercise routine, the women’s event also includes artistic and dance-like movements that equate to a truly magnificent performance.
These routines are performed and scrutinised by a panel of judges that calculate the score of the routine. Previously, a perfect score of 10 points was the end all be all for all gymnasts. However, as the sport grew in prominence, a new scoring system was proposed that would remove the upper limit which meant no maximum scores and unlimited possibilities. This scoring system involved two different types of judges that would evaluate different aspects of a gymnastics routine. One judge would evaluate the execution of a routine and calculate the execution score (E score) which still has a maximum score of 10 from which points would be deducted for errors, while another judge would calculate the difficulty score (D score) of the routine by evaluating compulsory elements, difficulty values of a skill, and skill connection bonuses. The difficulty value of all the different gymnastic skills are regulated by the FIG in the Code of Points which is standardized for all gymnasts and regularly updated to include new skills with higher difficulty. Gymnasts would use the Code of Points to create their routines and decide their starting difficulty value. The final score of the gymnastics routine is the sum of their D and E score, which at a world class level, would almost always be higher than the outdated “perfect 10”.
Artistic Gymnastics competitions occur at the global level at the Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cups. At an international level, regional competitions like the Commonwealth, European, and SEA Games also include artistic gymnastics. National level competitions are also held in Malaysia with SUKMA, National Championships, SportExcel, Sirkit Remaja, and MSSM and various other competitions at the state and district level.