Compulsories: The bane of some gymnasts’ existence, and the bane of some judges’ existence, as well.
Let’s take a look at the 1968 men’s compulsories and how they were judged…
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1968: The Men’s Code of Points
The 1968 men’s Code of Points exploded.
Gymnastics was quickly evolving, and the Men’s Technical Committee was trying to be more prescriptive on what they wanted to see and in which direction they wanted the sport to go.
I’ll do my best to give you the CliffsNotes version of a 194-page document.
In July of 1976, newspapers around the world reported that Nadia Comăneci scored the first 10 in Olympic history.
Nadia Comaneci, a 15‐year‐old Rumanian girl, scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastic history in the women’s uneven parallel bars competition.
New York Times, July 19, 1976
Nadia received a perfect score of 10.00 — the first perfect 10 in Olympic history.
The Daily Yomiuri, July 20, 1976
Unfortunately, what they reported was wrong.
Comăneci was the first female gymnast to score a 10 in Olympic history, but she was not the first gymnast to score a 10. (To be fair, information was much harder to come by in the 1970s.)
What was it like training in Japan in the late 1960s? How many hours did they train? How was the Japanese gymnastics system set up? Did they use spotting belts?
Let’s take a look…
What was it like to train in the Soviet Union in the 1960s? At what age did they start? What were their gyms like? What did their training manuals look like?
Let’s take a look at some documents from the archives to find out…
From October 15-19, 1967, Mexico City held the Third Pre-Olympic Gymnastics Meet. It was part of the Little Olympics. (Nowadays, we’d call it the Olympics Test Event.)
Almost all the stars of gymnastics competed. The most notable exceptions: Věra Čáslavská and Mikhail Voronin.
Let’s take a look at what transpired in Mexico one year before the actual Games.
Věra Čáslavská’s performance was the big news out of Amsterdam in 1967. But it wasn’t the only story.
15-year-old Karin Janz had an incredible international debut. In fact, she was just hundredths away from stopping Čáslavská’s gold medal sweep at the 1967 European Championships.
Let’s take a quick look at her performance…
The 1967 WAG European Championships are a crucial moment in the history of artistic gymnastics. Let’s take a look at why this competition matters…
If you’re reading this site, you’re a big, ol’ gym nerd at heart. Now, it’s time to see just how much of a gym nerd you are. Take the quiz below to find out.
Gym nerds have heard of a magical 12-page Code of Points. But few have seen it.
Well, good news: We, the gymternet, now have the very first Code of Points in our possession thanks to Kathi-Sue Rupp and Hardy Fink.
So, with no further ado, here’s the very first men’s Code of Points.
By the way, if you’re looking for the very first women’s Code of Points, you can find it here.