Evolution: Gymnastics

Origins: The sport of gymnastics dates well beyond the Ancient Olympic Games. In fact, the Chinese some 2,000 years earlier practised mass gymnastic exercises as part of the art of "Wushu". When gymnastics first appeared on the Olympic programme in 1896, it included events such as ropeclimbing and club-swinging. Women first competed in gymnastics events at the 1928 Games in a team event. It was not until 1952 that individual apparatus was used at the Games. Gymnastics is split into artistic and rhythmic events, the latter introduced in 1984.

Artistic: There are seven gymnasts in each team, six of whom compete on each apparatus, performing one compulsory and one optional series of exercises. Four judges mark each exercise out of 10 points. The top and bottom scores are discarded and the middle two averaged to give the total. For the team event, the best five gymnast's scores count towards the overall total. From the team event, the top 36 scoring (a maximum of three men and three women from any one country) gymnasts go forward for the individual all-round events. The highest combined score wins.

Rhythmic: 40 women gymnasts take part in the individual all-round competition. The preliminary rounds consist of one optional exercise to music, using each apparatus: ball, club, rope and ribbon. These exercises are marked out of 10 points and the top 20 go through to the semi-final.

The stars that shone above the rest: At the Mexico City Games in 1968, Vera Caslavska of Czechoslovakia was the undisputed heroine. Two months before the Olympics, when Soviet tanks invaded Prague, she was forced to hide in the hills. She kept in shape by swinging on trees and dancing around in the grassy meadows. Despite this, she retained her all-around title.

Between 1956 and 1964, Soviet gymnast Larysa Latynina won an unprecedented 18 Olympic medals (nine gold, five silver and four bronze). Latynina later served as coach of the Soviet team from 1967 until 1977. In 1972, Lyudmila Turischeva won the all-around title but the Western press was more interested in her less accomplished but more charismatic Soviet team-mate Olga Korbut. By the end of the Munich Olympics, Korbut was an international celebrity.

The perfect 10: During the team competition in Montreal in 1976, Nadia Comaneci made Olympic history by scoring the first perfect scores of 10 for her performances on the uneven bars and the balance beam - despite being just 14 - and ended up winning the all-around title.

What about the blokes? Talk of champions must include five-foot three-inch Sawao Kato of Japan. In 1972, he became only the third repeat winner of the men's allaround title and ended up winning eight gold medals between 1968 and 1976. In more recent years, the "number-four man" Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus won four gold medals in one day in 1992 (bringing his total to a record six) and returned four years later to add four more bronzes.

Wearing of the green: That honour goes to Dublin's Barry McDonald, who four years ago in Atlanta became the first Irishman to compete in the Olympic gymnastic competition. He had won the American NCAA title on the parallel bars prior to Atlanta as well as winning Irish titles at every age group from his junior years.

The Crying Game: Remember the name Kerri Strug? In Atlanta four years ago, the Americans were battling with the Russians in the Combined Team discipline and were depending on Strug to produce a good score in the final round, the vault. In her first vault, she attempted a Yurchenko one-and-a-half twist but landed short and felt a sharp pain shoot up from her left ankle. The bone was broken and she had scored just 9.162.

What happened next would transform Strug - who had so far played a supporting role to her more popular American teammates - into a national heroine. At 18 and just four feet, nine inches in height, Strug had less than two minutes to decide if she should pass her second vault. But the American coaches believed they needed a 9.6 to secure the gold medal. She made the second jump, stuck the landing, hopped a couple of times on her right foot and the collapsed in agony. But she had scored 9.712 and Hollywood beckoned.

New bounce for Sydney: The trampoline now makes its debut at the Olympics as a new gymnastics discipline. Just 12 men and women have been invited to compete - 10 of them based on the results of the recent World Trampoline Championships and the other two being wild-card entries.

Socks or gymnastics shoes? Likely to cause some debate among the trampolinists. They may compete in either socks or gymnastics shoes, although other rules are more specific. The ceiling most be at least eight metres high and the seven judges award points for execution and degree of difficulty.