OLYMPIC HISTORY

Gymnastics has been an Olympic sport from ancient times and from the start of the modern Games in 1896. Until 1924, when gymnastics settled into a format not unlike the one we know today for artistic gymnasts, the sport also featured rope climbing, tumbling, club swinging, pole vault and even swimming among its disciplines.

At Paris in 1924, men competed in individual and team events on each gym apparatus. The women followed in Amsterdam in 1928. Since then, the dominant force has been the Soviet Union, while the former Soviet bloc countries posed the biggest threat. China, too, with its diminutive talent and aptitude for harsh regimes of discipline, is a force to be reckoned with in gymnastic pursuits, though its dominance on the diving boards is not replicated so rigidly in the gymnasium.

Two of the most famous gymnasts in history are both Russian. Larysa Latynina remains the most medalled Olympian in history, with 18 medals between 1956 and 1964, including nine gold, five silver and four bronze. Olga Korbut, the diminutive star of the 1972 Games stole more hearts than she won gold medals but her love affair with the media was one of the highlights of the Munich Games.

Far more successful was Nadia Comaneci, the Romanian whose brilliance took the breath away. In 1976 at the Games in Montreal, Comaneci, born in Onesti, Moldova, she made history by becoming the first gymnast to be awarded perfect scores of 10 for the efforts on the uneven bars and the beam. As the row of 10s popped up on the scoreboard, the audience gasped. Afterwards, a journalist asked Comaneci whether she had plans to retire. Looking bewildered, she murmured: "I'm only 14."

If her efforts were impressive, injuries sustained during competition have often been almost as spectacular. Memorable moments included the incident in which Shun Fujimoto, of Japan, broke his kneecap in Montreal but hid the injury from team-mates and coach so that the team could carry on competing. Japan went on to beat the Soviet Union 576.85 points to 576.45 and Fujimoto became a national hero. Likewise Kerri Strug, a member of the winning US team in Atlanta, captured the hearts of the nation when her ankle popped as she landed from the vault. She had to be carried off by her coach and was supported by team-mates as they received their gold medals. The incident doubtless contributed to her vast Games earning power.

The nature of gymnastics has seen many of its protagonists become multiple medal-winners. The record for winning the most gold medals in a single day across all sports stands at four to Vitaly Scherbo, of Belarus, who in 1992 also became the first gymnast to win six gold medals at one Olympic Games. Equally, Vera Caslavska, of Czechoslovakia, collected seven individual gold medals, a record among women, at the 1964 and 1968 Games. Nikolai Andrianov, of the Soviet Union, won 15 medals, more than any other man across all sports, between 1972 and 1980.

Among men in Sydney, watch for Laoshuang, of China, Alexei Bondarenko, of Russia, and Ivan Ivanenko, of Belarus, while Ling Jie and Liu Xuan, of China, Anna Kovalyova and Yekaterina Lobaznyuk, of Russia, and Liliya Podkopayeva, the gold medal-winner from Ukraine, lead the women's artistic event.

Ekaterina Serebrianskaya, defending Olympic champion, and Elena Vitrichenko, her Ukraine teammate and the 1997 world champion, are favourites in rhythmic gymnastics, while gymnasts from Russia, Belarus and France are expected to dominate in the debut trampolining events.