Olympic gymnastics rules explained

It’s one of the most notable events in the Olympic line up every cycle. Artistic gymnastics takes the world by storm, but how do the rules work? 

Gymnastics is not just gymnastics, if you catch my drift. There are numerous disciplines that fall into this category.

Artistic is the discipline that many think of when they hear the word “gymnastics”.  It’s a compilation of numerous events, taking the individual scores of athletes participating in each event for individual medals. Scores are also tallied towards a team score as well, hence why some of the most decorated Olympians in the world are gymnasts.

Gymnasts have to go through a lot of qualification rounds to get to the all-around and team finals, and rules vary depending on which final they qualify for. NBC Olympics covers how the rules vary for all-around and team finals, but in order to understand that, you have to understand how they keep score.

2021 Olympics: Gymnastics is a sport of numbers, skill and execution

There are 14 medal events in Olympic gymnastics and between men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics, they vary. Skill, difficulty and execution is the name of the game as it applies to this event, and the score plays a role in who goes to team and individual all-around finals.

Scoring is a two-tier process, starting with difficulty. The level of how difficult the routine is plays a role in how the next part of the score is taken into account. The next part is the execution, where judges score the routine by the taking deductions from any slip up. This is usually what we see Simone Biles waiting anxiously for after the vault or floor routine. The final score is a combination of the two.

The final score is compiled to consider the athletes and teams who have the best scores. Though it does seem like a lot going on, the end goal is simple: execute and advance.