Gymnastics

Nastia Liukin

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Gymnastics at the 2012 Games will be held at North Greenwich Arena 1, which hosted the 2009 World Championships. Originally built for the Millennium celebrations, North Greenwich Arena 1 has been transformed into a sports and entertainment arena with shops and restaurants. It opened to the public in June 2007

Competitors

Twelve men's teams and 12 women's teams (with a maximum of five athletes per team) compete in the Olympic artistic gymnastics competition.

In addition, individual competitors from other countries may qualify into the Games, for a maximum of 98 men and 98 women. Competitors must turn 16 by December 31, 2012.

Competition format

There are four phases of competition in artistic gymnastics.

Competition 1: Qualifying

Unlike in Beijing, the maximum number of competitors on a team is five, with four competing on each event and three scores counting. The top eight teams advance to the final.

The top 24 all-around gymnastics, maximum two per country, advance to the all-around final.

The top eight gymnasts on each event, maximum two per country, advance to the apparatus finals. Gymnasts wishing to qualify to the vault final must show two vaults; only one counts toward team and all-around competition.

Competition 2: All-Around Finals

Medals are awarded to the top three athletes.

Competition 3: Event Finals

Medals are awarded to the top three athletes on each event.

Gymnasts must perform two vaults.

Competition 4: Team Finals

The top eight teams advance. Five gymnasts are on each team, with three competing on each event. All three scores count toward the team total.

Scoring

Since the 2004 Games in Athens, a code of points system was introduced in 2005 to replace the old scoring system for all events. The Perfect 10 as a maximum score was abolished in favor of an open-ended system, designed to allow greater separation of gymnasts' scores. 

One panel of judges starts from 0, adding points for requirements, difficulty and connections.

A second panel of judges starts from 10.0, and deducts for execution and artistry.

The final score is determined by adding the difficulty score and the execution score. A typical score under today's rules ranges from 14 to 17 points.

Outside of the change in a gymnasts' final score, the most notable change is that gymnasts are more heavily penalized for execution errors.