Pajek, M.: INDIVIDUAL APPARATUS RESULTS OF FEMALE ALL AROUND Vol. 10 Issue 3: 357 - 368 INDIVIDUAL APPARATUS RESULTS OF FEMALE ALL AROUND OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS Maja Pajek University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Sport, Slovenia Original article Abstract The changes of Code of Points stimulate the rise in exercise difficulty and a drive towards increased specialization of gymnasts. We inspected the performance of all-around medalists at individual apparatus finals to analyze the trends in their efficiency to reach the podium. Data from Olympic games 1952-2016 was included in this retrospective study. In the period form 1952-1984 there were 5 occasions when all-round winners reached 75 to 100% efficiency in reaching the podium at all individual apparatus finals. However overall, there is a clear trend of diminished efficiency of all-around winners to reach the podium at individual finals in the observed period (1952-2016) from the average of 7.7 medals in the first three observed events to 4.3 medals at the last three observed events. Olympic all-around champion efficiency was calculated from sum of all medals won by all-around champions on apparatuses divided by 4. This efficiency has decreased from 91.7% in the first three events to 41.7% in the last three events. In recent events all-around champions still managed to win at least one medal on single apparatuses as there was only one exception to this rule at 2012. It is very much probable that in the future all-around champions will excel further at single apparatus finals; however a huge predominance of all-around champions at apparatus finals cannot be expected any more. Key words: history, artistic gymnastics, development. INTRODUCTION The Olympic Games (OG) are a major international multi - sport event. Becoming an Olympic champion is a dream of many elite athletes. Many years of practice are needed to achieve the top level performance in gymnastics. It takes around 10 000 working hours or minimum of 10 years to achieve the Olympic quality (Arkaev & Suchilin, 2004; Ericsson, Charness, Feltovich and Hoffman, 2006; Gladwell, 2008; Malina, 2010; Fink & Hofmann, 2015; Fink, Hofmann, & Ortiz Lopez, 2015). But, unfortunately, top level performance may not be enough to become an Olympic champion; during the history of OG, some boycotts due to political issues were executed, that prevented top level athletes to compete and also the OG competition regulations became more demanding. Nevertheless, being the Olympic champion is still regarded as the biggest achievement of every athlete. Science of Gymnastics Journal 357 Science of Gymnastics Journal Pajek, M.: INDIVIDUAL APPARATUS RESULTS OF FEMALE ALL AROUND Vol. 10 Issue 3: 357 - 368 Artistic gymnastics is one of the disciplines that have always featured the Olympic program (Wallechinsky, & Loucky, 2012). Female gymnastics made its first appearance at OG in Amsterdam, 1928, with a team event. Only a team exercise with rhythmic apparatus and one exercise on chosen apparatus was allowed. Women competed in suits and only male judges were allowed to judge (Bučar, 1998). Women's artistic gymnastics was not staged in 1932 but it reappeared in 1936 (Topends sports, 2018). In 1933 female technical committee was founded and it governs the development of female artistic gymnastics ever since. Its rules were summarized in the Code of Points (COP) (Bučar, 1998). In 1952 at OG in Helsinki female program expanded to seven events and in Rome, 1960, gained its final form of six events (Wallechinsky, & Loucky, 2012): team competition, all around and four apparatus disciplines - vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor. In the 1950s and 1960s COP focused on artistry and was largely inspired by ballet (Atikovic, Delaš Kalinski, & Smajlovic, 2017; Atikovic, Delaš Kalinski, & Čuk, 2017). At that time Larysa Latynina (Russia, ex - Soviet Union) and Vera Časlavska (Czech, ex - Czechoslovakia) dominated the women artistic gymnastics (Wallechinsky, & Loucky, 2012). Since then artistic gymnastics became more demanding in terms of complexity and difficulty of elements. It was not only enough to perform higher, faster and stronger elements, but the technical execution of elements gained crucial impact as well (Zurc, 2017). Increments in element difficulty were paralleled by the rise of precision of judging and its regulation (Čuk, & Atikovic, 2009; Čuk, & Forbes, 2010; Bučar Pajek, Forbes, Pajek, Leskošek, & Čuk, 2011; Bučar Pajek, Čuk, Pajek, Karacsony & Leskošek, 2012; Bučar Pajek, Čuk, Pajek, Kovač, & Leskošek, 2013; Delaš Kalinski, Atikovic, Jelaska, & Milic, 2016). Changes of COP occured from one Olympic cycle to another with a strong influence on artistic gymnastics development. In the period from 1952 to 1996 gymnasts had to perform two routines on each apparatus - a compulsory and an optional one. Until 2006, upper limit of the score was set to a fixed number (mostly up to 10.0 points). From 2006 on, exercises are being evaluated upon open-end score: the content and the exercise difficulty determine gymnast's theoretical maximum score (FIG, 2006). These changes stimulated a general rise in exercise difficulty and could have been a driver towards increased specialization of gymnasts. From this point of view, it would be useful to inspect the performance of all-around medalists at individual apparatuses to analyze the historical perspective of competitors that excel as all-around performers. Such an analysis would also help to predict the future developments of this sport. Aim of our research was therefore set to analyze the timely trends of success of all-round medalists at individual apparatuses at the OG. METHODS We collected all data on OG results from Wallechinsky, & Loucky, 2012 and from gymnasticsresults.com in the period from OG 1952 up to OG 2016. We included following variables at each OG: number of participants, number of participant nations, identity of any gymnast that won a medal at all-around competition and individual apparatuses, sum of all medals won by all-around medalists, sum of gold medals won by all-around medalists, sum of silver medals won by all-around medalists, sum of bronze-medals won by all around medalists, sum of all medals won by the all-around medalists (excluding team medals) on individual apparatuses (three all-around medalists could get 12 medals at individual apparatuses in total, as each all-around medalist can earn maximum 4 apparatus medals). With this sum of medals, we calculated Olympic all-around champion efficiency (all individual apparatus medals of all-around winners divided by 4). We also determined which all-around champions earned most apparatus medals. Science of Gymnastics Journal 358 Science of Gymnastics Journal Pajek, M.: INDIVIDUAL APPARATUS RESULTS OF FEMALE ALL AROUND Vol. 10 Issue 3: 357 - 368 RESULTS Results are showed in Figures and Tables. In first five Figures number of gymnasts and nations at Olympic games qualifications at all around competitions, vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor are shown. Figure 1. Number of gymnasts and nations at Olympic games in all-around qualifications. Figure 2. Number of gymnasts and nations at Olympic games on vault qualifications. Science of Gymnastics Journal 359 Science of Gymnastics Journal Pajek, M.: INDIVIDUAL APPARATUS RESULTS OF FEMALE ALL AROUND Vol. 10 Issue 3: 357 - 368 140 Competitors ^^^ Nations Figure 3. Number of gymnasts and nations at Olympic games on uneven bars qualifications. Figure 4. Number of gymnasts and nations at Olympic games on balance beam qualifications. Science of Gymnastics Journal 360 Science of Gymnastics Journal Pajek, M.: INDIVIDUAL APPARATUS RESULTS OF FEMALE ALL AROUND Vol. 10 Issue 3: 357 - 368 Figure 5. Number of gymnasts and nations at Olympic games on floor qualifications. Table 1 shows the year and place of each OG, names of gymnasts who won medals in all-around competitions and individual apparatuses. Names of medalists are shown in the sequence related to the place they achieved: first name identifies the first place (gold medal), the second name identifies second place (silver medal) and the third name identifies third place (bronze medal). Science of Gymnastics Journal 361 Science of Gymnastics Journal Pajek, M.: INDIVIDUAL APPARATUS RESULTS OF FEMALE ALL AROUND Vol. 10 Issue 3: 357 - 368 Table 1 Names of gymnasts who won medal in all around and apparatus finals. Year Place All around Vault Uneven bars Balance beam Floor 1952 Helsinki Gorochovskia Maria Bocharova Nina Korondi Margit Kalinchuk Yekaterina Gorochovskia Maria Minaicheva Galina Korondi Margit Gorochovskia Maria Keleti Agnes Bocharova Nina Gorochovskia Maria Korondi Margit Keleti Agnes Gorochovskia Maria Korondi Margit 1956 Melbourne Latynina Larysa Keleti Agnes Muratova Sofia Latynina Larysa Manina Tamara Colling-Pettersson Ann S. Keleti Agnes Latynina Larysa Muratova Sofia Keleti Agnes Bosakova Eva Manina Tamara Keleti Agnes Latynina Larysa Leustean Elena 1960 Rome Latynina Larysa Muratova Sofia Astakhova Polina Nikolayeva Marharyta Muratova Sofia Latynina Larysa Astakhova Polina Latynina Larysa Lyukhina Tamara Bosakova Eva Latynina Larysa Muratova Sofia Latynina Larysa Astakhova Polina Lyukhina Tamara 1964 Tokio Caslavska Vera Latynina Larysa Astakhova Polina Caslavska Vera Latynina Larysa Radochia Birgit Astakhova Polina Makray Katalin Latynina Larysa Caslavska Vera Manina Tamara Latynina Larysa Latynina Larysa Astakhova Polina Janosi-Ducza Aniko 1968 Mexico City Caslavska Vera Voronina Zinaida Kuchinskaya Natalya Caslavska Vera Zuchold Erika Voronina Zinaida Caslavska Vera Janz Karin Voronina Zinaida Kuchinskaya Natalya Caslavska Vera Petrik Larissa Caslavska Vera Petrik Larissa Kuchinskaya Natalya 1972 Munich Turischeva Lyudmila Janz Karin Lazakovich Tamara Janz Karin Zuchold Erika Turischeva Lyudmila Janz Karin Korbut Olga Zuchold Erika Korbut Olga Lazakovich Tamara Janz Karin Korbut Olga Turischeva Lyudmila Lazakovich Tamara 1976 Montreal Comaneci Nadia Kim Nelli Turischeva Lyudmila Kim Nelli Dombeck Carola Turischeva Lyudmila Comaneci Nadia Ungureanu Teodora Egervari Marta Comaneci Nadia Korbut Olga Ungureanu Teodora Kim Nelli Turischeva Lyudmila Comaneci Nadia 1980 Moscow Davydova Yelena Comaneci Nadia Gnauck Maxi Shaposhnikova Natalya Kraaker Steffi Ruhn Melita Gnauck Maxi Eberle Emilia Egervari Marta Comaneci Nadia Davydova Yelena Shaposhnikova Yelena Comaneci Nadia Kim Nelli Gnauck Maxi 1984 Los Angeles Retton Mary Lou Szabo Ecaterina Pauca Simona Szabo Ekaterina Retton Mary Lou Agache Lavinia Yanhong Ma McNamara Julianne Retton Mary Lou Pauca Simona Szabo Ecaterina Johnson Kathy Szabo Ecaterina McNamara Julianne Retton Mary Lou 1988 Seoul Shushunova Yelena Silivas Daniela Boginskaya Svetlana Boginskaya Svetlana Potorac Gabriela Silivas Daniela Silivas Daniela Kersten Dagmar Shushunova Yelena Silivas Daniela Shushunova Yelena Mills Phoebe Silivas Daniela Boginskaya Svetlana Dudeva Diana 1992 Barcelona Gutsu Tatyana Miller Shannon Milosovici Lavinia Milosovici Lavinia Onodi Henrietta Lysenko Tetiana Li Liu Gutsu Tatyana Miller Shannon Lysenko Tetiana Li Liu Miller Shannon Milosovici Lavinia Onodi Henrietta Bontas Christina 1996 Atlanta Podkopayeva Lilia Gogean Gina Amanar Simona Amanar Simona Huilan Mo Gogean Gina Khorkina Svetlana Wenjiing Bi Chow Amy Miller Shannon Podkopayeva Lilia Gogean Gina Podkopayeva Lilia Amanar Simona Dawes Dominique 2000 Sydney Amanar Simona Olaru Maria Liu Xuan Zamolodchikova Yelena Raducan Andreea Lobaznyuk Yekaterina Khorkina Svetlana Ling Jie Yang Yun Xuan Liu Lobaznyuk Yekaterina Produnova Yelena Zamolodchikova Yelena Khorkina Svetlana Amanar Simona 2004 Athens Patterson Carly Khorkina Svetlana Zhang Nan Rosu Monica Hatch Annia Pavlova Anna Lepennec Emilie Humphrey Terin Kupets Courtney Ponor Catalina Patterson Carly Eremia Alexandra G. Ponor Catalina Sofronie Nicoleta Daniela Moreno Patricia 2008 Beijing Liukin Nastia Johnson Shawn Yang Yilin Hong Un Jong Chusovitina Oksana Cheng Fei He Kexin Liukin Nastia Yang Yilin Johnson Shawn Liukin Nastia Cheng Fei Izbasa Sandra Raluca Johnson Shawn Liukin Nastia 2012 London Douglas Gabrielle Komova Victoria Mustafina Aliya Izbasa Sandra Raluca Maroney Mc Kayla Paseka Maria Mustafina Aliya He Kexin Tweeddle Elizabeth Deng Linlin Sui Lu Raisman Alexandra Raisman Alexandra Ponor Catalina Mustafina Aliya 2016 Rio de Janeiro Biles Simone Raisman Alexandra Mustafina Aliya Biles Simone Paseka Maria Steingruber Gulia Mustafina Aliya Kocian Madison Scheder Sofie Wevers Sanne Hernandez Lauren Biles Simone Biles Simone Raisman Alexandra Tinkler Amy Figures 6 to 10 show sum of all medals won medals won by all around medalists, sum of by all around medalists, sum of gold medals bronze medals won by all around medalists. won by all around medalists, sum of silver Science of Gymnastics Journal 362 Science of Gymnastics Journal Pajek, M.: INDIVIDUAL APPARATUS RESULTS OF FEMALE ALL AROUND Vol. 10 Issue 3: 357 - 368 9 original data sum(n-l,n,n+l)/3 Figure 6. Sum of all medals won by all around medalists. Legend: Blue line denotes the absolute sum of all medals. Orange line denotes trends (sum of all medals at previous (n-1), recent (n) and next (n+1) OG divided by 3. 4,5 original data sum(n-l,n,n+l)/3 Figure 7. Sum of gold medals won by all around medalists. Legend: Blue line denotes the absolute sum of all medals. Orange line denotes trends (sum of all medals at previous (n-1), recent (n) and next (n+1) OG divided by 3. Science of Gymnastics Journal 363 Science of Gymnastics Journal Pajek, M.: INDIVIDUAL APPARATUS RESULTS OF FEMALE ALL AROUND Vol. 10 Issue 3: 357 - 368 Figure 8. Sum of silver medals won by all around medalists. Legend: Blue line denotes the absolute sum of all medals. Orange line denotes trends (sum of all medals at previous (n-1), recent (n) and next (n+1) OG divided by 3. 3,5 <2* <%> & <\V A*0 Op a?1 o9> ofo c© r9> ¿V Jo original data sum(n-l,n,n+l)/3 Figure 9. Sum of bronze medals won by all around medalists. Legend: Blue line denotes the absolute sum of all medals. Orange line denotes trends (sum of all medals at previous (n-1), recent (n) and next (n+1) OG divided by 3. Olympic all-around champion efficiency was calculated (Figure 10) from sum of all medals won by all-around champions on apparatuses divided by 4 (maximum 4 apparatus medals can be earned by each all-around champion). Science of Gymnastics Journal 364 Science of Gymnastics Journal Pajek, M.: INDIVIDUAL APPARATUS RESULTS OF FEMALE ALL AROUND Vol. 10 Issue 3: 357 - 368 120,0 i^Vv«/ 20,0 \ / 0,0 * 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 original data sum(n-l,n,n+l)/3 Figure 10. Olympic Champion efficiency trend of all around champions. DISCUSSION Number of gymnasts and number of nations participating at OG varies during observed period of time (Figure 1 - 5). Greater declines are detected for Melbourne, 1956, for Moscow, 1980, and Los Angeles, 1984. At summer games there had been 5 boycotts (Wikipedia, 2018) in the observed period and all three games 1956, 1980 and 1984 are included. In 1956 boycotting countries were: Egipt, Iraq, Lebanon, Netherlands, Cambodia, Spain, Switzerland and Peoples Republic of China. In 1980 boycotting countries were: Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Canada, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritania, Monaco, Mauritius, Morocco, Netherlands Antilles, Niger, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States, Uruguay, United States Virgin Islands, West Germany, Zaire. In 1984 boycotting countries were: Soviet Union, Bulgaria, East Germany, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Czechoslovakia, Afghanistan, Hungary, Poland, Cuba, South Yemen, North Korea, Ethiopia, Angola, Albania, Iran, Lybia (Wikipedia, 2018). This explains the lower number of participants at those games. Among listed countries we can find very powerful gymnastic countries and one can speculate that results could be different if all eligible participants would compete. After Rome, 1960, number of nations continually declined until OG 1984 (Los Angeles, USA), mostly due to political reasons. After OG 1984 (Los Angeles, USA) numbers of participants varied but number of nations competing at qualifications is in constant incline (except at OG 1996, Atlanta, USA). After OG 1988 (Seul, South Korea) many countries divided into smaller states (i.e. Soviet union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia), but surprisingly the number of participants and nations at women's artistic gymnastic stayed almost the same. After OG 1992 the number of nations was constantly rising. In Atlanta, 1996, compulsory exercises had to be performed for the last time at OG and in 2000 the number of nations raised. Also at Athens, 2004, the maximum score was set at Science of Gymnastics Journal 365 Science of Gymnastics Journal Pajek, M.: INDIVIDUAL APPARATUS RESULTS OF FEMALE ALL AROUND Vol. 10 Issue 3: 357 - 368 10.00 points for the last time. After that the COP changed substantially and that was the beginning of open ended scores. After this there was a constant raise of nation number at OG. The situation on vault is very interesting: we can observe how the changes in COP influenced the number of competitors on vault, and also how numerous nations managed to find an opportunity for a good result on this apparatus. At Beijing 2008, the number of participants on vault dropped significantly, mostly due to changes in COP where only one vault is necessary at all-around competition. If competitor wanted to compete in vault finals she needed to perform two different vaults. With open ended COP not many competitors had 2 different vaults with high enough difficulty. It is interesting to see that the number of nations competing at vault is relatively high: 13 nations and 15 competitors at Beijing 2008, 15 nations and 18 competitors at London, 2012, and 16 nations and 19 competitors at Rio de Janiero, 2016. Table 1 shows names of all medalist from observed period at all around competitions and apparatus finals. Only 2 competitors won all-around tittle twice: Larysa Latynina (Russia, ex - Soviet Union) won all-around title at OG 1956 (Melbourne, Australia) and OG 1960 (Rome, Italy) and Vera Caslavska (Czech, ex - Czechoslovakia) won OG 1964 (Tokio, Japan) and OG 1968 (Mexico City, Mexico). It should be noted that all-around finals started to be organized as a separate competition in Munich, 1972 (Wallechinsky, & Loucky, 2012). Before that there was no extra competition for all around finals, they just announced all-around medalists based on a common competition that contained four apparatuses and also served as a qualification for single apparatus finals. Apparatus finals was organized for the first time at Melbourne, 1956. Figure 6 shows a good success of all-around medalists at apparatus finals. At the beginning of observed period the number of apparatus medals were very high (up to 8 from 12 possible medals), but with the advent of a more demanding and complexed element structure the ability of achieving podium by all-around medalists is slowly dropping. Figures 6 to 9 show sum of gold, silver and bronze medals won by all-around medalists. Trends are similar as described above. Figure 10 shows efficiency of all around champions on apparatus finals. From the whole history of women artistic gymnastics winner in all-around competition is considered as the queen of gymnastics. At Helsinki, 1952, Rome, 1960, and Mexico City, 1968 competitions, the efficiency was of all-round champions was 100%. In these cases all-around champion also got gold, silver or bronze medal at each out of the four apparatus finals. We can also see that there were 4 Olympic champions with 75% efficiency - meaning that they took 3 medals at apparatus finals. The exact names of the all-around champions and their success at individual apparatus competitions are shown in the table 1. The only case in the whole OG history regarding women's artistic gymnastics when efficiency of all-round champion was 0% was at London, 2012 where the Olympic champion didn't take any medals at apparatus finals. We can conclude that all-around gymnasts play an important role at apparatus finals however the predomination of distinctive specialists on apparatuses is slowly emerging in the last period and the efficiency of all-around champions at individual apparatuses is dropping. There are however certain exceptions, for example see the strong predominance of Simone Biles at Rio de Janiero, 2016, who shifted all statistics upwards. There is also a strong influence of rules of OG qualification since they favor the qualification of all-round competent gymnasts; dedicated apparatus specialists have a more difficult task to qualify for OG. With only 4 apparatuses from which three of them are directly related to acrobatics (vault, balance beam, floor) most gymnasts are still expected to compete on all four apparatuses. Therefore we can expect to see Science of Gymnastics Journal 366 Science of Gymnastics Journal Pajek, M.: INDIVIDUAL APPARATUS RESULTS OF FEMALE ALL AROUND Vol. 10 Issue 3: 357 - 368 continuing success of all-around medalists at apparatus finals. However the obvious trend shows that the supreme efficiency of all-around champions to reach the podium at majority apparatus finals cannot be expected any more. Drawbacks of our study include the limitation of each all around champion's efficiency to a single OG event (some competitors have competed at more than one event and a possible extension of analysis to their performance at all relevant OG events was not done). On the other hand, a full coverage of modern gymnastic era with four apparatuses is covered by our analysis and this is a strength of our study. CONCLUSIONS Our results show that with the advent of a more demanding and complexed element structure the ability of achieving podium by all-around medalists is dropping. A very high efficiency of all-around champions to reach the podium at every apparatus final has dropped and this trend parallels the trend of diminishing sum of individual apparatus medals that have been earned by all-around medalists. This may be a sign of increased success of more specialized competitors. 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It was worth it- i would do it again!: phenomenological perspectives on life in the elite women's artistic gymnastics. Science of Gymnastics Journal, 9(1), 41-59. Corresponding author: Maja Pajek Gortanova 22 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia Phone: +38615207817 e-mail: maja.pajek@gmail.com Science of Gymnastics Journal 368 Science of Gymnastics Journal