Old Gymnastics:1928-1968 

any video of Irma or Frank Haubold- they were the first married couple participating in the 1936 Olympics for gymnastics. They are my grandparents.

Thanks for sharing. It made me realize that what gymnastics gained in performance, it lost in artistry. These ladies were poetry in motion. Some of what they were doing might seem easy compared to today's routines, but when you know that the floor had no bounce whatsoever (and the springboards didn't have much either), it gives a new perspective. Thanks again!

Larisa Latynina...winning an Olympic medal while 4 months pregnant...

The gymnast at 8:18 on bars is Sofia Muratova from the Soviet Union. She was the all-around bronze medalist at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.

I love their aerials from way back when,they look so easy & light

I do like where gymnastics has gone from these early cliips. However, I miss the perfect blend of artistry and athleticism that we saw from the 1990's. Like Shannon Miller.

nice!...there was a lot more room for grace and creativity back then..i see moves that i never see today....also, during floor routines there's a lot or erratic hand flapping and back arching which looks a lot more like nerves and a lot less like a dance routine...there's a ton of amazing technical difficulty in today's gymnastic routines, but i wish there was a gymnast today that can really flow through the routine like a graceful dancer...

Fantastic video. Those girls were so graceful and beautiful with so much joy in their performances.

Thanks so much to everyone who has watched this video! I didn't expect this to be one of my most popular videos.

they are really tall compared to gymnasts today

The girl on floor in the blue uniform wearing 22 is Eva Bosakova of Czechoslovakia

really a beautiful video and the music choice was just perfect!!

OLD SCHOOL ♥

Even their hair look wonderful! So flawless.

Yeah, it's all about power now, where it used to be about grace.

@sambrea they just kind of evolved. in the 90's they changed the most- mainly by the distance between the low and high bars becoming further apart. it basically changed the way the apparatus was used

There were actually 2 team comps for women- artistic and "portable apparatus" aka rhythmic. I think they removed the rhythmic part after the 1956 Olys

OMG this video is sooooo emotional because i have a really big passion in gymnastics i will never give up follow my dreams same as you!!

I didn't "get" this video from anywhere. I made it. The footage, however, was acquired mainly from the international gymnastics hall of fame.

this is the most beautiful thing i have ever seen :)

This may look "easier" than contemporary gymnastics, but some of the moves look more interesting than the gymnastics we see today, especially what these women were doing on the bars. They were allowed to stand on the bars, which allowed them to do moves that we haven't seen in decades.

I guess what sped things up were the cosmic/spaca shuttle materials introduced into the gyms and used for constructing the apparutuses, which enabled gymnasts to move faster, jump higher and train harder altogether. The same thing happened to athletics, by the way: the 1936 Olympic Champion Jessie Owens would have beaten all the "champs" of today if he`d had the opportunity to use the same facilities and training regime.

Thanks for showing vid of Polina! I don't think I've ever actually seen video of her-- just picture stills. Thanks for such a cool montage.

Old style gymnastics just seem so much more graceful and soulful. More enjoyable to watch than the modern stuff.

I agree. The bars have moved so far apart that a number of moves are obsolete.

@xxcrazymoe The very first ones are, with the kind of grainy imaging. They are, to the best of my knowledge, from the 1928 Olympics. If this project is for both mens and womens gymnastics, I can post these and more in a separate video. I also have some of Heikki Savolainen's performances from the 1924 Olympics posted if you're interested.

your right like if you notice they also made the bars more far apart, and the gymnast now in days are MUCH bigger and full of muscles then back then

Thanks for the history in female gymnastics

this video showed me why its called ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS, now it should be called acrobatics

i'd love to do gymnastics like this!!!

Thank you so much for posting! Amazing!

This is beautiful! Great job. :)

I love these videos so much its so cool to see how gymnastics has evolved so much.

Female gymnasts nowadays have become less feminine because there is a much higher degree of difficulty in their exercises, which requires more muscular mass. Gymnastics are now more about technique and less about grace, unfortunately.

artistic on bars :) love it

i actually like gymnastics now in days

Thanks for that last clip... I've never seen any women's footage from 1960.

this is si amizing thanks for making this!!!

I love the old haircut of gymnasts in 60's and 70's competition, completely fits with their graceful movements

Vera Caslavska, she had just won her second all-around title.

beautiful video !!

The gymnasts then would just be blown away by what we do now.

Well, they actually *had* hips then, to say nothing of waists smaller than their necks. No disrespect to the girls who dominate the sport today, it's just the sport has changed where power and increasingly complex moves have overpowered elements of grace and line. Notice that every dismount was a "stick" because they were simpler. Now the breaks in form are tolerated-or the point differential taken into account-in favor of attempts at the spectacular.

hello, what a wonderful montage really, shows the very beginning of gymnastics, i was wondering, since u have an archive a very important one, do u have anything for Sonia Iovan. an Olympian, she was also in the 52 - 56 - 60 Olympics. shes Romanian.would be great if u can upload some of her work. thx

This is fascinating - thank you.

Will someone explain to me what's up with the rhythmic apparatus they use at the beginning? One thing about old gymnastics I really wish we saw more of today was how the gymnasts actually put their hips on the bars. I'm tired of just seeing a bunch of handstands!

guys this is great never seen.

Wow! A lot has changed.

this looks so much easier than gymnastics now! but i bet if i tried i would not be able to do everything ththat they do. does anyone else agree?!?!?!

if colorguard was in the olympics i would be soooo happy

Haha I love this!!!

At 7.20, the gymnast looks like she's doing the backwards release that Olga Korbut was meant to be the first to do in 1972, is this correct?

Do you know if any of the clips used are from the 1920s? Im doing a project and want some clips of it from the 1920s.

On the dark haired one you said was your favorite routine,I think I saw the Romanian coat of arms.It may be Sonia Iovan.Check google photos or something.

I think your favourite, the girl (138) doing the floor exercise, is Lidia Kalinin (Ivanova) of the USSR.

at 7:28 for 1960 Rome Olympics it might be Sofiya Muratova for USSR. found it on olympic.org

@RichLN Thank you! I'll check it with the Olympic records :D

No spring floors back then....

@RichLN Thank You!

Can someone tell me when the uneven bars became the apparatus we know today?

While the skills look pretty simple by today's standards, these women have a grace and beauty (and joy!) you just don't see in the soulless pre-teens of the 1980's and 1990's, or the 21st century muscle-bound teenagers.

In a tribute to pins and spray, I'm amazed that the girls were able to achieve in those 60s/70s hairdos! The girls today with their sleek ponytails with all those visible clips should turn to the masters of the past for style tips! No head spins for them...

1:44-1:53 I think I can do! I guess in the 60's they didn't do very difficult floor excersices, now we can get that type of training at dance studios...

@MrAMEENALNABBOUT This is not the begining of gymnastics. It is early filmed competitions.

@bbhouk1 do u have the full coverage of the event finals in the 52 - 56 - 60's Olympics ???

This looks like what my sister did when she was in 5th grade.

@ioswyt1 typo thanks for pointing it out

It's Věra Čáslavská from Czechoslovakia at 1968 Olympics

i wonder how they would react if somone like nastia liukin showed up back then and did all the moves she did now back then

That was there bars? I would die! THERE SO CLOSE TOGETHER

any videos for sonia iovan ??

What's the title of the song???

Your unknown gymnast could be Margarita Nikolaeva or Tamara Zamotailova (Luhina)

Its called halo

The bars are so different today - higher and farther apart - Nastia wouldn't be able to do her 'cool' moves.

the nice day when people did only one salto in the olympics

@grmajackie really that is you?

Your unknown gymnast could be Margarita Nikolaeva.

The girl in the white with the number twenty on her back is an American named Linda Metheny

Spelling?

i like artistic gymnastics rythemic isnt my thang im way to beny for rythemic

6:39 i think is Aliya komenova

isnt rhythmic gymnastics, is Team Apparatous, a form of FX by team, in 1956

You would have been as good and as athletic as the competitors of today, but times move and people want more 'exciting' visual treats which includes tumbles, jumps and spins, thus the girls have to be more lithe. It is a shame but that is I feel the way the modern version of the sport is going (you possibly saw it changing slightly towards the end of your career?

Они были "ЖЕНСТВЕННЫМИ", будучи Очень "СПОРТИВНЫМИ"

@MrAMEENALNABBOUT Sorry, I have more coverage, but not full.

so graceful - closer to ballet really. now our girls look like they want to do the soulja boy!

Halo.

I've got nothing against old gymnastics, really, but to tell you the truth most of them are really slow and boring. I love Comaneci's routines, now THAT'S how gymnastics should be, fast but still elegant. If she could add just a little BIT more difficulty now that's the gymnastics I'm looking for.

Bush!

Wow, many hot chicks in this video! Is it just me or were female gymnasts hotter back in those days?

@violaroadkill Maybe I'll check

@MrAMEENALNABBOUT sorry, but no

the UB got the way they are today gradually. as moves got harder they moved a little farther apart. then sometime in the late 80's or early 90's (not sure which), they decided it was hurting the girls reproductive areas from bouncing off the bars causing problems for some having babies. the bars were then mopved to the way they are now to prevent the abdominal bouncing. i miss the old way too. hope this helps :o)

I agree. This is the gymnastics of my early youth. I did gymnastic from 68-82 . Competitions are nothing like they are today. We were graceful, not so hard on the tumbling, and we weighed more than the girls of today.

I love how the coach at the beginning is wearing a suit!

I wish gymnasts today were more artistic about their routines. It's become pretty bland.

Thanks! so much more balletic! From here...the athletics evolve...which is good and expected...but the artistry devolves....which was unnecessary

@legionaire6542 Halo By Beyonce first with lyrics, then without

Awesome montage!