Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines (ranging from approximately 30 to 90 seconds) on different apparatus, with less time for vaulting. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates all aspects of international elite competition. Within individual countries, gymnastics is regulated by national federations, such as British Gymnastics in the United Kingdom and USA Gymnastics in the United States. Artistic gymnastics is a popular spectator sport at the Summer Olympic Games and in other competitive environments.
The gymnastic system was mentioned in works by ancient authors, such as Homer, Aristotle, and Plato. It included many disciplines that would later become separate sports, such as swimming, racing, wrestling, boxing, and riding, and was also used for military training. In its present form, gymnastics evolved in Bohemia and what is now Germany at the beginning of the 19th century, and the term "artistic gymnastics" was introduced at the same time to distinguish free styles from the ones used by the military. The German educator Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, who was known as the father of gymnastics, invented several apparatus, including the horizontal bar and parallel bars, which are used to this day. Two of the first gymnastics clubs were Turnvereins and Sokols.
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