Overview

Australia is set to send its biggest Gymnastics team to Tokyo since the last time the Japanese capital hosted the Games in 1964. The 11-strong team will all be making their Olympic debuts in Tokyo.  

Georgia Godwin, Emily Whitehead and Tyson Bull will compete in Artistic Gymnastics, Lidiia Iakovleva, Emily Abbot, Alexandra Aristoteli, Alannah Mathews, Himeka Onoda and Felicity White make up the Rhythmic team, while Dominic Clarke and Jessica Pickering will compete in Trampoline. 

Ones To Watch

The Australian team includes 2018 Youth Olympic silver medallist Jessica Pickering. Jessica will be one to watch in the women’s trampoline, with recent results including back to back silver medals at the 2019 FIG World Cups in Khabarovsk (RUS) and Valladolid (ESP) in the women’s synchro. In the lead up to Tokyo, she also claimed gold at the 2021 Oceania Championships.  

Tyson Bull is the sole representative in the men’s artistic gymnastics, competing on the horizontal bar. At the 2019 World Championships, Tyson had a breakout performance finishing the event in 7th and earning his place on the Australian Olympic Team for Tokyo. The 28-year-old will be one to look out for when the men’s artistic competition kicks off on July 24.  

On the women’s side in Artistic Gymnastics, Georgia Godwin is set to compete in the individual all-around event. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Georgia claimed silver in the individual all-around event, and bronze in the uneven bars and team event.   

The Australian Rhythmic Gymnastics team, which consists of Felicity White, Emily Abbot, Himeka Onoda, Alexandra Aristoteli, and Alannah Mathews, have won 6 consecutive National Championships. In 2018 the group attended the Gymnastics World Championships in Bulgaria and their attendance marked the first time in 10 years for an Australian rhythmic group to compete at the World Championship level.  

The Format

Olympic gymnastics is made up of three disciplines; Artistic Gymnastics, Rhythmic Gymnastics and Trampoline.  

Artistic Gymnastics 

In the women’s division of artistic gymnastics, athletes compete across four apparatus: bars, beam, vault and floor. While, men compete on six apparatus: floor, pommel horse, horizontal bars, parallel bar, vault and rings. Men and Women also compete for individual and team all-around titles. 

The artistic gymnastics competition begins with qualification rounds to determine who will move on to team all-around, individual all-around and individual finals. Points earned by each athlete for one performance in each event (two in the individual vault) decide whether they will proceed to the finals.  

• Team all-around: Teams consist of four athletes, and medals are awarded to the team with the best combined total score.
• Individual all-around: One athlete competes in each event (six for men, four for women), with their total score determining their standing. 
• Individual events: Athletes compete against each other to achieve the highest score.  

Once in the finals, scores from the qualifying rounds do not count and only the scores achieved in the finals determine the medallists.

Athletes are judged on the difficulty of the skills performed and their execution, the two scores are combined to form a total score.  

Rhythmic Gymnastics 

Rhythmic Gymnastics has two categories, the individual all-around and the group event. The individual all-around will see 24 individual athletes perform four routines using each piece of apparatus once. In the Olympic format, the apparatus are ribbon, rope, clubs and ball.  

The qualification round is held over two days, with gymnasts performing two apparatus per day. Scores from each routine are added and the top 10 advance to the final. All finalists perform routines with each of the four apparatus, and whoever has the highest total score wins the gold medal. 

In the team event, five gymnasts perform twice using multiple apparatus at the same time. The first routine is performed with five balls and the second with three hoops and two pairs of clubs. The teams are ranked based on points, and the top 8 in the qualification round progress through to the finals. In the final, the teams perform their two routines again and the highest scoring group wins the gold medal.  

Trampoline 

In trampoline, judges award points for difficulty, execution, flight time and horizontal displacement. Each athlete performs two routines, a compulsory routine and voluntary routine.  

• Compulsory Routine: athletes perform eight skills that are judged on execution and two skills, chosen by the gymnast, that are judged on execution and difficulty.  
• Voluntary Routine: All ten skills are judged on execution and difficulty. 

The eight highest-scoring competitors advance to the final. Scores from the qualifying round do not carry over to the final, which consists of only a voluntary routine marked on difficulty, execution and time of flight. 

Gymnastics Snapshot