Welcome to History's Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. Before we start flipping and twisting today, we have some very special shout-outs.
SPEAKER_00That's right! A huge thank you to Emery from Ohio for requesting today's amazing topic. You rock, Emery!
SPEAKER_01And a gigantic happy birthday to Morrison, who is turning nine right around the end of May. We hope your birthday is absolutely spectacular, Morrison!
SPEAKER_00Okay, Mira. So what exactly is today's topic? You said flipping and twisting? I sure did.
SPEAKER_01Today we're talking about a sport that involves flying 10 feet into the air, balancing on a wooden beam that's only four inches wide, and swinging from giant metal bars.
SPEAKER_00Wait, you mean gymnastics? I love watching gymnastics. But isn't it just a modern sport?
SPEAKER_01That's the crazy part, Finn. It's actually over 2,500 years old. And back then, it wasn't about winning shiny gold medals, it was about training hardcore soldiers for war.
SPEAKER_00Whoa! Soldiers doing backflips!
SPEAKER_01Exactly! Plus, wait until you hear how a glitching computer scoreboard and a 14-year-old girl changed the entire sport forever in the 1970s. I can't wait! Let's jump in! So, to understand where gymnastics comes from, we have to travel back 2,500 years to ancient Greece, right around the year 500 BC.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I'm closing my eyes. I'm imagining ancient guys in white togas practising their cartwheels.
SPEAKER_01Actually, imagine guys in absolutely nothing.
SPEAKER_00What? You're joking! Tell me you're joking!
SPEAKER_01I'm completely serious! The word gymnastics actually comes from the ancient Greek word gymnasian, which literally translates to to exercise naked.
unknownHaha!
SPEAKER_00No way! Why would they do that? That sounds super uncomfortable, especially if you trip and fall on the dirt.
SPEAKER_01They believed that training in the nude celebrated the human body and made them mentally and physically tougher. And they definitely needed to be tough, because this was intense military training for the battlefield.
SPEAKER_00Military training? So they weren't doing graceful dance routines on a bouncy blue mat?
SPEAKER_01Not exactly. Ancient Greece was made of many city-states, and they trained their men on running tracks called stades that were exactly 600 Greek feet long. 600 feet? That's the length of two entire football fields. Yep. They practised running, jumping, wrestling, and even wild things like vaulting over live bulls in places like Crete. Live bulls? That's terrifying! How do you even practice that? It was insanely dangerous. They would literally run up, grab a charging bull by the horns, and flip right over its back. If you missed, well, it was a very bad day.
SPEAKER_00I think I strongly prefer modern gymnastics with soft foam pits.
SPEAKER_01Same here! But for centuries, gymnastics was just a rugged way to prepare for battle. It wasn't until the 1800s that it started looking like the competitive sport we know today.
SPEAKER_00So how did we get from flipping over angry bulls to doing routines on bars and beams?
SPEAKER_01For that, we fast forward to the year 1811, in a country called Prussia, which is now part of modern-day Germany. 1811? What happened then? A teacher named Friedrich Ludwig Jahn wanted to make young people stronger and healthier after some terrible wars. So in a huge park in Berlin called Hasenheider, he built the very first open-air gymnasium. Oh, like a giant outdoor playground. Exactly. But instead of regular swings, Jahn invented massive wooden contraptions. He built the very first parallel bars and the horizontal high bar.
SPEAKER_00Wait, he just invented them. Like out of thin air.
SPEAKER_01Yup. He even had climbing poles that were 50 feet high. That's as tall as a five-story building. Five stories?
SPEAKER_00Did they have safety nets?
SPEAKER_01Not really. He also took a heavy wooden horse that soldiers used to practice mounting real horses and turned it into an exercise machine called the Pommel Horse.
SPEAKER_00That's why it's called a Pommel Horse. It actually started as a fake horse for soldiers to ride.
SPEAKER_01Spot on, John became widely known as the father of gymnastics. Soon, thousands of kids started joining his gymnastics clubs, climbing ropes, balancing on logs, and swinging on bars.
SPEAKER_00That actually sounds like an awesome summer camp. Did they have big international competitions back then?
SPEAKER_01Not yet. But in 1896, the very first modern Olympic Games were born in Athens, Greece, and gymnastics was one of the very first sports included.
SPEAKER_00Awesome! So people from all over the world finally got to show off their flipping skills. They did.
SPEAKER_01But for decades, gymnastics was strictly a men's sport. Women's gymnastics didn't officially join the Olympics until 1928. Wow, that took a really long time. It did, but once women entered the arena, they totally revolutionised the sport. Fast forward to July 18, 1976, at the Montreal Olympics in Canada. What happened there? A 14-year-old girl from Romania named Nadia Komenecch stepped up to the uneven bars. She did a routine so flawless that the judges gave her a perfect score of 10.0. A perfect 10? Is that super rare? It was considered mathematically impossible. In fact, the Olympic officials had literally told the company, making the electronic scoreboards, not to bother putting in four digits.
SPEAKER_00Wait, so the computer scoreboard couldn't even show a 10.00? What did it say?
SPEAKER_01It flashed a 1.00. The crowd of thousands was so confused until the announcer had to explain that Nadia had just scored the very first perfect 10 in Olympic history.
SPEAKER_00That is legendary. She literally broke the scoreboard by being too good. Exactly!
SPEAKER_01Her routine lasted exactly 19 seconds, but those 19 seconds changed history forever. And today, gymnasts are pushing the limits even further. Like who? Take American superstar gymnast, Simone Biles. By 2024, she had won 11 Olympic medals and an incredible 30 world championship medals.
SPEAKER_00That's 41 medals. That has got to be an all-time record.
SPEAKER_01It absolutely is. If you stacked all 41 of them up, they would weigh around 40 pounds. She's the most decorated gymnast in world history. Simone even has five different impossible skills named after her, because she's the only person who can do them. One is a mind-blowing triple-twisting double flip on the floor.
SPEAKER_00Haha, a triple twisting double flip? I get dizzy just spinning around in my desk chair.
SPEAKER_01Simone's flips are so powerful she regularly flies over 10 feet in the air. It's just pure muscle and the special springy floor system.
SPEAKER_00The impact of gymnastics over the last 2,500 years is truly wild. It went from ancient Greek warriors training in the dirt to the most watched Olympic sport in the world. Totally!
SPEAKER_01Okay Finn, are you ready for some weird and wonderful gymnastics facts? Bring them on! I love the weird stuff. You know the balance beam? Today it's four feet high and covered in soft suede. But when Friedrich Jahn invented it in the 1800s, it was literally just a stripped pine tree trunk hovering off the ground.
SPEAKER_00Ouch! Slipping on a pine tree sounds like a one-way ticket to Splinter City.
SPEAKER_01For sure. Here's another bizarre one. In the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, gymnastics included a wild event called club swinging, where athletes literally just twirled heavy wooden bowling pins around their heads.
SPEAKER_00Haha, I could totally win a gold medal in twirling bowling pins. Just don't stand too close to me. I'd pay to see that.
SPEAKER_01Today, elite gymnasts train up to 40 hours a week. When they land those massive flips, they experience up to 14 times their body weight in force.
SPEAKER_0014 times? That's like having a small car dropped on your legs every time you land. Gymnasts are basically real-life superheroes.
SPEAKER_01Alright, Finn, it's time for the quiz. Let's see how much you actually remember about the amazing history of gymnastics.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I'm ready. I've been taking mental note this whole time.
SPEAKER_01First question. What ancient language gives us the word gymnastics, which originally meant to exercise naked? Next one. Who was the German teacher in 1811 that invented the parallel bars and the pommel balls? Question 3. What crazy number flashed on the Olympic scoreboard in 1976 because it couldn't display a perfect 10? Here's number 4. Which legendary 14-year-old gymnast scored that famous perfect 10? Last question. How many total Olympic and world medals did Simone Biles have by 2024 to make her the most decorated gymnast ever? Great job! Let's see how you did.
SPEAKER_00I think I totally crushed it. Let's hear the answers.
SPEAKER_01The first answer is the ancient Greek language. For question two, it was Friedrich Ludwig Jan. Number three, the answer is 1.00. Question 4, the answer is Nadia Komenici from Romania. And the final answer is Simone Biles had a jaw dropping 41 medals.
SPEAKER_0041 medals is just unbelievable. I still can't get over the fact that a pommel horse used to be for actual horse mounting practice.
SPEAKER_01Right? It really makes you look at the Olympics in a completely different way. History is just hiding in plain sight everywhere we look.
SPEAKER_00It really is. Hey, if you love discovering awesome history secrets with us, please leave us a five-star review.
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SPEAKER_00Thanks for hanging out and learning with us today, time travellers.
SPEAKER_01See you next time on History's Not Boring. Bye!