Artistic gymnastics is a judged sport governed by the FIG Code of Points, a technical rulebook rewritten after every Olympic Games. It lists every recognized element, assigns each a difficulty value from A upward, sets out what a routine must contain, and prescribes the deduction for every visible fault. Men compete on six apparatus and women on four; a gymnast's score on each is calculated independently and, in all-around and team competition, simply added together.
Two separate panels judge every routine. The D-panel establishes the difficulty score by identifying which elements were actually performed and whether the composition requirements were met. The E-panel judges execution and artistry, starting from a notional 10.00 and subtracting for each departure from the ideal shape, line and landing. Coaches may formally challenge a difficulty score through an inquiry, lodged immediately and backed by a deposit; execution scores cannot be appealed.
Scoring at a glance
Core rules
The men's six apparatus
Men compete in a fixed Olympic rotation: floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar. The floor is a 12-metre square sprung carpet and the routine, performed without music, may last up to 70 seconds. The pommel horse stands 115 centimetres high, the rings hang 280 centimetres above the mat, the parallel bars sit 200 centimetres up and run 350 centimetres long, and the high bar is a single steel rail 240 centimetres wide. Each apparatus rewards a different physical quality, which is why the all-around title is the sport's hardest.
The women's four apparatus
Women compete on vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise, in that Olympic rotation order. The beam is five metres long, 125 centimetres high and just 10 centimetres wide, and beam routines may run up to 90 seconds. The uneven bars set the rails at roughly 250 and 170 centimetres, with the spacing adjustable so tall and short gymnasts can both swing giants. The floor exercise, unlike the men's, is performed to music within the same 90-second limit on the same 12-metre square, and carries an explicit artistry component within the execution score.
The difficulty score
The D-score has no upper limit. For men it counts the ten highest-valued elements performed, including the dismount, adds up to 2.5 for satisfying the apparatus element groups, and adds connection value for linked release moves. For women it counts the eight highest-valued elements, adds 0.5 for each of the four composition requirements, and adds connection value for acrobatic and dance series joined without a pause. Element values run from A, worth 0.1, upward through the alphabet; vaults instead carry a single fixed value drawn from a published table.
The execution score
Every routine notionally begins at 10.00 and the execution panel subtracts from there. The deduction scale is fixed: 0.1 for a small fault such as a slightly bent knee or a hop on landing, 0.3 for a medium fault, 0.5 for a large one such as a deep squat or touching the mat with a hand, and 1.00 for a fall. Five execution judges score independently; the highest and lowest marks are discarded and the middle three averaged, with reference judges able to correct a panel that drifts too far from the true value.
Judging panels and inquiries
A full FIG panel has two D-judges, who must agree on the difficulty content, and five E-judges plus reference judges on major events. Because difficulty is a matter of recognition rather than opinion, it is the only part of the score a coach may contest. An inquiry must be lodged verbally before the next gymnast's score is displayed, confirmed in writing, and accompanied by a deposit that is refunded only if the challenge succeeds. Execution and artistry judgements are final, which is why disputes at major championships almost always concern element recognition.
Competition structure
Every major championship opens with qualification, which serves four purposes at once: it ranks teams for the team final, ranks gymnasts for the all-around final, ranks them again on each apparatus for the event finals, and awards the named-element credit for any new skill submitted. The top eight teams and the top 24 all-arounders advance, along with the top eight on each apparatus. A maximum of two gymnasts per country may reach any individual final, a rule that has repeatedly kept genuine medal contenders out of Olympic finals.
Vault and the two-vault rule
Vault is the only event contested in a single burst of a few seconds, from a run-up of up to 25 metres to a landing on a padded zone. In qualification, the team final and the all-around, a gymnast performs one vault. In an apparatus final they must perform two vaults from different element groups — a handspring family vault and a Yurchenko or Tsukahara entry, for instance — and the average of the two scores decides the medal, which prevents a specialist from repeating a single memorised skill twice.
Eligibility and equipment
Senior women must turn 16 during the calendar year of the competition, a threshold raised from 15 in 1997 after decades of concern about the health of very young athletes; senior men must turn 18. Gymnasts may use magnesium carbonate chalk and leather hand guards on the bars and rings, and springboards, landing mats and apparatus dimensions are standardised by FIG certification. A coach may stand in a spotting position on bars and rings, but any physical contact during the routine voids the element.
Fouls & penalties
Falls
A fall from the apparatus, or a landing in which the gymnast touches the mat with hands, knees or hips, carries a flat 1.00 execution deduction and stops the routine clock for a limited recovery window — 30 seconds on most apparatus. Because the Olympic team final counts all three scores with no drop, a single fall typically costs a nation a medal outright. Falls also frequently forfeit a composition requirement, so the same error is punished twice: once in execution and again in difficulty.
Neutral deductions
Some faults sit outside the execution panel's remit and are subtracted from the final total by the chair of the panel. Stepping over the boundary line on floor costs 0.1 for a single foot or hand and 0.3 for the whole body; exceeding the routine time limit, starting before the green light, using an unauthorised springboard setting or failing to salute the panel all carry their own penalties. Incorrect attire, advertising violations and unauthorised coach presence on the podium are penalised the same way.
Landing deductions
Landings are where medals are decided because they are the most visible fault in the sport. A small hop or step costs 0.1, a large step 0.3, a very large step or jump 0.5, and touching the mat with the hands 0.5. Additional deductions apply for landing with the chest too low, for excessive leg separation, and for taking a step outside the marked landing zone on vault. Sticking a dismount cold — no movement at all — is the single most efficient way to protect an execution score.
Missing requirements
Failing to include a required element group costs 0.5 from the difficulty score for each one missed, and a routine that falls short of the minimum number of elements is additionally penalised as a short exercise. On the women's apparatus, missing a composition requirement removes its 0.5 outright. Downgrading is the related risk: if a gymnast under-rotates a triple twist, the D-panel simply credits the double, and the difficulty the routine was built around evaporates without any fall having occurred.
Spotting and assistance
A coach may stand ready beside high bar, rings and uneven bars for safety, but any touch during the exercise is treated as assistance. The element is not credited and an execution deduction is applied; on some apparatus the routine is terminated. Coaches are also restricted from speaking to a gymnast mid-routine and from standing in the competition area on floor and beam except for the mount. These rules keep a fundamentally dangerous sport safe without allowing physical help to become part of the performance.
Match format
An Olympic or World Championship competition runs over roughly a week. Qualification comes first, with teams of five gymnasts fielding four on each apparatus and counting the best three scores, and individual specialists competing alongside them. The eight best teams advance to a team final contested three-up, three-count, a format introduced at Sydney 2000: three gymnasts perform on each apparatus and every single score is added, so there is no safety net. The 24 best all-arounders and the eight best on each apparatus advance to their own finals, subject to the two-per-country cap.
Scores do not carry over between rounds. Every finalist starts from zero, which is why qualification form is a poor predictor of medals and why the all-around final — four or six routines in a single evening with no drop score — is regarded as the sport's true championship. Ties are common because scores are calculated to hundredths, and they are resolved by the Code's published tie-break procedure, usually favouring the higher execution score; at Beijing 2008 He Kexin and Nastia Liukin both scored 16.725 on uneven bars and the tie-break decided the gold.
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