Beautiful,very gracefull my mother now 97 was a gymnast like this and she still is strong with a wonderful posture. Her team got the exercises for 1940 olympics. After the war she resumed gymnastics
@@objetivista686 Canceled by WWII, of course, but there were plenty of athletes whose “prime years” occurred during the war. Oldest Olympian Agnes Keleti, now 103, won ten medals for Hungary in 1952 and 1956, competing at age 31 and 35.
These basic moves still take some decent balance and strength. At that time, women were expected to be "ladylike," not strong and athletic. These women really were pioneers in this sport.
Well, it's really nice that they put themselves out there and I wouldn't really laugh about the women but rather about the times. It takes some decent balance, yes, but a lot of the things they did we do in highschool now.
People make assumptions about the past that are not accurate. The 20th century was not the Victorian era and women were athletic. The idols at this time were Katharine Hepburn, who was insanely athletic, and Amelia Earhart.
@Jess Stone most of them were probably in their mid 20s to late 30s, that's the time when most women gymnasts retire nowadays. This was during a time when women were expected to be at home in the kitchen, taking care of the children and the household. It was 1936, aka the Nazi Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Back then, it was more about a show of strength and unity (you can see the rhythmic gymnastics performed by the women on the field in the beginning of the video). Like you said, holding your body in a horizontal position on the bars like that takes a lot of upper body strength. And you are right, beginning during the Cold War, gymnasts started training at younger and younger ages and Communist countries like the USSR, Romania and China actually did things to suppress puberty in their gymnasts to keep them as childlike, light and small for as long as possible, many were around 4'7-5'8. Anything more than that was almost considered too tall. And female body development was seen as a hinderance.
The uneven bars originated from the male gymnasts parallel bar. In time, the lower bar would gradually be moved farthr away. They now call it "bars" due to the fact that it no longer replicates the parallel bars and is used for completely different moves in a routine.
Wow! Women's gymnastics has really come a long ways! The uneven bars truly fascinated me, though. It was so methodical, and much more of a show of strength.
@@magpiesneedle2575 Over the decades, gymnastics has increasingly edged out artistry in favor of power. It's inevitable, because difficult technical elements are an objective way to score and to push the sport forward. But it's also sad... I think at this point too much beauty and grace is being sacrificed. And I can say the same for figure skating, too.
I mean, we should respect them a lot. It might be nothing like modern gymnastics but we have to understand that this was the start of the evolution. Without this then the sport probably wouldn't have evolved so well to what gymnastics is today. Hard sport.
Right-everything starts somewhere and competition keeps pushing athletes higher until people are doing things unheard of a half century before. Like figure skating-someone figured out how to jump and land, and the next person took it farther, so now they do quad jumps, where one rotation used to be spectacular and impressive.
Also, because it was a lighter form of the sport, I personally think their physiques looked much nicer than the way gymnasts have to bulk up these days - but I guess artistic gymnastics is not really about physical beauty. That being said, these ladies looked wonderful - I'm aiming for that shape😊. How about you guys?
All you making fun of how easy this was by today's standards should show these ladies a little more respect. Remember, these were THE FIRST women to ever try anything like this. Of course they're not as good as you are now. Someone had to start, someone had to lead the way so that future generations could improve on what they did. It must have taken tremendous courage for a woman to do any athletic activity back then, as they were expected to stay in the kitchen and raise babies. Can you imagine the harassment they must have faced? You should be grateful for the trailblazers that fought for you to get out from under men's authority and pursue anything you want.
@@waffilushus of course It was an easy level even for men, but for women It was almost forbiden to practice any Sport. They believe It could lead women to infertility. Because the only purpose of a woman was giving birth.
I agree with most of what you wrote but the 20th century was not the Victorian era that people on RUclips imagine. Young women did go to college and play sports. The American icon was Katharine Hepburn, who wore pants and played golf and tennis and was insanely athletic. Grace Kelly swam competitively as a teen I think. Young Jackie Bouvier Kennedy rode horses. Elite women played sports.
I like the uneven bars the most because it seemed as though the purpose of it was to show strength, flexibility, and control. I find it very refreshing. I also think it interesting that women used the parallell bars.
I read a lot of comments... Srsly, it's obvious this is easy for a beginner gymnast nowadays, but back then even wearing a leotard was outrageous!!! For a woman to do gymnastics was way too modern and bad seen! Also, gymnastics was done by grown women, not by girls like is done now.
Thank you. People are really not understanding the historical context. What these women were doing at the time was daring as it was showing women being physical. I mean it wasn't that long before this video that women were told that doing sports or anything athletic would prevent them from getting pregnant...hell, even riding a bicycle was thought to have been physically damaging for women.
@@dichiyaeley9120 It was outrageous show off skin and split your legs around in front of everyone. Maybe you can compare If pole dance goes to olympics. No parent would put their little Innocent girl to do that. They started training after growing up when their body was already shaped and not só flexible. Nowaldays Girls started at 3 and retire at 18.
It's so fascinating to see how much this sport has evolved so much! It's incredible! Gymnasts back then would have never dreamed of performing the difficult skills that gymnasts today perform! Wow!!
Базовые элементы сохранились по сей день. Упражнения красивые, все женщины тянут носочек, на бревне прекрасный баланс, держит равновесие! Спасибо за архивные кадры!❤
You must have some pretty short generational spacing in your family. My Grandma was born in 1927. She passed away last year. You're probably around the same age as my daughters, and to them she was a great-grandmother, but you had room for another generation in there somehow.
@@deer105 😂😂 All of my great grandparents died before I was born. I never met my paternal grandparents; my paternal grandmother died three years before I was born, and my paternal grandfather was estranged. He died in 1991. Not that it matters!
Wow, this is really impressive. The core strength of some of these people is just out of this world. Modern gymnastics rely so much on momentum, centrifugal forces, and speed. This is much more impressive to me, and I wish we could see this level of body control and precision today.
Personally, I like these performances as well. Even if they are not as complex as modern gymnastics it's still gymnastics, so I don't complain. They are unique in their own way.. 👍💖
One key difference is that these ladies weren't shooting up performance enhancing drugs, and they weren't destroying all of their ligaments and joints.
And they mostly weren't athletes in the sense of today. Lot of them probably were in the first place house wives etc. and trained at the side, unlike today where being an athlete is a career with sponsorships etc. Anyone can feel free to correct me, but weren't even men (at least back when Olympics only happened in Greece) "normal". Like I know of one man in my country, who traveled to Greece as an athlete over 100 years ago, but training wsa just his hobby and he had a different job and traveled to Greece during his free time
And the focus on uneven bars seems to be grace and balance and "dancing" through and between them rather than spinning around them and bouncing back and forth from one to the other. Wonder who wss the first one to do that and did it blow the sport up?
Ikr? A lot of people say this looks easier than gymnastics today, and that may be the case, but that doesn't mean that it's not difficult. Doing slow controlled movements like that takes a ton of strength. I bet that gymnast has a 6 pack to go with her guns.
@@Monocultured01 seems like there's a lot of abs n arms going on,,, still requires strength so not "everyone" can do it as some people are implying in these comments
People, keep in mind that these women were not professional athletes, just regular moms , with regular familys, which would do some gym in their free time. Nowadays gymnasts are profesionnal which train very hard since they are little kids. It’s a totally different scenario
@@lizzetcastro73 until the 1970s the Olympics were reserved for unpaid non professional athletes. This changed because in the 1970s the Russians started to really kill us with these supernatural athletes who were not technically professional athletes.... however they were paid by the country to do nothing but train for the Olympics This changed everything
@@sarahshanahan2222 So what these women were NOT JUST MOMS you kids think they were the first women Olympics or something? No women have been doing that for hundreds of years they REALLY need to teach you guys some history.
@@DiligoBarba I'm not sure what you are saying...I'm just saying that they were not professional athletes (paid to train or compete) because that would have disqualified them. Circuses have been around and trapeze artists and acrobats and such... Male and female.... but they would not be allowed into the Olympics at this time due to the rules
What incredible footage. It is wonderful to see. These women should be honored. You can see the moves better in early gymnastics, and see the true grit of it. I like that alot. And in modern times the routines can start looking all the same to me. I love the old moves. So clever and fascinating and watching the climbing on the bars is wonderful. Nowadays, the moves go by like the speed of light and you can't them well.
There's still a chance that a few of these ladies are still living. I'd love to see someone interview them and get their take on then vs now. It isn't just gymnastics that had evolved. Usain Bolt's 100 meter dash is about 3 seconds faster than the time that won the first modern day Olympics. The marathon has evolved from 2:58 to 2:08 (I didn't go into seconds. Records are made to be broken and skills are created only to be topped by future athletes. They should all have our respect, except for the ones using performance enhancing substances.
Вот это должно быть примером и спортом для миллионов! Не супер рекорды, не сверхгибкость - а вот такое здоровое, сильное, спортивное и в то же время очень настоящее лицо человека!!!
Where I grew up back in the late 50' s and 60's there were high and low parallel bars, rings, and beams in children's playgrounds.... that's what we played, and also canals to run, skip and all while balancing on high sides 👍😅 didn't matter if we fell , scraped a knee or broke an arm 👍It was all part of childhood 👍👍😉
These wonderful ladies would be amazed if they could see gymnastics today. Olga Korbut was a long time ago but her routines were amazing. A time before too many restrictions were put in place.
@@deboraholsen2504 The uneven bars are now just called "bars." It was originally created from the mens parallel bars, but slightly uneven. The use was similar to what the men used their for. The difference was, woman had to be ladylike during their routines. That meant no spreading their legs during ariel flips or they would lose huge points. Their floor routines were very gracious back then. It wasn't about how high, or how much power behind the moves: It was about balance, grace, and strength. I miss that in gymnastics, esjpecially the grace. Give these ladies their credit due. It is more difficult to keep balance and use strength while being graceful when you don't have a lot of power throw into the routine.
@@cs-mh2dh Yes, I agree with you. I miss the older routines of the 70s and maybe 80s, although Mary Lou Retton did put a lot of power and height into her routine!
@@deboraholsen2504 Mary Lou Retton was famous for doing so while still being graceful in her routines. I remember watching her. I was into gymnastics in middle school because of these ladies. I could never get the courage to do much on the balance beam. I adore gymnasts who master that because I know how much more difficult it is to work. The vault was the easierst and still is the most boring for me. Floor routine and uneven bars still interest me, though I miss the older version of the bar when gymnast had contact of both bars at the same time and the grace that was required. flips are great, but the gracefulness of the body in motion is more appealing than how high and how many flips can be done.
All these excercises, were a mandatory activity back in Soviet union school gym classes.everything you see here, we did as kids then, high schoolers..you couldn't avoid it or else, youd be penalized ..yep..great times lol
This is low level gymnastics, but it still requires muscular strength and control. It's not like just anybody can do the splits on a balance beam or a handstand on the parallel bars.
I always wonder if they were able to take an elite gymnast today, & send her back in a time machine & she just busted out & started doing routines they do now, what the reaction would be. Of course, I'm sure it would be impossible to do a lot of that stuff on the equipment back then, but nevertheless, it'd be interesting to see!
They would want all her drugs and roids, and some would even give their normal life's hours to train every day for 7+ hours to do the same. And would achieve, you can bet on that.
They paved the way. It's natural for things to evolve! Imagine how they trained back then with so many stigmas on gym and unconducive bureaucratic systems. Hell, stigma is still around now even in some developing countries!
Close to 1B people, almost entirely Muslims, today in 2021, don't allow their girls and women to do physical activities. And even those countries (like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Indonesia, etc) that do allow some women athletes, they can't show their hair or skin beyond the face or eyes (as in Taliban land, Afghanistan). Imagine you're a young girl born very gifted physically, in Islamic countries --- a young person who, early on as a toddler and then a grade schooler, excels in volley, gymnastics, soccer, marathon, etc. ---- & you had to cover your head, arms, and legs in the silly and dangerous ways I've seen Iranian and Indonesian young women have to, when they play soccer, volleyball, etc. against other people from other cultures who don't have those "traditional"/religious-based clothing rules.
200 years from now they will watch Simone biles and think “wow, what a cute little old-timey jumping bean. I learned how to do that during 5th grade recess.”
Gymnastics for the last 30 years will look fairly modern I think no matter how far you get into the future. Since the 80s we've been banning a lot of the craziest moves because they are too dangerous. Biles has had two of hers banned. There is only so much gymnasts can do before they are at risk of killing or seriously hurting themselves. You literally get a zero if you do them. What will look silly though are floor routines. Stylistically they change so much every 15 years or so.
most of them weren't really trained as gymnasts like now. most crossed over from ballet to gymnastics that's why they are creative and move slowly. plus there are balletic components in their routines.
It’s nice to see women with natural bodies doing athletics. The sport has evolved so much and the gymnasts forms are muscular and strikingly compacted.
You got a point, because alot of competitor gymnast grow a couple to several inches after they quit. And they also develop a woman's body after they quit.
I saw more comments complaining about people making fun of these ladies than actual comments from people making fun of these ladies. But regardless, the importance of what they were doing in their times is stupendous!
Now they’re extremely far apart! I miss the moves that Nadia Comaneci and the like used to perform on the uneven bars, but I guess that’s forever in the past!
Just look at their hands - those adult women have as many muscels as girls at the age of 16 in the Olympics now - and that's way harder to get them when you're grown up woman. It doesn't look like they were weak and worked out less.
Gymnastics in the future will be insane . backflip into an alternate universe and stick the landing in the past a second before you began the routine....lol
Looking at the uneven bars, it took a lot of strength to do what they were doing in basically slow motion. It was really graceful. Now they use energy / power to keep the movements going. Although if 1936 could see what CHILDREN are doing now, their minds would be blown 🤯
Think of doing this on 1936. They don't train like they do today. These things were top of the line difficult and you would be lucky to get the training the women did.
your right, I'm so glad parallel bars and uneven bars were so popular in ancient rome. oops, I forgot that parallel bars wasn't until 19th century and uneven bars much later. please stop embarrassing yourself.
your right, I'm so glad parallel bars and uneven bars were so popular in ancient rome. oops, I forgot that parallel bars wasn't until 19th century and uneven bars much later. please stop embarrassing yourself.
your right, I'm so glad parallel bars and uneven bars were so popular in ancient rome. oops, I forgot that parallel bars wasn't until 19th century and uneven bars much later. please stop embarrassing yourself.
I had seen this footage sometime ago. I wondered if any of the women were still alive and ever saw how the sport evolved from their time? Bless their hearts and all of the athletes who put it out there. Like Simone Biles who wasn’t afraid to say I cannot do this today. ❤️
Back then gymnastics was clearly about more the art than ability and difficulty. I'm curious what impact did Asian gymnasts who were doing more difficult stuff even before this had on the level of difficulty we see now.
I think the Soviets and European nations like the Czech Republican really modernized the sport to what we see now. The evolution of the sport got accelerated in the 1950s. Soviet Larissa Latynina (the mother of gymnastics) and the Czech Republic's Vera Caslavska started really pushing the sport to a new level in the 1950s and the 1960s. Then in 1972, Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut came along and made gymnastics be seen as a death defying/acrobatic spectacle and the sport has never looked back. Four years later, Romania's Nadia Comeneci took what her predecessors have done and seemed to have reached perfection. More and more girls around the world (or their government regimes) were watching and dreamed of matching or surpassing what they saw and now we have the modern gymnastics we see in 2016.
In the first Olympic womens Gymnastic, in 1952, the Gold Medal winner of the all around Individual competition was Maria Kondratyevna Gorokhovskaya, of Russia, born 17 October 1921. That means she was 31 years old at the time. She won 7 Gold Medals in the 1952 Olympics. In the 1936 Olympics, there were no medals given in womens gymnastics. It was purely an exhibition. Womens Olympic Gymnastics did not become a competitive event until 1952. These women were not competing. They were just looking for support to make womens gymnastics an Olympic sport... This was just the 2nd time the sport had been exhibited to the public. Most of these women are in their late 20s, and their outfits were no doubt pushing the limits of censorship. Even in 1952, when womens gymnastics were added to the Olympic venue, the girl look s were m pi re mature than today, and their costumes were more modest.
It's amazing how much the sport has evolved since then. It was obvious back then the women were using male gymnastic equipment and just modifying how it was used.
I'd love to go back in time with the building guidelines for modern equipment along with any materials they didn't have back then so I could ask them to set up a gym and then show them a modern, high level competition routine. ("How do we build that" "Oh, here, it's on my phone." ::Mind::Blown::) I wonder what they'd think... Evolution is amazing. Even for sports. (Or is that creationism also?)
That's a fairly recent change. They were close enough for them to do beats (holding on the the high bar and bouncing on the low bar with their waist) in the '84 games, but by '88 they were far enough apart for them to do giants.
They are using them for a different purpose though. They are literally climbing from one to the other, not swinging themselves. It's much more like the men's parallel bars with the handstands etc.
Gymnastics as we know had to have it's beginnings somewhere. You still had to be pretty strong to perform these moves, but women were probably limited in what they could do in gymnastics back then.
I would LOVE to see the expression on everyone's face if they saw a modern gymnastic do all the routines (uneven bars, floor, etc...)!
I mean "gymnast"!
+I Am TheTinyDiamond he's probably on mobile...?
Mel S haha...they will react like they seen a ghost
Mel S Simone biles
But their apparatuses were real wood etc
Beautiful,very gracefull my mother now 97 was a gymnast like this and she still is strong with a wonderful posture. Her team got the exercises for 1940 olympics. After the war she resumed gymnastics
1940 olympics???
😍😊
@@objetivista686 Canceled by WWII, of course, but there were plenty of athletes whose “prime years” occurred during the war. Oldest Olympian Agnes Keleti, now 103, won ten medals for Hungary in 1952 and 1956, competing at age 31 and 35.
These basic moves still take some decent balance and strength. At that time, women were expected to be "ladylike," not strong and athletic. These women really were pioneers in this sport.
Well, it's really nice that they put themselves out there and I wouldn't really laugh about the women but rather about the times. It takes some decent balance, yes, but a lot of the things they did we do in highschool now.
Until 1990 they were athletic and ladylike
People make assumptions about the past that are not accurate. The 20th century was not the Victorian era and women were athletic. The idols at this time were Katharine Hepburn, who was insanely athletic, and Amelia Earhart.
@@hurbig It's called evolution, in case you have never heard of that. They wouldn't be able to use a smart phone either...
And very elegant on uneven bars
it's so awesome that they have footage of this. And actually, moving this slow makes it so much harder...
@Jess Stone They were totally normal, functioning women, in every respect and not little girls!
@Jess Stone It's slow motion filming :-)
@Jess Stone most of them were probably in their mid 20s to late 30s, that's the time when most women gymnasts retire nowadays. This was during a time when women were expected to be at home in the kitchen, taking care of the children and the household. It was 1936, aka the Nazi Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Back then, it was more about a show of strength and unity (you can see the rhythmic gymnastics performed by the women on the field in the beginning of the video). Like you said, holding your body in a horizontal position on the bars like that takes a lot of upper body strength.
And you are right, beginning during the Cold War, gymnasts started training at younger and younger ages and Communist countries like the USSR, Romania and China actually did things to suppress puberty in their gymnasts to keep them as childlike, light and small for as long as possible, many were around 4'7-5'8. Anything more than that was almost considered too tall. And female body development was seen as a hinderance.
Verissimo.
Now i wanna know what gymnastics is gonna look like in 2080
one word. laser legs
Priz Monreal lol!!!
Ikr
SilverFang Right? They'll be watching videos of Simone and be like "lol"
SilverFang same
I'm intrigued by how different the uneven bars technique was! I like how measured and poised the movements were, the slower pace.
The uneven bars originated from the male gymnasts parallel bar. In time, the lower bar would gradually be moved farthr away. They now call it "bars" due to the fact that it no longer replicates the parallel bars and is used for completely different moves in a routine.
Wow! Women's gymnastics has really come a long ways! The uneven bars truly fascinated me, though. It was so methodical, and much more of a show of strength.
It was actually really beautiful.
@automne joie I agree, it seem to me it had far more artist elements than power...
@@magpiesneedle2575 Over the decades, gymnastics has increasingly edged out artistry in favor of power. It's inevitable, because difficult technical elements are an objective way to score and to push the sport forward. But it's also sad... I think at this point too much beauty and grace is being sacrificed. And I can say the same for figure skating, too.
Yes, you notice here that almost never is momentum or centrifugal force used as leverage -- it's all raw power.
@@automnejoy5308 and yet, nobody ever says mens gymnastics should be more graceful or needs to devolve, just women’s, funny how that goes.
I mean, we should respect them a lot. It might be nothing like modern gymnastics but we have to understand that this was the start of the evolution. Without this then the sport probably wouldn't have evolved so well to what gymnastics is today. Hard sport.
Right-everything starts somewhere and competition keeps pushing athletes higher until people are doing things unheard of a half century before. Like figure skating-someone figured out how to jump and land, and the next person took it farther, so now they do quad jumps, where one rotation used to be spectacular and impressive.
This.
Also, because it was a lighter form of the sport, I personally think their physiques looked much nicer than the way gymnasts have to bulk up these days - but I guess artistic gymnastics is not really about physical beauty. That being said, these ladies looked wonderful - I'm aiming for that shape😊. How about you guys?
All you making fun of how easy this was by today's standards should show these ladies a little more respect. Remember, these were THE FIRST women to ever try anything like this. Of course they're not as good as you are now. Someone had to start, someone had to lead the way so that future generations could improve on what they did. It must have taken tremendous courage for a woman to do any athletic activity back then, as they were expected to stay in the kitchen and raise babies. Can you imagine the harassment they must have faced? You should be grateful for the trailblazers that fought for you to get out from under men's authority and pursue anything you want.
@@waffilushus of course It was an easy level even for men, but for women It was almost forbiden to practice any Sport. They believe It could lead women to infertility. Because the only purpose of a woman was giving birth.
Thank you
I agree with most of what you wrote but the 20th century was not the Victorian era that people on RUclips imagine. Young women did go to college and play sports. The American icon was Katharine Hepburn, who wore pants and played golf and tennis and was insanely athletic. Grace Kelly swam competitively as a teen I think. Young Jackie Bouvier Kennedy rode horses. Elite women played sports.
Dont cry
abcd bdkdka: “don’t cry”
us: thank you, you have prevented many from crying
I like the uneven bars the most because it seemed as though the purpose of it was to show strength, flexibility, and control. I find it very refreshing. I also think it interesting that women used the parallell bars.
I read a lot of comments... Srsly, it's obvious this is easy for a beginner gymnast nowadays, but back then even wearing a leotard was outrageous!!! For a woman to do gymnastics was way too modern and bad seen! Also, gymnastics was done by grown women, not by girls like is done now.
Thank you. People are really not understanding the historical context. What these women were doing at the time was daring as it was showing women being physical. I mean it wasn't that long before this video that women were told that doing sports or anything athletic would prevent them from getting pregnant...hell, even riding a bicycle was thought to have been physically damaging for women.
Perla Manrique ....the video was actually sped up!! lol!!
+teri b I only noticed a small part in the uneven bars, some parts were speeded down I believe
Really? People thought this was hard & outrageous? 😂
@@dichiyaeley9120 It was outrageous show off skin and split your legs around in front of everyone. Maybe you can compare If pole dance goes to olympics. No parent would put their little Innocent girl to do that. They started training after growing up when their body was already shaped and not só flexible. Nowaldays Girls started at 3 and retire at 18.
it's so cool they had Gymnastics outside
Mara L it was SUMMER
Imagine holding a handstand n beam and a bug flies in your face.
@@niseplank4527 LOL
but this does give off major arena vibes, not really elitist competition but a fun activity outdoors
Kinda like track and field, I guess.
All summer Olympics were held outdoors until 1948
It's so fascinating to see how much this sport has evolved so much! It's incredible! Gymnasts back then would have never dreamed of performing the difficult skills that gymnasts today perform! Wow!!
Базовые элементы сохранились по сей день. Упражнения красивые, все женщины тянут носочек, на бревне прекрасный баланс, держит равновесие! Спасибо за архивные кадры!❤
Согласна, движения отточенные, просто и красиво, безо всяких выкрутасов
@@user-vi1cm5jl6zЗдравствуйте.Я с вами согласен.Ну шибко красиво глаз неотвесть и ещё эти прекрасные девушки наверное ни про какой допинг неведают.
I could have been a gymnast in 1936
Me too! Most of these things we could do in our back yard. Guess I'll have to read up on the history of Olympic gymnastics.
@@AdeleCeleste It is kind of fun to realize that some things I did as a kid would have been at a gymnast level in the 30s
Me too!!
YES!!!!!!!
😤 😡 😠
They all look so beautiful and in control of every muscle they are moving! Magic
💙They are the blueprint 💙
Wow my great great grandma really watched this, liked it and did it😭 she is still alive and well born in 1926
You must have some pretty short generational spacing in your family. My Grandma was born in 1927. She passed away last year. You're probably around the same age as my daughters, and to them she was a great-grandmother, but you had room for another generation in there somehow.
@@deer105 my great grandma was married early around 16 and had her first child then, everyone else had children 20+
@@queenareanna3534 You're very lucky to get to know your great-great-grandmother! All of great-grandparents were dead by the time I was 11.
@@deer105 😂😂 All of my great grandparents died before I was born. I never met my paternal grandparents; my paternal grandmother died three years before I was born, and my paternal grandfather was estranged. He died in 1991. Not that it matters!
wow she was only 10 years old when this video was filmed
Wow, this is really impressive. The core strength of some of these people is just out of this world. Modern gymnastics rely so much on momentum, centrifugal forces, and speed. This is much more impressive to me, and I wish we could see this level of body control and precision today.
Personally, I like these performances as well. Even if they are not as complex as modern gymnastics it's still gymnastics, so I don't complain. They are unique in their own way.. 👍💖
Very graceful. Done with slow intention.
It’s 2021, and most people still can’t do a hand stand. So, I think these ladies are still better than most people today :p
One key difference is that these ladies weren't shooting up performance enhancing drugs, and they weren't destroying all of their ligaments and joints.
And they mostly weren't athletes in the sense of today. Lot of them probably were in the first place house wives etc. and trained at the side, unlike today where being an athlete is a career with sponsorships etc. Anyone can feel free to correct me, but weren't even men (at least back when Olympics only happened in Greece) "normal". Like I know of one man in my country, who traveled to Greece as an athlete over 100 years ago, but training wsa just his hobby and he had a different job and traveled to Greece during his free time
There were some interesting things happening on the parallel bars that we don’t see anymore, especially those controlled, slower strength moves.
And the focus on uneven bars seems to be grace and balance and "dancing" through and between them rather than spinning around them and bouncing back and forth from one to the other. Wonder who wss the first one to do that and did it blow the sport up?
Concordo.
@@terrijaree7371 I soliti incolti.
the swing to handstand at 1:49 , ver impressive,not many female gymnasts these days would be able to do that easily
She has a set of guns on her too
Ikr? A lot of people say this looks easier than gymnastics today, and that may be the case, but that doesn't mean that it's not difficult. Doing slow controlled movements like that takes a ton of strength. I bet that gymnast has a 6 pack to go with her guns.
Yes, that was amazing.
idk i do these all the time at practice for strength and warm-ups. They are fairly easy, its just more of a men's thing so not many girls practice it
@@Monocultured01 seems like there's a lot of abs n arms going on,,, still requires strength so not "everyone" can do it as some people are implying in these comments
People, keep in mind that these women were not professional athletes, just regular moms , with regular familys, which would do some gym in their free time. Nowadays gymnasts are profesionnal which train very hard since they are little kids. It’s a totally different scenario
how you know they where not profesional and they all where just moms ?
@@lizzetcastro73 until the 1970s the Olympics were reserved for unpaid non professional athletes.
This changed because in the 1970s the Russians started to really kill us with these supernatural athletes who were not technically professional athletes.... however they were paid by the country to do nothing but train for the Olympics
This changed everything
@@sarahshanahan2222 So what these women were NOT JUST MOMS you kids
think they were the first women Olympics or something? No women have been doing that for hundreds of years they REALLY need to teach you guys some history.
@@DiligoBarba I'm not sure what you are saying...I'm just saying that they were not professional athletes (paid to train or compete) because that would have disqualified them.
Circuses have been around and trapeze artists and acrobats and such... Male and female.... but they would not be allowed into the Olympics at this time due to the rules
@@sarahshanahan2222 - You got it right. Don’t feed the trolls.
I think that looks like a lot of fun. It was a different type of discipline from what it evolved into, but I think it was cool in its own right.
Can we just talk about the split on the beam? Like????????????? That is such a tiny line and to do the splits!? Very impressive
What incredible footage. It is wonderful to see. These women should be honored. You can see the moves better in early gymnastics, and see the true grit of it. I like that alot. And in modern times the routines can start looking all the same to me. I love the old moves. So clever and fascinating and watching the climbing on the bars is wonderful. Nowadays, the moves go by like the speed of light and you can't them well.
Im more impressed by this form of gymnastics than today's.
There's still a chance that a few of these ladies are still living. I'd love to see someone interview them and get their take on then vs now.
It isn't just gymnastics that had evolved. Usain Bolt's 100 meter dash is about 3 seconds faster than the time that won the first modern day Olympics. The marathon has evolved from 2:58 to 2:08 (I didn't go into seconds. Records are made to be broken and skills are created only to be topped by future athletes. They should all have our respect, except for the ones using performance enhancing substances.
90% of the comments laughing I’ll bet still couldn’t even do any of this
Вот это должно быть примером и спортом для миллионов! Не супер рекорды, не сверхгибкость - а вот такое здоровое, сильное, спортивное и в то же время очень настоящее лицо человека!!!
Where I grew up back in the late 50' s and 60's there were high and low parallel bars, rings, and beams in children's playgrounds.... that's what we played, and also canals to run, skip and all while balancing on high sides 👍😅 didn't matter if we fell , scraped a knee or broke an arm 👍It was all part of childhood 👍👍😉
Me too in the 80s
These wonderful ladies would be amazed if they could see gymnastics today. Olga Korbut was a long time ago but her routines were amazing. A time before too many restrictions were put in place.
If it weren’t for these women we wouldn’t have been where we are in gymnastics to this day:) respect💗
wow they are actually balancing on the balance beam
You got me thinking, maybe that’s why they tend to just call it the beam now!
i thought the same thing lol
@@deboraholsen2504 The uneven bars are now just called "bars." It was originally created from the mens parallel bars, but slightly uneven. The use was similar to what the men used their for. The difference was, woman had to be ladylike during their routines. That meant no spreading their legs during ariel flips or they would lose huge points. Their floor routines were very gracious back then. It wasn't about how high, or how much power behind the moves: It was about balance, grace, and strength. I miss that in gymnastics, esjpecially the grace. Give these ladies their credit due. It is more difficult to keep balance and use strength while being graceful when you don't have a lot of power throw into the routine.
@@cs-mh2dh Yes, I agree with you. I miss the older routines of the 70s and maybe 80s, although Mary Lou Retton did put a lot of power and height into her routine!
@@deboraholsen2504 Mary Lou Retton was famous for doing so while still being graceful in her routines. I remember watching her. I was into gymnastics in middle school because of these ladies. I could never get the courage to do much on the balance beam. I adore gymnasts who master that because I know how much more difficult it is to work. The vault was the easierst and still is the most boring for me. Floor routine and uneven bars still interest me, though I miss the older version of the bar when gymnast had contact of both bars at the same time and the grace that was required. flips are great, but the gracefulness of the body in motion is more appealing than how high and how many flips can be done.
All these excercises, were a mandatory activity back in Soviet union school gym classes.everything you see here, we did as kids then, high schoolers..you couldn't avoid it or else, youd be penalized ..yep..great times lol
This is low level gymnastics, but it still requires muscular strength and control. It's not like just anybody can do the splits on a balance beam or a handstand on the parallel bars.
The way it's filmed is absolutely stunning.
Amazing the progress of gymnastics in just decades.
There very graceful and limber gives u chance to see what there doing.
I mean yeah it's nothing like modern gymnastics but it still requires a good amount of strength
This was an interesting video. Thanks for posting this! I actually enjoyed watching the uneven bars-- very interesting and much different than today.
They were quite strong, especially this woman 1:43
I always wonder if they were able to take an elite gymnast today, & send her back in a time machine & she just busted out & started doing routines they do now, what the reaction would be. Of course, I'm sure it would be impossible to do a lot of that stuff on the equipment back then, but nevertheless, it'd be interesting to see!
chris green Philly Likely she would be condemned for being unladylike and unfeminine. Many things have changed.
They would want all her drugs and roids, and some would even give their normal life's hours to train every day for 7+ hours to do the same. And would achieve, you can bet on that.
Imagine Simone trying to do an Amanar and the vault literally explodes.
The equipment would probably cause many accidents and injuries.
Weren't olympics for non profesionals in the old days? Elite gymnast wouldn't be even allowed to compete
I kinda preferred these uniforms to the ones they’re wearing now…
They paved the way. It's natural for things to evolve! Imagine how they trained back then with so many stigmas on gym and unconducive bureaucratic systems. Hell, stigma is still around now even in some developing countries!
Close to 1B people, almost entirely Muslims, today in 2021, don't allow their girls and women to do physical activities. And even those countries (like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Indonesia, etc) that do allow some women athletes, they can't show their hair or skin beyond the face or eyes (as in Taliban land, Afghanistan).
Imagine you're a young girl born very gifted physically, in Islamic countries --- a young person who, early on as a toddler and then a grade schooler, excels in volley, gymnastics, soccer, marathon, etc. ---- & you had to cover your head, arms, and legs in the silly and dangerous ways I've seen Iranian and Indonesian young women have to, when they play soccer, volleyball, etc. against other people from other cultures who don't have those "traditional"/religious-based clothing rules.
@@kiabtoomlauj6249 thank you for your enlightement. I fully understand what you meant.
Still takes a lot of strength to do that.
200 years from now they will watch Simone biles and think “wow, what a cute little old-timey jumping bean. I learned how to do that during 5th grade recess.”
I think anyone who was judgmental to Simone Biles needs to see this video.
Gymnastics for the last 30 years will look fairly modern I think no matter how far you get into the future. Since the 80s we've been banning a lot of the craziest moves because they are too dangerous. Biles has had two of hers banned. There is only so much gymnasts can do before they are at risk of killing or seriously hurting themselves. You literally get a zero if you do them.
What will look silly though are floor routines. Stylistically they change so much every 15 years or so.
Healthy and fit WOMEN moving gracefully - what's not to like?
Any idea who any of these people are? My grandma was a gymnast in the 1936 British team.
That is awesome
Was your grandma the vaulter at 2:00?
Then ask ur grandma?
That’s wonderful
@@johnseb5856 if it was that easy I’m sure they would. They have likely passed away if you factor in the age they competed at.
most of them weren't really trained as gymnasts like now. most crossed over from ballet to gymnastics that's why they are creative and move slowly. plus there are balletic components in their routines.
Once upon a time, it was called a horse! The vaulting table is a recent invention.
I think they just used a pommel horse with the handles removed
It’s nice to see women with natural bodies doing athletics. The sport has evolved so much and the gymnasts forms are muscular and strikingly compacted.
You got a point, because alot of competitor gymnast grow a couple to several inches after they quit. And they also develop a woman's body after they quit.
Their vaults look like the stuff I did in martial arts when I was 10. If an olympic vaulter were to go there today they'd shit their pants
haha the second girl though... she literally just jumped on top of it and fell off.
That was my favorite performance. I think they got a shot-put athlete and asked her to do gymnastics for this event to fill their quota.
+SHT L lol!!!!
+SHT L she couldn't even stick the landing. Like, you just hurdled. The end.
The first vault looks like "olio cuore" advertisement on TV😂
I saw more comments complaining about people making fun of these ladies than actual comments from people making fun of these ladies. But regardless, the importance of what they were doing in their times is stupendous!
The uneven bars were so close together!
Now they’re extremely far apart! I miss the moves that Nadia Comaneci and the like used to perform on the uneven bars, but I guess that’s forever in the past!
Better and more graceful than today.
Nice to see old footage of grown women competing. Women doing parallel bars is awesome....takes some serious upper body strength to do that!
Удивительные кадры. Первый раз попались такие древние съёмки. Очень интересно.
Интересно и наивно
I like watching the old styles. It's slower and so graceful. I can actually tell what's going on.
Just look at their hands - those adult women have as many muscels as girls at the age of 16 in the Olympics now - and that's way harder to get them when you're grown up woman. It doesn't look like they were weak and worked out less.
Gymnastics in the future will be insane . backflip into an alternate universe and stick the landing in the past a second before you began the routine....lol
That is brill!
Looking at the uneven bars, it took a lot of strength to do what they were doing in basically slow motion. It was really graceful. Now they use energy / power to keep the movements going.
Although if 1936 could see what CHILDREN are doing now, their minds would be blown 🤯
I wonder what level 1 looked like
Really interesting! Thanks for sharing.
This is hilarious. We did that in high school!
Back then gymnastics was more balance and grace rather than difficult flips. And it’s still as impressive to me as today’s gymnastics
The beginning looks like a DUI stop!!!
I didn’t know women used to do parallel bars. Cool.
They were actually men's parallel bars.
They just raised one bar higher than the other.
Think of doing this on 1936. They don't train like they do today. These things were top of the line difficult and you would be lucky to get the training the women did.
so much hate, like it or not if it wasn't for games like these we wouldn't have today's Olympics.
except that todays gymnastics Olympics are based off these ones.
your right, I'm so glad parallel bars and uneven bars were so popular in ancient rome.
oops, I forgot that parallel bars wasn't until 19th century and uneven bars much later.
please stop embarrassing yourself.
your right, I'm so glad parallel bars and uneven bars were so popular in ancient rome.
oops, I forgot that parallel bars wasn't until 19th century and uneven bars much later.
please stop embarrassing yourself.
your right, I'm so glad parallel bars and uneven bars were so popular in ancient rome.
oops, I forgot that parallel bars wasn't until 19th century and uneven bars much later.
please stop embarrassing yourself.
This was one of the most entertaining conversations I've read all day.
I had seen this footage sometime ago. I wondered if any of the women were still alive and ever saw how the sport evolved from their time? Bless their hearts and all of the athletes who put it out there. Like Simone Biles who wasn’t afraid to say I cannot do this today. ❤️
Imagine their reaction if you sent Mckayla Maroney back in time to vault
Can you imagine the look on these ladies faces is the could see the sport today 😱
This is an amazing find
Beautiful and not easy at all! Most of us struggling to do one pull up!
Back then gymnastics was clearly about more the art than ability and difficulty. I'm curious what impact did Asian gymnasts who were doing more difficult stuff even before this had on the level of difficulty we see now.
I think the Soviets and European nations like the Czech Republican really modernized the sport to what we see now. The evolution of the sport got accelerated in the 1950s. Soviet Larissa Latynina (the mother of gymnastics) and the Czech Republic's Vera Caslavska started really pushing the sport to a new level in the 1950s and the 1960s. Then in 1972, Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut came along and made gymnastics be seen as a death defying/acrobatic spectacle and the sport has never looked back. Four years later, Romania's Nadia Comeneci took what her predecessors have done and seemed to have reached perfection. More and more girls around the world (or their government regimes) were watching and dreamed of matching or surpassing what they saw and now we have the modern gymnastics we see in 2016.
★ ☆ ✮ ✯ BEST in the world★ ☆ ✮ ✯ I would love to see those who failed to qualify for their country
Imagine those gymnasts seeing what gymnastics has become
Amazing documento!
It would not be possible to do modern routines on this equipment. You can clearly see the wobble in the balance beam, no stability for precision work.
Strength, grace, and beauty personified.
We Did these stuff in middle school at the playground lmao
Не сложно красиво галантно банально - женственно ! Возвращаем Советскую народную власть СССР !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In the first Olympic womens Gymnastic, in 1952, the Gold Medal winner of the all around Individual competition was Maria Kondratyevna Gorokhovskaya, of Russia, born 17 October 1921.
That means she was 31 years old at the time.
She won 7 Gold Medals in the 1952 Olympics.
In the 1936 Olympics, there were no medals given in womens gymnastics. It was purely an exhibition.
Womens Olympic Gymnastics did not become a competitive event until 1952.
These women were not competing. They were just looking for support to make womens gymnastics an Olympic sport...
This was just the 2nd time the sport had been exhibited to the public.
Most of these women are in their late 20s, and their outfits were no doubt pushing the limits of censorship.
Even in 1952, when womens gymnastics were added to the Olympic venue, the girl look s were m pi re mature than today, and their costumes were more modest.
Back then, female gymnasts were so graceful
Wow...nothing compared to what we have today.
It’s amazing how the sport in just 40 years is night and day in ability!!
it was all about strength and agility now 2020 yrs about superhuman feats and triple twists flying on the air with a backflip and toe touch. weird.
Watch at 1.5 speed. I think thats closer to the actual speed filmed.
Watch the people in the background going down the stairs for reference; seems between "normal speed" & "1.25"
Это был здоровый спорт без сумасшедших растяжек и со здоровым питанием без допинга
It's amazing how much the sport has evolved since then. It was obvious back then the women were using male gymnastic equipment and just modifying how it was used.
wow! what a difference..we've come a long way👍
This is so weird. Specially uneven bars. But I like their outfits much better than today’s outfits
I'd love to go back in time with the building guidelines for modern equipment along with any materials they didn't have back then so I could ask them to set up a gym and then show them a modern, high level competition routine. ("How do we build that" "Oh, here, it's on my phone." ::Mind::Blown::) I wonder what they'd think...
Evolution is amazing. Even for sports. (Or is that creationism also?)
Wow, they uneven bars were so close together! Nice vintage video.
That's a fairly recent change. They were close enough for them to do beats (holding on the the high bar and bouncing on the low bar with their waist) in the '84 games, but by '88 they were far enough apart for them to do giants.
They are using them for a different purpose though. They are literally climbing from one to the other, not swinging themselves. It's much more like the men's parallel bars with the handstands etc.
amazing how far the sport has come!
Gymnastics as we know had to have it's beginnings somewhere. You still had to be pretty strong to perform these moves, but women were probably limited in what they could do in gymnastics back then.