Artistic Gymnastics at the 1960 Summer Olympics

The 1960 gymnastic events were held at the Terme di Caracalla, or the Baths of Caracalla, in Rome. The Baths were an ancient Roman site, built around 210-217 AD, as a public bath. The 1960 gymnastics program was quite similar to what it had been in 1952 and 1956, except that the women’s team portable apparatus event was dropped from the Olympic Program. It would never return although it had some similarities to a team rhythmic gymnastics event. Men competed in an individual and team all-around, and six apparatus events; while women competed in an individual and team all-around, and four apparatus events. This would remain the standard Olympic Program from 1960 into the 21st century.

There was a change in competition format in Rome, however. In the past all gymnasts competed on all apparatuses and the scores were simply added up for the all-around score. But in Rome the team and individual all-around competition was held first, and the top six finishers on each apparatus advanced to the apparatus finals.

The men’s events in Rome were closely matched between gymnasts from the Soviet Union and Japan, with Japan winning the team all-around, but the Soviets won the medal races, with 11 medals to 9 for Japan, and 5 golds to 4 for Japan. Overall, the two nations won 20 of 25 men’s gymnastics medals and 9 of the 10 gold medals awarded.

There was no contest on the women’s side as the Soviet Union’s dominance was absolute. The Soviet women won 5 of 6 events and 15 of the available 18 medals, with 2 going to Czechoslovakia, and Romania winning the one remaining medal. Individually, the Soviets won 14 of 15 possible medals, sweeping the all-around and three apparatus finals, only missing the beam gold medal, which went to Czechoslovakia’s Eva Bosáková-Věchtová.