Artistic gymnastics
In 1881, the FIG was founded, and it remains the governing body of international gymnastics. It initially included only three countries and was called the European Gymnastics Federation until 1921, when the first non-European countries joined the federation and it was reorganized into its present form. Gymnastics was included in the program of the 1896 Summer Olympics, but women have been allowed to participate in the Olympics only since 1928. The World Championships, held since 1903, were open only to men until 1934. Since that time, two branches of artistic gymnastics have developed: women's artistic gymnastics (WAG) and men's artistic gymnastics (MAG). Unlike men's and women's branches of many other sports, WAG and MAG differ significantly in apparatus used at major competitions and in techniques.
Rhythmic gymnastics
Russia: After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia has been the dominant country in rhythmic gymnastics since the start of the late 1990s saw the rise of stars like Amina Zaripova, Yanina Batyrchina and Alina Kabaeva. Oxana Kostina became Russia's first World Champion as an independent country. In the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Yulia Barsukova became the first Russian to win the Olympic gold medal. Alina Kabaeva, who had won bronze in Sydney, went on to win gold in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Evgenia Kanaeva became the first individual rhythmic gymnast to win two gold medals in the Olympic Games at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics. Margarita Mamun continued the streak of individual gold medalists at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics while the competition favorite 3-times World champion Yana Kudryavtseva took silver because of a drop in her clubs routine during the finals. Other notable gymnasts include Natalia Lipkovskaya, Irina Tchachina, Natalia Lavrova, Zarina Gizikova, Laysan Utiasheva, Vera Sessina, Olga Kapranova, Yelena Posevina, Anna Gavrilenko, Margarita Aliychuk, Olga Belova, Daria Shkurikhina, Anastasia Maksimova, Tatiana Gorbunova, Uliana Donskova, Yana Lukonina, Anastasia Nazarenko, Anastasia Bliznyuk, Ksenia Dudkina, Karolina Sevastyanova, Olga Ilina, Daria Kondakova, Daria Dmitrieva, Alexandra Merkulova, Daria Svatkovskaya, Yana Kudryavtseva, Maria Titova, Maria Tolkacheva, Aleksandra Soldatova, Dina Averina, Arina Averina, Irina Annenkova, Diana Borisova, Iuliia Bravikova, Anastasiia Tatareva, Eleonora Romanova, Daria Dubova, Vera Biryukova, Sofya Skomorokh, Alina Ermolova, Ekaterina Selezneva, Daria Pridannikova, Lala Kramarenko, and Polina Shmatko. The Russian Group has won five of the six Group exercises held in the Olympics since it was included in the Olympic Games back in 1996 Summer Olympics.