When did American Sign Language develop?

ASL emerged as a language in the American School for the Deaf (ASD), founded in 1817. This school brought together Old French Sign Language, various village sign languages, and home sign systems; ASL was created in this situation of language contact. ASL was influenced by its forerunners but distinct from all of them.

American Sign Language

American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canada. Besides North America, dialects of ASL and ASL-based creoles are used in many countries around the world, including much of West Africa and parts of Southeast Asia. ASL is also widely learned as a second language, serving as a lingua franca. ASL is most closely related to French Sign Language (LSF). It has been proposed that ASL is a creole language of LSF, although ASL shows features atypical of creole languages, such as agglutinative morphology.

ASL originated in the early 19th century in the American School for the Deaf (ASD) in Hartford, Connecticut, from a situation of language contact. Since then, ASL use has propagated widely via schools for the deaf and Deaf community organizations. Despite its wide use, no accurate count of ASL users has been taken, though reliable estimates for American ASL users range from 250,000 to 500,000 persons, including a number of children of deaf adults. ASL users face stigma due to beliefs in the superiority of oral language to sign language, compounded by the fact that ASL is often glossed in English due to the lack of a standard writing system.

ASL signs have a number of phonemic components, including movement of the face and torso as well as the hands. ASL is not a form of pantomime, but iconicity does play a larger role in ASL than in spoken languages. English loan words are often borrowed through fingerspelling, although ASL grammar is unrelated to that of English. ASL has verbal agreement and aspectual marking and has a productive system of forming agglutinative classifiers. Many linguists believe ASL to be a subject–verb–object (SVO) language, but there are several alternative proposals to account for ASL word order.

The influence of French Sign Language (LSF) on ASL is readily apparent; for example, it has been found that about 58% of signs in modern ASL are cognate to Old French Sign Language signs. However, this is far less than the standard 80% measure used to determine whether related languages are actually dialects. This suggests that nascent ASL was highly affected by the other signing systems brought by the ASD students, despite the fact that the school's original director Laurent Clerc taught in LSF. In fact, Clerc reported that he often learned the students' signs rather than conveying LSF:
It has been proposed that ASL is a creole with LSF as the superstrate language and with the native village sign languages as substrate languages. However, more recent research has shown that modern ASL does not share many of the structural features that characterize creole languages. ASL may have begun as a creole and then undergone structural change over time, but it is also possible that it was never a creole-type language. There are modality-specific reasons that sign languages tend towards agglutination, for example the ability to simultaneously convey information via the face, head, torso, and other body parts. This might override creole characteristics such as the tendency towards isolating morphology. Additionally, Clerc and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet may have used an artificially constructed form of manually coded language in instruction rather than true LSF.

Although the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia share English as a common oral and written language, ASL is not mutually intelligible with British Sign Language (BSL) or Auslan. All three languages show degrees of borrowing from English, but this alone is not sufficient for cross-language comprehension. It has been found that a relatively high percentage (37–44%) of ASL signs have similar translations in Auslan, which for oral languages would suggest that they belong to the same language family. However, this does not seem justified historically for ASL and Auslan, and it is likely that this resemblance is due to the higher degree of iconicity in sign languages in general, as well as contact with English.

American Sign Language is growing in popularity among many states. Many people in high school and colleges desire to take it as a foreign language, but until recently, it was not a creditable foreign language elective. The issue was that many didn't consider it a foreign language. ASL users, however, have a very distinct culture and way they interact when talking. Their facial expressions and hand movements reflect what they are conveying. They also have their own sentence structure which sets the language apart.

Prior to the birth of ASL, sign language had been used by various communities in the United States. In the United States, as elsewhere in the world, hearing families with deaf children have historically employed ad-hoc home sign, which often reaches much higher levels of sophistication than gestures used by hearing people in spoken conversation. As early as 1541 at first contact by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, there were reports that the Plains Indians had developed a sign language to communicate between tribes of different languages.

In the 19th century, a "triangle" of village sign languages developed in New England: one in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts; one in Henniker, New Hampshire, and one in Sandy River Valley, Maine. Martha's Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL), which was particularly important for the history of ASL, was used mainly in Chilmark, Massachusetts. Due to intermarriage in the original community of English settlers of the 1690s, and the recessive nature of genetic deafness, Chilmark had a high 4% rate of genetic deafness.. MVSL was used even by hearing residents whenever a deaf person was present, and also in some situations where spoken language would be ineffective or inappropriate, such as during church sermons or between boats at sea.

ASL is thought to have originated in the American School for the Deaf (ASD), founded in Hartford, Connecticut in 1817. Originally known as "The American Asylum, At Hartford, For The Education And Instruction Of The Deaf And Dumb", the school was founded by the Yale graduate and divinity student Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. Gallaudet, inspired by his success in demonstrating the learning abilities of a young deaf girl Alice Cogswell, traveled to Europe in order to learn deaf pedagogy from European institutions. Ultimately, Gallaudet chose to adopt the methods of the French Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris, and convinced Laurent Clerc, an assistant to the school's founder Charles-Michel de l'Épée, to accompany him back to the United States. Upon his return, Gallaudet founded the ASD on April 15, 1817.

The largest group of students during the first seven decades of the school were from Martha's Vineyard, and they brought MVSL with them. There were also 44 students from around Henniker, New Hampshire, and 27 from the Sandy River valley in Maine, each of which had their own village sign language. Other students brought knowledge of their own home signs. Laurent Clerc, the first teacher at ASD, taught using French Sign Language (LSF), which itself had developed in the Parisian school for the deaf established in 1755. From this situation of language contact, a new language emerged, now known as ASL.
More schools for the deaf were founded after ASD, and knowledge of ASL spread to these schools. In addition, the rise of Deaf community organizations bolstered the continued use of ASL. Societies such as the National Association of the Deaf and the National Fraternal Society of the Deaf held national conventions that attracted signers from across the country. This all contributed to ASL's wide use over a large geographical area, atypical of a sign language.

Up to the 1950s, the predominant method in deaf education was oralism – acquiring oral language comprehension and production. Linguists did not consider sign language to be true "language", but rather something inferior. Recognition of the legitimacy of ASL was achieved by William Stokoe, a linguist who arrived at Gallaudet University in 1955 when this was still the dominant assumption. Aided by the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Stokoe argued for manualism, the use of sign language in deaf education. Stokoe noted that sign language shares the important features that oral languages have as a means of communication, and even devised a transcription system for ASL. In doing so, Stokoe revolutionized both deaf education and linguistics. In the 1960s, ASL was sometimes referred to as "Ameslan", but this term is now considered obsolete.

Counting the number of ASL signers is difficult because ASL users have never been counted by the American census. The ultimate source for current estimates of the number of ASL users in the United States is a report for the National Census of the Deaf Population (NCDP) by Schein and Delk (1974). Based on a 1972 survey of the NCDP, Schein and Delk provided estimates consistent with a signing population between 250,000 and 500,000. The survey did not distinguish between ASL and other forms of signing; in fact, the name "ASL" was not yet in widespread use.

Incorrect figures are sometimes cited for the population of ASL speakers in the United States based on misunderstandings of known statistics. Demographics of the deaf population have been confused with those of ASL use, since adults who become deaf late in life rarely use ASL in the home. This accounts for currently cited estimations which are greater than 500,000; such mistaken estimations can reach as high as 15,000,000. A 100,000-person lower bound has been cited for ASL users; the source of this figure is unclear, but it may be an estimate of prelingual deafness, which is correlated with but not equivalent to signing.

ASL is sometimes incorrectly cited as the third- or fourth-most-spoken language in the United States. These figures misquote Schein and Delk (1974), who actually concluded that ASL speakers constituted the third-largest population "requiring an interpreter in court". Although this would make ASL the third-most used language among monolinguals other than English, it does not imply that it is the fourth-most-spoken language in the United States, since speakers of other languages may also speak English.

ASL is used throughout Anglo-America. This contrasts with Europe, where a variety of sign languages are used within the same continent. The unique situation of ASL seems to have been caused by the proliferation of ASL through schools influenced by the American School for the Deaf, wherein ASL originated, and the rise of community organizations for the Deaf.

Throughout West Africa, ASL-based sign languages are spoken by educated Deaf adults. These languages, imported by boarding schools, are often considered by associations to be the official sign languages of their countries, and are named accordingly, e.g. Nigerian Sign Language, Ghanaian Sign Language. Such signing systems are found in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Liberia, Mauritania, Mali, Nigeria, and Togo. Due to lack of data, it is still an open question how similar these sign languages are to the variety of ASL used in America.

In addition to the aforementioned West African countries, ASL is reported to be used as a first language in Barbados, Bolivia, Cambodia, the Central African Republic, Chad, China (Hong Kong), the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Zimbabwe. ASL is also used as a lingua franca throughout the deaf world, widely learned as a second language.

Sign production can often vary according to location. Signers from the South tend to sign with more flow and ease. Native signers from New York have been reported as signing comparatively more quickly and sharply. Sign production of native Californian signers has also been reported as being fast as well. Research on this phenomenon often concludes this fast-paced production for signers from the coast could be due to the fast-paced nature of living in large metropolitan areas. This conclusion also supports how the ease with which Southern sign could be due to the easy going environment of the South in comparison to that of the East and West coast.

Sign production can also vary depending on age and native language. For example, sign production of letters may vary in older signers. Slight differences in finger spelling production can be a signal of age. Additionally, signers who learned American Sign Language as a second language vary in production. For Deaf signers who learned a different sign language before learning American Sign Language, qualities of their native language may show in their ASL production. Some examples of this varied production are finger spelling towards the body instead of away from, and signing certain movement from bottom to top instead of top to bottom. Hearing people that learn American Sign Language also have noticeable differences in signing production. The most notable production difference of hearing people learning American Sign Language is their rhythm and arm posture.

Most popularly there are variants of the signs for English words such as "birthday", "pizza", "Halloween", "early", and "soon". These are just a sample of the most commonly recognized signs with variant based on regional change. The sign for "school" is commonly varied between black and white signers. The variation between sign produced by black and white signers is sometimes referred to as Black American Sign Language.

The prevalence of residential Deaf schools can account for much of the regional variance of signs and sign productions across the United States. Deaf schools often serve students of the state in which the school resides. This limited access to signers from other regions, combined with the residential quality of Deaf Schools promoted specific use of certain sign variants. Native signers did not have much access to signers from other regions during the beginning years of their education. It is hypothesized that because of this seclusion, certain variants of a sign prevailed over others due to the choice of variant used by the student of the school/signers in the community.

However, American Sign Language does not appear to be vastly varied when compared to other signed languages. This is because when Deaf education was beginning in the United States, many educators flocked to the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. This central location for the first generation of educators in Deaf education to learn American Sign Language allows ASL to be more standardized than it is variant.

Varieties of ASL are found throughout the world. There is little difficulty in comprehension among the varieties of the United States and Canada.

Mutual intelligibility among these ASL varieties is high, and the variation is primarily lexical. For example, there are three different words for English "about" in Canadian ASL; the standard way, and two regional variations (Atlantic and Ontario), as shown in the videos on the right. Variation may also be phonological, meaning that the same sign may be signed in a different way depending on the region. For example, an extremely common type of variation is between the handshapes /1/, /L/, and /5/ in signs with one handshape.

There is also a distinct variety of ASL used by the Black Deaf community. Black ASL evolved as a result of racially segregated schools in some states, which included the residential schools for the deaf. Black ASL differs from standard ASL in vocabulary, phonology, and some grammatical structure. While African American English (AAE) is generally viewed as more innovating than standard English, Black ASL is more conservative than standard ASL, preserving older forms of many signs. Black sign language speakers use more two-handed signs than in mainstream ASL, are less likely to show assimilatory lowering of signs produced on the forehead (e.g. KNOW) and use a wider signing space. Modern Black ASL borrows a number of idioms from AAE; for instance, the AAE idiom "I feel you" is calqued into Black ASL.

ASL is used internationally as a lingua franca, and a number of closely related sign languages derived from ASL are used in many different countries. Even so, there have been varying degrees of divergence from standard ASL in these imported ASL varieties. Bolivian Sign Language is reported to be a dialect of ASL, no more divergent than other acknowledged dialects. On the other hand, it is also known that some imported ASL varieties have diverged to the extent of being separate languages. For example, Malaysian Sign Language, which has ASL origins, is no longer mutually comprehensible with ASL and must be considered its own language. For some imported ASL varieties, such as those used in West Africa, it is still an open question how similar they are to American ASL.

When communicating with hearing English speakers, ASL-speakers often use what is commonly called Pidgin Signed English (PSE) or 'contact signing', a blend of English structure with ASL. Various types of PSE exist, ranging from highly English-influenced PSE (practically relexified English) to PSE which is quite close to ASL lexically and grammatically, but may alter some subtle features of ASL grammar. Fingerspelling may be used more often in PSE than it is normally used in ASL. There have been some constructed sign languages, known as Manually Coded English (MCE), which match English grammar exactly and simply replace spoken words with signs; these systems are not considered to be varieties of ASL.

Tactile ASL (TASL) is a variety of ASL used throughout the United States by and with the deaf-blind. It is particularly common among those with Usher's syndrome. This syndrome results in deafness from birth followed by loss of vision later in life; consequently, those with Usher's syndrome often grow up in the Deaf community using ASL, and later transition to TASL. TASL differs from ASL in that signs are produced by touching the palms, and there are some grammatical differences from standard ASL in order to compensate for the lack of non-manual signing.

In 2013 the White House published a response to a petition that gained over 37,000 signatures to "officially recognize American Sign Language as a community language and a language of instruction in schools". The response is titled "there shouldn't be any stigma about American Sign Language" and addressed that ASL is a vital language for the Deaf and hard of hearing. Stigmas associated with sign languages and the use of sign for educating children often lead to the absence of sign during periods in children's lives when they can access languages most effectively. Scholars such as Beth S. Benedict advocate not only for bilingualism (using ASL and English training) but also for early childhood intervention for children who are deaf. York University psychologist Ellen Bialystok has also campaigned for bilingualism, arguing that those who are bilingual acquire cognitive skills that may help to prevent dementia later in life.

The majority of children born to deaf parents are hearing. These children, known as CODAs ("Children Of Deaf Adults") are often more culturally Deaf than deaf children, the majority of whom are born to hearing parents. Unlike many deaf children, CODAs acquire ASL as well as Deaf cultural values and behaviors from birth. These bilingual hearing children may be mistakenly labeled as being "slow learners" or as having "language difficulties" due to preferential attitudes towards spoken language.

Although there is no well-established writing system for ASL, written sign language dates back almost two centuries. The first systematic writing system for a sign language seems to be that of Roch-Ambroise Auguste Bébian, developed in 1825. However, written sign language remained marginal among the public. In the 1960s, linguist William Stokoe created Stokoe notation specifically for ASL. It is alphabetic, with a letter or diacritic for every phonemic (distinctive) hand shape, orientation, motion, and position, though it lacks any representation of facial expression, and is better suited for individual words than for extended passages of text. Stokoe used this system for his 1965 "A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles".

SignWriting, proposed in 1974 by Valerie Sutton, is the first writing system to gain use among the public and the first writing system for sign languages to be included in the Unicode Standard. SignWriting consists of more than 5000 distinct iconic graphs/glyphs. Currently, it is in use in many schools for the Deaf, particularly in Brazil, and has been used in International Sign forums with speakers and researchers in more than 40 countries, including Brazil, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Tunisia, and the United States. Sutton SignWriting has both a printed and an electronically produced form so that persons can use the system anywhere that oral languages are written (personal letters, newspapers, and media, academic research). The systematic examination of the International Sign Writing Alphabet (ISWA) as an equivalent usage structure to the International Phonetic Alphabet for spoken languages has been proposed. According to some researchers, SignWriting is not a phonemic orthography and does not have a one-to-one map from phonological forms to written forms. This assertion has been disputed and the process for each country to look at the ISWA and create a phonemic/morphemic assignment of features of each sign language was proposed by researchers Msc. Roberto Cesar Reis da Costa and Madson Barreto in a thesis forum on June 23, 2014. The SignWriting community has an open project on Wikimedia Labs to support the various Wikimedia projects on Wikimedia Incubator and elsewhere involving SignWriting. The ASL Wikipedia request was marked as eligible in 2008 and the test ASL Wikipedia has 50 articles written in ASL using SignWriting.

The most widely used transcription system among academics is HamNoSys, developed at the University of Hamburg. Based on Stokoe Notation, HamNoSys was expanded to about 200 graphs in order to allow transcription of any sign language. Phonological features are usually indicated with single symbols, though the group of features that make up a handshape is indicated collectively with a symbol.

Several additional candidates for written ASL have appeared over the years, including SignFont, ASL-phabet, and Si5s.

For English-speaking audiences, ASL is often glossed using English words. These glosses are typically all-capitalized and are arranged in ASL order. For example, the ASL sentence DOG NOW CHASE>IX=3 CAT, meaning "the dog is chasing the cat", uses NOW to mark ASL progressive aspect and shows ASL verbal inflection for the third person (written with >IX=3). However, glossing is not used to write the language for speakers of ASL.

Each sign in ASL is composed of a number of distinctive components, generally referred to as parameters. A sign may use one hand or both. All signs can be described using the five parameters involved in signed languages, which are handshape, movement, palm orientation, location and non-manual markers. Just as phonemes of sound distinguish meaning in spoken languages, these parameters are the phonemes that distinguish meaning in signed languages like ASL. Changing any one of these may change the meaning of a sign, as illustrated by the ASL signs THINK and DISAPPOINTED:
There are also meaningful non-manual signals in ASL. This may include movement of the eyebrows, the cheeks, the nose, the head, the torso, and the eyes.

William Stokoe proposed that these components are analogous to the phonemes of spoken languages. There has also been a proposal that these are analogous to classes like place and manner of articulation. As in spoken languages, these phonological units can be split into distinctive features. For instance, the handshapes /2/ and /3/ are distinguished by the presence or absence of the feature [± closed thumb], as illustrated to the right. ASL has processes of allophony and phonotactic restrictions. There is ongoing research into whether ASL has an analog of syllables in spoken language.

ASL has a rich system of verbal inflection. This involves both grammatical aspect—how the action of verbs flows in time—and agreement marking. Aspect can be marked by changing the manner of movement of the verb; for example, continuous aspect is marked by incorporating rhythmic, circular movement, while punctual aspect is achieved by modifying the sign so that it has a stationary hand position. Verbs may agree with both the subject and the object, and are marked for number and reciprocity. Reciprocity is indicated by using two one-handed signs; for example, the sign SHOOT, made with an L-shaped handshape with inward movement of the thumb, inflects to SHOOT, articulated by having two L-shaped hands "shooting" at each other.

ASL has a productive system of classifiers, which are used to classify objects and their movement in space. For example, a rabbit running downhill would use a classifier consisting of a bent V classifier handshape with a downhill-directed path; if the rabbit is hopping, the path is executed with a bouncy manner. In general, classifiers are composed of a "classifier handshape" bound to a "movement root". The classifier handshape represents the object as a whole, incorporating such attributes as surface, depth, and shape, and is usually very iconic. The movement root consists of a path, a direction and a manner.

ASL possesses a set of 26 signs known as the American manual alphabet, which can be used to spell out words from the English language. These signs make use of the 19 handshapes of ASL. For example, the signs for 'p' and 'k' use the same handshape but different orientations. A common misconception is that ASL consists only of fingerspelling; although such a method (Rochester Method) has been used, it is not ASL.

Fingerspelling is a form of borrowing, a linguistic process wherein words from one language are incorporated into another. In ASL, fingerspelling is used for proper nouns and for technical terms with no native ASL equivalent. There are also some other loan words which are fingerspelled, either very short English words or abbreviations of longer English words, e.g. "O-N" from English 'on', and "A-P-T" from English 'apartment'. Fingerspelling may also be used to emphasize a word that would normally be signed otherwise.

The basic word order of ASL is disputed. Most linguists agree that ASL is a subject–verb–object (SVO) language with various phenomena affecting this basic word order. Basic SVO sentences are signed without any pauses:

However, other word orders may also occur, as ASL allows the topic of a sentence to be moved to sentence-initial position, a phenomenon known as topicalization. In object-subject-verb (OSV) sentences, the object is topicalized, marked by a forward head-tilt and a pause:
Even more, word orders can be obtained through the phenomenon of subject copy. In subject copy, the subject is repeated at the end of the sentence, accompanied by head nodding, either for clarification or emphasis:

ASL also allows null subject sentences, where the subject is implied rather than stated explicitly. Subjects can be copied even in a null subject sentence, in which the subject is omitted from its original position, yielding a verb–object–subject (VOS) construction:

Topicalization, accompanied with a null subject and a subject copy, can produce yet another word order, object–verb–subject (OVS).

These properties of ASL allow it a variety of word orders, leading many to question which is the true, underlying, "basic" order. There are several other proposals that attempt to account for the flexibility of word order in ASL. One proposal is that languages like ASL are best described with a topic–comment structure, where words are ordered by their importance in the sentence rather than by their syntactic properties. Another hypothesis is that ASL exhibits free word order, in which syntax is not encoded in word order whatsoever, but can be encoded by other means (e.g. head nods, eyebrow movement, body position).

A common misconception is that signs are iconically self-explanatory, that they are a transparent imitation of what they mean, or even that they are pantomime. In fact, many signs bear no resemblance to their referent, either because they were originally arbitrary symbols or because their iconicity has been obscured over time. Even so, in ASL iconicity plays a significant role; a high percentage of signs resemble their referents in some way. This may be due to the fact that the medium of sign—three-dimensional space—naturally allows more iconicity than oral language.

In the era of the influential linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, it was assumed that the mapping between form and meaning in language must be completely arbitrary. Although onomatopoeia is a clear exception, since words like 'choo-choo' bear clear resemblance to the sounds that they mimic, the Saussurean approach was to treat these as marginal exceptions. ASL, with its significant inventory of iconic signs, directly challenges this theory.

Research on acquisition of pronouns in ASL has shown that children do not always take advantage of the iconic properties of signs when interpreting their meaning. It has been found that when children acquire the pronoun "you", the iconicity of the point (at the child) is often confused, being treated more like a name. This is a similar finding to research in oral languages on pronoun acquisition. It has also been found that iconicity of signs does not affect immediate memory and recall; less iconic signs are remembered just as well as highly iconic signs.


When was George Strait born?

George Harvey Strait Sr. (born May 18, 1952) is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor, and music producer. George Strait is known as the "King of Country" and is considered one of the most influential and popular recording artists of all time. He is known for his neotraditionalist country style, cowboy look, and being one of the first and main country artists to bring country music back to its roots and away from the pop country era in the 1980s.

George Strait

Strait's success began when his first single "Unwound" was a hit in 1981. During the 1980s, seven of his albums reached number one on the country charts. In the 2000s, Strait was named Artist of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music, was elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and won his first Grammy award for the album "Troubadour". Strait was named CMA Entertainer of the Year in 1989, 1990 and 2013, and ACM Entertainer of the Year in 1990 and 2014. He has been nominated for more CMA and ACM awards and has more wins in both categories than any other artist.

By 2009, he broke Conway Twitty's previous record for the most number-one hits on "Billboard"s Hot Country Songs chart when his 44 number one singles surpassed Twitty's 40. Counting all music charts, Strait has amassed a total of 60 number-one hits, breaking a record also previously set by Twitty, and giving him more number one songs than any other artist in any genre of music.

Strait is also known for his touring career when he designed a 360- degree configuration and introduced festival style tours. For example, the Strait Tours earned $99 million in three years. His concert at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas in June 2014 drew 104,793 people, marking a new record for largest indoor concert in North America. Strait was successful innovating country music and in numerous aspects of being a part of popular music.

Strait has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. His certifications from the RIAA include 13 multi-platinum, 33 platinum, and 38 gold albums. His best-selling album is "Pure Country" (1992), which sold 6 million (6× platinum). His highest certified album is "Strait Out of the Box" (1995), which sold 2 million copies (8× Platinum due to being a box set with four CDs). According to the RIAA, Strait is the 12th best-selling album recording artist in the United States overall.

George Harvey Strait Sr. was born on May 18, 1952, in Poteet, Texas, to John Byron Strait Sr. (January 11, 1922 – June 4, 2013), and Doris Jean Couser (June 26, 1930 – January 30, 2010).

He grew up in nearby Pearsall, in Frio County, where his father was a junior high school mathematics teacher and the owner of a cattle ranch outside of Big Wells, Texas. The family worked at the ranch on the weekends and in the summers. When George was in the fourth grade, his father and mother were divorced, and his mother moved away with his sister, Pency. George and his brother John Jr. (1950–2009), were raised by their father.

Strait began his musical interest while attending Pearsall High School, where he played in a rock and roll garage band. The Beatles were popular when Strait was in high school. "The Beatles were big", Strait confirmed. "I listened to them a lot and that whole bunch of groups that were popular then". His musical preference soon turned to country with singers Hank Thompson, Lefty Frizzell, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Bob Wills, Hank Williams, and Frank Sinatra influencing his style. Strait did not tune to the country music radio often as a youth, usually listening to the news and the farmer's report. His introduction to country music came mostly by way of live performances, which, according to Strait, could be heard in every town in Texas.

He eloped with his high school sweetheart, Norma. The couple initially married in Mexico on December 4, 1971. That same year, he enlisted in the United States Army. While stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii as a part of the 25th Infantry Division, Strait began performing with a U.S. Army-sponsored band, "Rambling Country", which played off-base under the name "Santee". On October 6, 1972, while still in Hawaii, George and Norma had their first child, Jenifer.

After Strait was honorably discharged from the Army in 1975, he enrolled at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos and graduated with a degree in agriculture.

During his college years, Strait joined the country band Stoney Ridge, answering a flyer the band posted around campus looking for a new vocalist. Strait renamed the group the Ace in the Hole Band and quickly became the lead; they began to perform at different honky-tonks and bars around south and central Texas, traveling as far east as Huntsville and Houston. They gained a regional following and opened for national acts such as The Texas Playboys. Soon, his band was given the opportunity to record several Strait-penned singles including "That Don't Change The Way I Feel About You," and "I Can't Go On Dying Like This" for the Houston-based D label. However, the songs never achieved wide recognition, and Strait continued to manage his family cattle ranch during the day in order to make some extra cash.

While he continued to play with his band, without any real connections to the recording industry, Strait became friends with Erv Woolsey, who operated one of the bars in which the Ace in the Hole band played, and who had previously worked for the major label MCA Records. Woolsey convinced some of his Music Row (Nashville) connections to come to Texas and to listen to Strait and his band play. Impressed with the performance, but concerned that they couldn't market the Western Swing sound that the band featured, they left without a deal.

After several unsuccessful trips to Nashville in search of a record deal in which Strait was turned down by every label in town, he considered giving up music altogether. He was offered a job designing cattle pens and decided to take it. He gave the band notice that he was leaving, but after a discussion with his wife, she convinced him to give music one more year. Not long afterward, MCA signed Strait to a recording contract in February 1981. The initial deal was for one song. If the single did well, the label would then consider doing an album. The Ace in the Hole band remained with Strait, performing as the backup and touring band for the now solo act.

In the spring of 1981, Strait released his first single for MCA Records, entitled "Unwound", which climbed to #6 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart that year, and was included on his debut album "Strait Country". The record featured two more singles including "Down and Out", a No. 16 hit for Strait, and "If You're Thinking You Want a Stranger (There's One Coming Home)", which reached number three early in 1982, sparking a string of Top Ten hits that ran well into the 1990s.

"Strait Country" was hailed by critics as a traditionalist breakthrough that broke the trend of pop-influenced country prevalent at the time. The year 1982 also saw the release of Strait's second album, the critically acclaimed "Strait from the Heart", which featured the first number one single of his career, "Fool Hearted Memory", and the top five "Amarillo by Morning" originally sung and written by Terry Stafford in 1973. In 1983, Strait made his first appearance at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo when the headlining star, Eddie Rabbitt, came down sick with the flu. Performing at that rodeo has since become a mainstay throughout his career, making more than twenty appearances at the Rodeo, and playing to a total of more than one million fans.

Strait recorded 17 subsequent No. 1's in the decade, including a string of five that lasted from 1983–84 from his next two albums "Right or Wrong", his first number one album and the CMA award-winning "Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind". The next year, he won the CMA award for top male vocalist, and released his first Greatest hits compilation, which featured songs from his first three albums. Also in 1985, Strait released "Something Special", the third straight number-one album of his career, featuring the number-one single "The Chair". In 1986, Strait repeated as the CMA vocalist of the year and released his fourth No. 1 album "#7".

Strait and his family were struck with tragedy when his 13-year-old daughter, Jenifer, was killed in a one-car, non-alcohol-related accident. She was riding in a Ford Mustang driven by Gregory Wilson Allen, 18, of Staples, Texas. Allen was subsequently charged with a Class A misdemeanor for vehicular homicide. Mike Cox, spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety in Austin, said, "The responding trooper determined the cause of accident to be excessive speed and that the car did not negotiate the turn properly. Jenifer was riding in the front passenger seat, and none of the four occupants was wearing seat belts at the time. When the vehicle flipped over onto its passenger's side, Jenifer was partially ejected, killing her on impact. The incident caused Strait to greatly limit his contact with the media. He stopped doing interviews for many years after the accident as he and his family did not wish to discuss Jenifer's death.

His grief did not hinder his performance, however, or his output, as he went on to release 11 straight No. 1 hits, starting with "Nobody in His Right Mind Would've Left Her" in 1986 and ending with "Ace in the Hole" in 1989. The singles spanned four albums, including "#7", "Ocean Front Property" in 1987, "If You Ain't Lovin' You Ain't Livin'" in 1988 and 1989's "Beyond the Blue Neon", all of which reached the number one spot on country album charts. "Ocean Front Property" was the first country album to ever debut at No. 1 on the charts by any artist. The streak included such songs as "Ocean Front Property", "All My Ex's Live in Texas", "Famous Last Words of a Fool" and "Baby Blue". Strait finished the decade by winning the CMA Entertainer of the Year award in 1989. A year later, he won the award again.

Strait began the decade with the release of his tenth studio album, "Livin' It Up", which featured two No. 1 hits including "Love Without End, Amen", his first multi-week hit, and "I've Come to Expect It From You". Both songs remained No. 1 for five weeks in 1990. "Chill of an Early Fall" shortly followed in 1991, and received positive reviews. "Entertainment Weekly" noted that the album marked a shift for Strait from "repeating himself" in his previous works to producing different material. It produced the No. 1's "If I Know Me" and "You Know Me Better Than That", but ended his streak of 31 straight top ten hits with the cover of "Lovesick Blues", which peaked at No. 24. The record blocked his run of eight top charting albums with its peak of No. 4. In the spring of 1992, "Holding My Own" was released. It did not produce any No. 1s but did include two top five songs including "So Much Like My Dad".

Later in 1992, Strait played the main character in the movie "Pure Country", and released the film's soundtrack. It was his most successful studio album, producing such hits as "Heartland", "I Cross My Heart", and "When Did You Stop Loving Me", and peaked at No. 1 and No. 6 respectively on the Country and "Billboard" 200 album charts. The success continued with his next album, "Easy Come, Easy Go" in 1993, which reached the top five on the Billboard 200 and featured the hits "I'd Like to Have That One Back", "The Man in Love with You", and the No. 1 title track.

His next four albums, including "Lead On" in 1994, "Blue Clear Sky" in 1996, "Carrying Your Love with Me" in 1997, and 1998's "One Step at a Time", all charted at No. 1, with "Blue Clear Sky" claiming the spot on its debut week, and "Carrying Your Love with Me" peaking at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for the first time in Strait's career. This series of albums produced eight number one singles for Strait, including "You Can't Make a Heart Love Somebody", "Carried Away", "One Night at a Time", and "I Just Want to Dance with You".

During this period, Strait also released a four-disc box set career retrospective, "Strait Out of the Box", in 1995, which became the second-best-selling box set ever with shipments of 8 million in the United States. He was named as the CMA's Top Male Vocalist in 1997 and 1998. Starting in '97, and continuing until the first year of the 21st century, Strait headlined the George Strait Country Music Festival, which included artists such as Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, and others.

In an effort to introduce these acts to as many fans as possible, the festival promised not to visit any market more than twice. It played only a small number of dates, usually no more than twenty a year, but still managed to be the ninth-biggest-grossing tour of 1998.

Strait completed the decade with the album "Always Never the Same" in 1999, which peaked at No. 2 on country charts and matched the cross-over success of "Pure Country" by reaching No. 6 on the Billboard 200. The record produced the hits "What Do You Say to That", "Meanwhile", and the No. 1 "Write This Down". Reviews of the album's material were generally moderate, but "Entertainment Weekly" observed that at this point in his career, Strait could record the "most lightweight" material and "make it soar" on the radio with his "grace". All in all, Strait scored 17 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country airplay charts in the decade, and carried his successes into the next century.

Strait released a self-named album in 2000, which despite a No. 1 and No. 7 showing on the country and Billboard 200 album charts, produced no No. 1 singles, and was the first studio album of his career to not be certified platinum. The singles "Go On" and "If You Can Do Anything Else" were released from the record, with both peaking in the top five. In May 2001, "The Road Less Traveled" was released. Reviews for the album were mostly positive, "Rolling Stone" described it as sticking to the formula "but adds a few twists that make it superior to his last few releases." It featured "vocal processing", and was considered by some critics as an experimental album.

Three singles were released from it, two of which reached No. 1, including "She'll Leave You with a Smile", his 50th on combined charts and "Living and Living Well", both of which reached the top 30 of "Billboard" Hot 100, with the former peaking at No. 23, Strait's highest rank on the chart. The single "Run" peaked at No. 2 and reached No. 34 on the Billboard 100. Strait released two records in 2003. "" was a recording of the last Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo to take place in the Astrodome. The performance itself, set the record for paid attendance at the venue, with 68,266 people, breaking Latin superstar Selena's previous record of approximately 67,000 in 1995.

His next album, "Honkytonkville" was described as "a fiery set of hard country", and was praised "for its mixture of the old Strait with his modern, superstar self." It didn't produce any No. 1's for Strait but included the hits "Cowboys Like Us" and a cover of Bruce Robison's "Desperately". His 2004 performance at Reliant Stadium set a new Rodeo attendance record, with 68,679 spectators. That year he issued a Greatest Hits package billed as 50 Number Ones, chronicling the No. 1 hits of his career from all charts, starting with "Fool Hearted Memory" and ending with "She'll Leave You With a Smile." A new track, "I Hate Everything", was also included, and became his 51st overall Number One in 2004.

The next year, "Somewhere Down in Texas" arrived, which produced the hit "You'll Be There," marking Strait's first appearance on the Adult Contemporary chart. The next year, he embarked on a tour that included only 18 performances but grossed over $15 million. He attributed this success to the fact that he and his band are "musically very tight," have a large pool of songs to draw from, and perform those songs very similarly to how they sound on their albums.

On October 3, 2006, Strait marked his 30th year in the music industry with the release of a new album titled "It Just Comes Natural". The album was recorded in Key West, Fla. in Jimmy Buffett's Shrimp Boat Sound Studio (said to be a better recording location due to lack of allergy flare ups during recording process), which was also the recording location of "Troubadour".

It featured fifteen new songs. Strait's long-time friend and songwriter, Dean Dillon co-wrote two of the songs on the album. It received generally positive reviews from critics. "People", in their four-star review, remarked that "If ever there was a natural in country music, it's Strait," while "USA Today" raved that "he continues to make such consistent quality look easy". The first single from the album, "Give It Away" reached No. 1, making one of its co-writers, country legend "Whispering Bill" Anderson, the first songwriter to have a #1 hit in five different decades. The title track, "It Just Comes Natural" became his 42nd Billboard No. 1.

In 2007, "Wrapped" reached No. 1 on the Mediabase 24/7 country music charts, giving Strait his 55th overall number-one single. From January through April of that year, Strait headlined a 23-date arena tour with country music legend Ronnie Milsap and then newcomer Taylor Swift. He released a new album titled "Troubadour" on April 1, 2008. The CD contained 12 tracks, including a duet with Patty Loveless and Craig Lembke with long-time songwriter Dean Dillon. The lead single from the album, "I Saw God Today", debuted at No. 19 on the Radio and Records and Billboard charts. It is the highest debut ever for a single from Strait and the fourth highest debut for a song in country music history. "Troubadour" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 album charts, selling over 160,000 copies in its first week of release. "River of Love" the 3rd single from the album became his 57th number-one song in 2009.

In April 2009, Strait was honored by the Academy of Country Music with the Artist of the Decade Award, which was presented to Strait by the previous ACM Artist of the Decade, Garth Brooks. In June of that year he headlined the first event at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Strait's single "Living for the Night" was released on May 28, 2009, and was written by Strait, his son Bubba, and Dean Dillon. The song was the lead single from his album "Twang", released on August 11, 2009. "Twang" was certified gold for selling over 500,000 copies.

In 2010, Billboard ranked Strait No. 1 in the top 25 country artists of the past 25 years. On September 6, 2011, Strait released the album, "Here for a Good Time", which yielded two No. 1 singles—"Here for a Good Time" and "Love's Gonna Make It Alright"—bringing Strait's No. 1 singles total to 59. The album's third single, "Drinkin' Man", was less successful, peaking at No. 37.

In October 2012, Strait released the single "Give It All We Got Tonight", which was included on his album "Love Is Everything", released on May 14, 2013. The song initiated a "60 for 60" movement by Strait's label, to make the song his sixtieth number-one single on all country charts while he was still 60 years old. The song reached the top of the "Mediabase" charts in May 2013. The album's next single "I Believe" reached No. 50 on The U.S. Country Airplay chart, making it Strait's first single to miss the Top 40. Strait won the 2013 CMA Entertainer of the Year award.

In November 2013, "Billboard" presented Strait with its Legend of Live honor during the 10th annual Billboard Touring Awards ceremony. The award honors the concert industry's top artist based on "Billboard"s Boxscore chart and box office performance. Strait is the first country artist to receive "Billboard"s highest touring accolade. On April 19, 2015, Strait made a guest appearance at the 2015 ACM Awards, he performed "All My Ex's Lives In Texas" and his new single "Let it Go".

In 2016, Strait was selected as one of 30 artists to perform on ""Forever Country"", a mash-up track of Take Me Home, Country Roads, On the Road Again and I Will Always Love You which celebrates 50 years of the CMA Awards.

On September 26, 2012, Strait announced that he was retiring from touring, and that his Cowboy Rides Away Tour would be his last. Tickets for both arenas and stadiums on the Cowboy Rides Away Tour sold out in a matter of hours. The tour started on January 18, 2013 in Lubbock, Texas and was divided into two legs: 21 concerts in 2013 and 26 concerts in 2014, for a total of 47 concerts. The tour ended in Arlington, Texas on June 7, 2014. Strait was supported on the tour by his longtime eleven-member touring group, the Ace in the Hole Band. For the 2013 leg, Martina McBride was the opening performer.

On January 9, 2014, Strait initiated the second leg of the tour, which featured the opening performers Jason Aldean, Eric Church, Martina McBride, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Lee Ann Womack, Merle Haggard, Chris Young, Ronnie Dunn, Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, and Asleep at the Wheel. Many of these performers gathered together for the tour's final concert in Arlington, Texas, before 104,793 fans—the largest ticketed attendance at a single-show concert in the United States. The concert also set a record for the largest gross at a single-show country concert, $18,194,374, and broke the 33-year-old record as well for "largest indoor concert ever," easily surpassing the 87,500 fans who attended the 12/5/81 Rolling Stones concert at the New Orleans Superdome (opening acts, The Neville Brothers, followed by George Thorogood and The Destroyers).

A live album recorded from the final concert in Arlington titled "" was released on September 16, 2014, with a DVD/CDs of the concert being released on November 10, 2014, with Wal-mart exclusively releasing a Deluxe edition including 2 cd's as well. This Deluxe DVD is the entire 3+ hour concert and the accompanying 2 cd's have 28 of the 40 songs sung that night. On August 29, 2014, the Country Music Television channel broadcast a two-hour concert special of the event titled "George Strait: The Cowboy Rides Away". This CMT concert special had 1-1/4 hours of music from the 3+ hour concert, and interviews.

Strait eloped to Mexico with his high school sweetheart Norma in December 1971.

George Harvey Strait Sr. was born on May 18, 1952, in Poteet, Texas, to John Byron Strait Sr. (January 11, 1922 – June 4, 2013), and Doris Jean Couser (June 26, 1930 – January 30, 2010).

George Strait

By 2009, he broke Conway Twitty's previous record for the most number-one hits on "Billboard"s Hot Country Songs chart when his 44 number one singles surpassed Twitty's 40. Counting all music charts, Strait has amassed a total of 60 number-one hits, breaking a record also previously set by Twitty, and giving him more number one songs than any other artist in any genre of music.

After Strait was honorably discharged from the Army in 1975, he enrolled at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos and graduated with a degree in agriculture.

In an effort to introduce these acts to as many fans as possible, the festival promised not to visit any market more than twice. It played only a small number of dates, usually no more than twenty a year, but still managed to be the ninth-biggest-grossing tour of 1998.

On October 3, 2006, Strait marked his 30th year in the music industry with the release of a new album titled "It Just Comes Natural". The album was recorded in Key West, Fla. in Jimmy Buffett's Shrimp Boat Sound Studio (said to be a better recording location due to lack of allergy flare ups during recording process), which was also the recording location of "Troubadour".

In 2010, Billboard ranked Strait No. 1 in the top 25 country artists of the past 25 years. On September 6, 2011, Strait released the album, "Here for a Good Time", which yielded two No. 1 singles—"Here for a Good Time" and "Love's Gonna Make It Alright"—bringing Strait's No. 1 singles total to 59. The album's third single, "Drinkin' Man", was less successful, peaking at No. 37.

In 2016, Strait was selected as one of 30 artists to perform on ""Forever Country"", a mash-up track of Take Me Home, Country Roads, On the Road Again and I Will Always Love You which celebrates 50 years of the CMA Awards.

Strait eloped to Mexico with his high school sweetheart Norma in December 1971.


When did gymnastics become an Olympic sport?

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.

Artistic gymnastics

Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines (ranging from approximately 30 to 90 seconds) on different apparatuses, with less time for vaulting. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates all aspects of international elite competition. Within individual countries, gymnastics is regulated by national federations, such as Gymnastics Canada in Canada, British Gymnastics in the United Kingdom and USA Gymnastics in the United States. Artistic gymnastics is a popular spectator sport at the Summer Olympic Games and other competitions.

The gymnastic system was mentioned in works by ancient authors, such as Homer, Aristotle, and Plato. It included many disciplines that would later become separate sports, such as swimming, racing, wrestling, boxing, and riding, and was also used for military training. In its present form, gymnastics evolved in Bohemia and what is now Germany at the beginning of the 19th century, and the term "artistic gymnastics" was introduced at the same time to distinguish free styles from the ones used by the military. The German educator Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, who was known as the father of gymnastics, invented several apparatus, including the horizontal bar and parallel bars, which are used to this day. Two of the first gymnastics clubs were Turnvereins and Sokols.

Women's gymnastics entered the Olympics as a team event in 1928 and was included in the twelfth gymnastics world championships in 1950. Individual women were recognized in the all-around as early as the tenth world championships in 1934. Two years after the full women's program (all-around and all four event finals) was introduced at the 1950 World Championships, it was added to the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, and the format has remained to this day.

The earliest champions in women's gymnastics tended to be in their 20s, and most had studied ballet for years before entering the sport. Larisa Latynina, the first great Soviet gymnast, won her first Olympic all-around medal at the age of 22 and her second at 26; she became the 1958 world champion while pregnant with her daughter. Věra Čáslavská of Czechoslovakia, who followed Latynina to become a two-time Olympic all-around champion, was 22 before she started winning gold medals.

In the 1970s, the average age of Olympic gymnasts began to decrease. While it was not unheard-of for teenagers to compete in the 1960s—Ludmilla Tourischeva was 16 at her first Olympics in 1968—younger female gymnasts slowly became the norm as the sport's difficulty increased. Smaller, lighter girls generally excelled in the more challenging acrobatic elements required by the redesigned Code of Points. The 58th Congress of the FIG—held in July 1980, just before the Olympics—decided to raise the minimum age for senior international competition from 14 to 15. The change, which came into effect two years later, did not eliminate the problem. By the time of the 1992 Summer Olympics, elite competitors consisted almost exclusively of "pixies"—underweight, prepubertal teenagers—and concerns were raised about athletes' welfare.

The FIG responded to this trend by raising the minimum age for international elite competition to 16 in 1997. This, combined with changes in the Code of Points and evolving popular opinion in the sport, led to the return of older gymnasts. While the average elite female gymnast is still in her middle to late teens and of below-average height and weight, it is also common to see gymnasts competing well into their 20s. At the 2004 Olympics, both the second-place American team and the third-place Russians were captained by women in their mid-20s; several other teams, including Australia, France, and Canada, included older gymnasts. At the 2008 Olympics, the silver medalist on vault, Oksana Chusovitina, was a 33-year-old mother. She received another silver medal on vault at the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo, when she was 36. At the age of 41, Chusovitina competed at her 7th consecutive Olympics at the 2016 Olympics, a world record for gymnastics.

Both male and female gymnasts are judged on all events for execution, degree of difficulty, and overall presentation skills.
Currently, in Olympic or World Championships competition, the meet is divided into several sessions which occur on different days: qualification, team finals, all-around finals and event finals.

During the "qualification" (abbreviated TQ) round, gymnasts compete with their national squad on all four (WAG) or six (MAG) apparatus. The scores from this session are not used to award medals, but are used to determine which teams advance to the team finals and which individual gymnasts advance to the all-around and event finals. For the 2020 Olympic cycle a new qualification format has been adopted. Each country can enter six gymnasts: a four-person team and two individual gymnasts. The current format of team qualification is 4–4–3, meaning that there are four gymnasts on the team, all four compete on each event, and three of the scores count. Individual gymnasts also compete to be qualified to the all-around and event finals, but their scores do not count toward team score.

In the "team finals" (abbreviated TF), gymnasts compete with their national squad on all four/six apparatus. The scores from the session are used to determine the medalists of the team competition. The current format is 4–3–3, meaning that there are four gymnasts on the team, three compete on each event, and all three scores count.

In the "all-around" finals (abbreviated AA), the gymnasts are individual competitors and perform on all four/six apparatus. Their scores from all four/six events are added together and the gymnasts with the three highest totals are awarded all-around medals. Only two gymnasts from each country may advance to the all-around finals.

In the "event finals" (abbreviated EF) or "apparatus finals", the top eight gymnasts on each event compete for medals. Only two gymnasts from each country may advance to each event final.

Other competitions are not bound by these rules, and may use other formats. For instance, the 2007 Pan American Games had only one day of team competition on a 6–5–4 format, and allowed three athletes from each country to advance to the all-around. In other meets, such as those on the World Cup circuit, the team event is not contested at all.

Competitions use the "New Life" scoring rule, which was introduced in 1989. Under New Life, marks from one session do not carry over to the next. In other words, a gymnast's performance in team finals does not affect his or her scores in the all-around finals or event finals; he or she starts with a clean slate. In addition, the marks from the team qualifying round do not count toward the team finals.

Before the introduction of the New Life rule, the scores from the team competition carried over into the all-around and event finals, and could have a negative or positive effect on the gymnast's efforts in subsequent sessions. The gymnasts' final results, and medal placement were previously determined by the combination of the following scores:Before 1997, the team competition was structured differently. It still consisted of two sessions. However, gymnasts performed "compulsory exercises" in the preliminaries and their optional routines on the second day. The team medals were awarded on the combined scores of both days. All-around and event final qualifiers were also determined according to the combined scores. In meets where team titles were not contested, such as the American Cup, there were two days of all-around competition: one for compulsories and one for optionals.

The optionals were the gymnasts' personal routines, developed with their coaches to adhere to the requirements of the "Code of Points." They were performed in the team finals, the all-around and the event finals.

The compulsories were routines that were developed and choreographed by the FIG Technical Committee. They were performed on the first day of the team competition. Every single elite gymnast in every single FIG member nation performed the same exercises. The dance and tumbling skills of compulsory routines were generally less difficult than those of the optionals, but heavily emphasized perfect technique, form and execution. Scoring was exacting, with judges taking deductions for even slight deviations from the required choreography. For this reason, many gymnasts and coaches considered compulsories more challenging to perform than optionals.

Compulsories were eliminated at the end of 1996. The move was extremely controversial, and many successful gymnastics federations, including Russia, the United States and China, voted against the abolition of compulsories. They argued that the exercises helped maintain a high standard of form, technique and execution among gymnasts. Opponents believed that compulsories harmed emerging gymnastics programs. Many members of the gymnastics community still argue that compulsories should be reinstated.

Many gymnastics federations have maintained compulsories in their national programs. Gymnasts competing at the lower levels of the sport—for instance, Level 4–6 in USA Gymnastics, grade 2 in South Africa and national levels 3–6 in Australia—frequently only perform compulsory routines.

Artistic gymnasts compete only with other gymnasts in their level. Gymnasts start at the lowest level of competition and advance to higher levels by learning gymnastics skills and achieving qualifying scores at competitions.

In America, levels range from 1 to 10, then junior elite and senior elite. Elite, especially senior elite is considered Olympic level, and these gymnasts generally perform routines designed to meet the FIG's international "Code of Points". Levels 1–2 are usually considered recreational, or beginner; 3–6 intermediate, and 7–Elite advanced. Competitions begin at level 3 and in some gyms, level 2. A gymnast must have specific skills for each event in order to advance to the next level and once a gymnast has competed in a Sectional meet, they may not drop back to a lower level in the same competitive season. Levels 1–2 are basic skills, such as handstands, cartwheels, etc. 3–5 are compulsory levels, and 6 is an in-between level, with strict requirements but still allowing the gymnast to add in their own creativity.

In the UK, the levels system goes from 5 (lowest) to 2; there are also two tracks for Elite and Club level competition. In Canada there are several different competitive streams: Recreational, Developmental, Pre-Competitive, Provincial, National and High Performance. Provincial levels range from 5 (lowest) to 1; National levels are Pre-Novice, Novice, Open, and High Performance. High Performance levels are Novice, Junior and Senior.

In Germany, there are different competitive systems for grassroots sport and for high-performance sport. For hobby sportsmen there is a system of compulsory exercises from 1 to 9 and of optional exercises from 4 to 1 with modified requirements of the Code of Points. This competitions end on national level. For high-performans athletes and the junior there are several compulsory and optional requirements defined by age (age class exercises). They are existing from age of 6 up to the age of 18.

The FIG imposes a minimum age limit on gymnasts competing in international meets. The term "senior", in gymnastics, refers to any world-class or elite gymnast who is age-eligible under FIG rules. The term "junior" refers to any gymnast who competes at a world-class or elite level, but is too young to be classified as a senior. Currently, female gymnasts must be at least sixteen years of age, or turning sixteen within the calendar year, the male 18, to be classified as a senior. Juniors are judged under the same "Code of Points" as the seniors, but with further restrictions, and often exhibit the same level of difficulty in their routines.

Many meets, such as the European Championships, have separate divisions for juniors, but some competitions, such as the Goodwill Games, the Pan Am Games, the Pacific Rim Championships and the All-Africa Games, have rules that permit seniors and juniors to compete together.

Only senior gymnasts are allowed to compete in the Olympics, World Championships and World Cup circuit. For the current Olympic cycle, in order to compete in the 2016 Olympics, a female gymnast must have a birthdate before January 1, 2001 (corresponding to an age of at least 15 years and 8 months on the first day of the games), the counterpart gender must be minimum 18 years old. There is no maximum age restriction.

The minimum age requirement is arguably one of the most contentious rules in artistic gymnastics, and is frequently debated by coaches, gymnasts and other members of the gymnastics community. Those in favor of the age limits argue that they promote the participation of older athletes in the sport, and that they spare younger gymnasts from the stress of competition and training at a high level. Opponents of the rule point out that junior gymnasts are scored under the same "Code of Points" as the seniors, except for some restrictions, and train mostly the same skills. They also feel that younger gymnasts need the experience of participating in major meets in order to become better athletes; and that if a junior has the skills and maturity to be competitive with seniors, he or she should be allowed that opportunity.

Another point that frequently arises in this debate is the issue of age falsification. Since stricter age limit rules were first adopted in the early 1980s, there have been several well-documented, and many more suspected, cases of juniors with falsified documents competing as seniors. The FIG has only taken disciplinary action in three cases: those of Kim Gwang-Suk of North Korea, who competed at the 1989 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships at the approximate age of eleven; North Korean Hong Su-jong, who competed under three different birth dates in the 2000s, and China's Dong Fangxiao, who competed at the 2000 Olympics when she was two years below the age minimum.

While the minimum age requirement applies to both women and men, it is far more contentious in the women's program. Most top male gymnasts are in their late teens or early twenties, while female gymnasts are typically ready to compete at the international level by their mid-teens. The difference is largely due to the fact that the men's skills tend to emphasize strength more than the women's skills.

Scoring at the international level is regulated by the "Code of Points". This system was significantly overhauled for 2006. Under the new Code of Points, there are two different panels judging each routine, evaluating different aspects of the performance. The D score covers Difficulty Value, Element Group Requirements and Connection Value; the E score covers execution, composition and artistry. The most visible change to the Code was the abandonment of the "Perfect 10" for an open-ended scoring system for difficulty (the D score). The E score is still limited to a maximum of 10. The sum of the two provides a gymnast's total score for the routine. Theoretically this means scores could be infinite, although average marks for routines in major competitions in 2016 generally stayed in the mid-teens.

Many gymnasts, including Nadia Comăneci, Mary Lou Retton, Josef Stalder, and Kurt Thomas, have attributed their original skills to the Table of Elements section of the Code that helps define a routine's difficulty.

Before 2006, every routine was assigned a Start Value (SV). A routine with maximum SV performed perfectly was worth a 10.0. A routine with all required elements was automatically given a base SV (9.4 in 1996; 9.0 in 1997; 8.8 in 2001). It was up to the gymnast to increase the SV to 10.0 by performing difficult skills and combinations.

Many gymnastics insiders, coaches, officials and gymnasts have protested the new Code, with Olympic gold medalists Lilia Podkopayeva, Svetlana Boguinskaya, Shannon Miller and Vitaly Scherbo and Romanian team coach Nicolae Forminte publicly voicing their opposition. In addition, the 2006 report from the FIG Athletes' Commission cited major concerns about scoring, judging and other points of the new Code. Aspects of the Code were revised in 2007; however, there are no plans to abandon the new scoring system and return to the 10.0 format.
Most countries hold a major competition (National Championships, or "Nationals") every year that determines the best-performing all-around gymnasts and event specialists in their country. Gymnasts may also qualify to their country's national team or be selected for international meets based on their scores at Nationals.

Before the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Soviet gymnasts dominated both men's and women's gymnastics, commencing with the introduction of the full women's program into the Olympics and the overall increased standardization of the Olympic gymnastics competition format which happened in 1952. Soviet Union's success might be explained by a heavy state's investment in sports to fulfil its political agenda on an international stage. They had many male stars, such as Olympic all-around champions Viktor Chukarin and Vitaly Scherbo, and female stars, such as Olympic all-around champion Larisa Latynina and World all-around and Olympic champion Svetlana Boginskaya who contributed to this tradition. From 1952 to 1992 inclusive, the Soviet women's squad won almost every single team title in World Championship competition and at the Summer Olympics: the only four exceptions were the 1984 Olympics, which they did not attend, and the 1966, 1979, and 1987 World Championships. Most of the famous Soviet gymnasts were from the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR.

Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, they competed together as one nation for the last time at the 1992 Summer Olympics as the Unified Team, winning the gold. Russia has maintained the tradition of gymnastics excellence, medaling at every Worlds and Olympic competition in both MAG and WAG disciplines, except in the 2008 Olympics, where the Russian women's team did not win any medals. Ukraine also has a strong team; Ukrainian Lilia Podkopayeva was the all-around champion at the 1996 Olympics. Belarus has maintained a strong men's team. Other former republics have been somewhat less successful.
In terms of medal results and overall domination, the Soviet legacy remains the strongest of all in artistic gymnastics.

The Romanian team first achieved wide-scale success at the 1976 Summer Olympics with the tremendous performance of Nadia Comăneci. Since then, using the centralized training system pioneered by Béla Károlyi, they have been a dominant force in both team and individual events in WAG. With the exception of the defeat of the Soviet women's team by the Czechoslovakian women's team at the 1966 World Championships, Romania was the only team ever to defeat the Soviets in head-to-head competition at the World Championships/Olympic level with their victories at the 1979 and 1987 Worlds. Their women's teams have also won team medals at every Olympics from 1976 to 2012 inclusive, including three victories in 1984, 2000, and 2004. At the 16 World Championships from 1978 to 2007 inclusive, the women's team failed to medal only twice (in 1981 and 2006) and has won the team title seven times, including five victories in a row (1994–2001). From 1976 to 2000, they placed notable gymnasts such as Daniela Silivaş, Lavinia Miloşovici, and Simona Amânar on the Olympic all-around podium at every Olympics, and have usually done the same for the individual events at the World Championships through 2015, producing World all-around champions Aurelia Dobre and Maria Olaru. The Romanian men's program, while less successful, is still maturing and producing individual medalists such as Marian Drăgulescu and Marius Urzică at World and Olympic competitions, and they have started winning team medals as well. The Romanian women's team failed to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics, but they may send one individual gymnast.

While isolated American gymnasts, including Kurt Thomas and Cathy Rigby, won medals in World Championship meets in the 1970s, the United States team was largely considered a "second power" until the mid- to late 1980s, when American gymnasts began medaling consistently in major, fully attended competitions. In 1984, the Olympic men's team won the gold. The team included Tim Daggett, Peter Vidmar, Mitch Gaylord, Bart Conner, Scott Johnson, Jim Hartung, and the team alternate Jim Mikus. Also in 1984, Mary Lou Retton became the first American Olympic all-around champion and won individual medals as well. In 1991, Kim Zmeskal became the first American world all-around champion. At the 1992 Olympics, the American women won their first team medal (bronze), as well as their highest all-around ranking, a silver medal by Shannon Miller, in a fully attended Games. In men's gymnastics, Trent Dimas was able to capture the gold medal on the horizontal bar. This was the second time that an American gymnast, male or female, won a gold medal in an Olympics held outside the United States. The U.S. women's team has become increasingly successful in the modern era, with the 1996 Olympic team victory of the Magnificent Seven in Atlanta, the 2003 Worlds team victory in Anaheim, California, and multiple-medal hauls in both WAG and MAG at the 2004 Olympics. At the 2012 Olympics and 2016 Olympics, the U.S. won the team gold. The United States has produced individual gymnasts such as Olympic all-around champions Carly Patterson (2004), Nastia Liukin (2008), Gabby Douglas (2012), and Simone Biles (2016), and world all-around champions Kim Zmeskal (1991), Shannon Miller (1993, 1994), Chellsie Memmel (2005), Shawn Johnson (2007), Bridget Sloan (2009), Jordyn Wieber (2011), Simone Biles (2013, 2014, 2015, 2018), and Morgan Hurd (2017). Of particular note is that at the 2005 World Championships in Melbourne, American women won the gold and silver the all-around and went 1–2 in every single event final except vault (in which they placed third). They continue to be one of the most dominant forces in the sport. The men's team has also matured, making the medal podium at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics; they also made the podium at the 2003 and 2011 World Championships. Paul Hamm, the most successful U.S. male gymnast, became the first American to win the world all-around title in 2003. He followed this up by winning the gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games. 2010 world all-around bronze medalist Jonathan Horton captured the silver medal on the horizontal bar at the 2008 Olympic Games, and Danell Leyva won the all-around bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games, as well as two silver medals (parallel bars and high bar) at the 2016 Olympics.

China has developed strong, successful programs in both WAG and MAG over the past 25 years, earning both team and individual medals. The Chinese men's team won the team gold at the 2000 Olympics, 2008 Olympics, and every team world championship since 1994, except in 2001, when they placed fifth. They have produced such individual gymnasts as Olympic (and world) all-around champions Li Xiaoshuang (1996) and Yang Wei (2008). The Chinese women's team won the team gold medal at the 2006 World Championships and the 2008 Olympics, and has produced individual gymnasts such as Olympic, world and World Cup champions Mo Huilan, Kui Yuanyuan, Yang Bo, Ma Yanhong, Cheng Fei, Sui Lu, Huang Huidan, Yao Jinnan and Fan Yilin. Chinese female Olympic individual gold medalists include Ma Yanhong, Lu Li, Liu Xuan, He Kexin, and Deng Linlin. Though for many years considered a two-event team (uneven bars and balance beam), they have developed and continue to develop successful all-around gymnasts, such as Olympic all-around bronze medalists, Liu Xuan, Zhang Nan and Yang Yilin. However, like the former USSR, they have been plagued by some Western media reports relating to their grueling and sometimes cruel training methods and age falsification accusations.

Japan was largely dominant in MAG during the 1960s and 1970s, winning every Olympic team title from 1960 through 1976 thanks to individual gymnasts such as Olympic all-around champions Sawao Kato and Yukio Endo. Several innovations pioneered by Japanese gymnasts during this era have remained in the sport, including the Tsukahara vault. Japanese male gymnasts have re-emerged as a team to reckon with since winning a team gold at the 2004 Olympics. Six-time world champion and Two-time Olympic All-around gold medalist Kohei Uchimura is widely considered to be the best all-around gymnast ever. The women have been less successful, but there have been such standouts as Olympic and world medalist Keiko Tanaka Ikeda, who competed in the 1950s and 1960s. There have also been some emerging talents in recent years, such as Koko Tsurumi, Rie Tanaka, Yuka Tomita, Natsumi Sasada, Yuko Shintake, Asuka Teramoto, Sae Miyakawa, Hitomi Hatakeda and Mai Murakami who did provide the women's team with talent worthy of placing in the top teams at the last championships and Olympics. They also have been winning world individual medals, Tsurumi's all-around bronze and bars silver at 2009 and Murakami's floor gold at 2017, the first Japanese gold since Keiko Tanaka.

The German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, had an extremely successful gymnastics program before the reunification of Germany. Both the MAG and WAG teams frequently won silver or bronze team medals at the World Championships and Olympics. Male gymnasts such as Andreas Wecker and Roland Brückner and female gymnasts such as Maxi Gnauck and Karin Janz contributed to their country's success. The Federal Republic of Germany had international stars, too, like Eberhard Gienger, Willi Jaschek or Helmut Bantz. Since the reunification of Germany, they have continued to have a measure of success with such gymnasts as Fabian Hambüchen, Philipp Boy, and Marcel Nguyen, the former Soviet/Uzbek gymnast Oksana Chusovitina, who competed for Germany during some years, and Pauline Schäfer.

The Czechoslovakian women's team had a very long tradition of success and was the chief threat to the dominance of the Soviet women's team for decades. They won team medals at every World Championships and Olympics from 1934 to 1970, with the exceptions of the 1950 Worlds and 1956 Olympics. Among their leaders were the first women's world all-around champion, Vlasta Děkanová (1934, 1938) and Věra Čáslavská, who won outright all five European, World and Olympic all-around titles during an Olympic cycle from 1964 to 1968—a feat never matched by any other gymnast, male or female. Čáslavská also led her teammates to the world team title in 1966, making the Czechoslovakians one of two national teams (Romania being the other) ever to defeat the Soviet women's team at a major competition. Their men's success came earlier and was concurrent with the success of Dekanova, but by the time of Caslavska, they had no significant male counterparts among the men for their women. Their overall success, however, at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was the greatest of any country prior to World War II in terms of being first in the medal table more than any other country and winning the most team titles of any team during the pre-WWII period. Also, as Czechoslovakia, or in their pre World War I nationhood as the Austro-Hungarian constituent Bohemia, they produced 4 different Men's World All Around Champions: Josef Cada in 1907, Ferdinand Steiner in 1911, Frantisek Pechacek in 1922, and Jan Gajdos in 1938. Perhaps their most decorated athlete, overall, was Ladislav Vacha who won a total of 10 individual medals at the Olympics and World Championships – moreso than any other of their athletes.

Another Eastern Bloc country whose women achieved notable results was Hungary. Led by individuals such as 10-time Olympic medalist (with five golds) Ágnes Keleti, their team medaled at the first four Olympics with women's artistic gymnastics competitions (1936–1956), as well as at the 1954 World Championships. Their women's program went into a decline with minor occasional success, although much later, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, world and Olympic Vault champion Henrietta Ónodi put them back on the map. Their men never had quite the same level of success as their women, although Zoltán Magyar dominated the pommel horse event during the 1970s, winning eight (of a possible nine) European, World and Olympic titles from 1973–1980. World and Olympic champion on rings, Szilveszter Csollány, also kept Hungary on the medal platform at major competitions for a decade starting in the early 1990s. In more recent years, Krisztián Berki has won World and Olympic titles on the Pommel Horse.

Several other nations were at one time or have become in recent years serious contenders in both WAG and MAG. Part of the rise of the success of various countries' programs in recent years is attributable to the exodus of lots of talent from the USSR and other former Eastern Bloc countries. South Korea, Canada, Spain, Greece, Australia, Brazil, France, Italy and Great Britain are among the other countries to have produced world and Olympic medalists and have started winning team medals at the European, World and Olympic level.

Artistic gymnastics carries inherently high risk of spinal and other injuries. Eating disorders can also be quite common, especially in women's gymnastics when gymnasts are motivated and sometimes pushed by coaches to maintain a lower than normal bodyweight.