Uneven Bars

Uneven bars are an artistic gymnastics apparatus o recent inclusion in the Olympic Summer Games. The routine performed on the uneven is only for females. No male performs on the uneven bars in competition. They use the parallel bars, instead.

The gymnastics uneven bars began, first, as a demonstration sport in the 1936 Summer Olympic Games held in Berlin, Germany. It did not become, however, an Olympic event until 1952. That was also the year women began to compete in individual, and not only, team events. Germany won the women’s team event. In 1952, at Helsinki, Norway, Margot Korondi of Hungary took home the gold medal.

Before 1936, women did not use the uneven bars in gymnastics. They practiced on the men’s parallel bars. No one knows why or who made the decision to turn the parallel bars for both genders into the gymnastics uneven bar for women only. This fact remains unknown for no particular reason. The materials comprising the two sets of bars are the same. They were originally wood but now are fiberglass covered with a wood veneer. Uneven or asymmetrical bars stand with the higher bar at 7.5’ above the ground and the lower bar at around 5’ from the floor. The bars are five to six feet apart. The uneven are adjustable for height from the ground and distance from each other. This provides flexibility for practice and different age and level groups.

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Rules regarding routines on the uneven bar do alter from time-to-time. In the 1960s, gymnasts performing on the Olympic uneven bars could stop twice in the middle of their routine. A decade later, judges allowed gymnasts only one stop during their routine. Today, no stops are allowed.

Uneven bars routines last around 30 seconds. The elements, once balletic poses and posturing transformed into swings and then widely abandoned but controlled antics. Each routine must consist of a bare minimum of 10 movements. The routines must contain at least two flight elements. A female gymnast must change hand holds and directions and not remain for more than five moves in-a-row on a single bar.

For these and other reasons, the women’s uneven bars present a challenge. Olympic stars and world gold medalists often find themselves in trouble on the uneven; other gymnasts excel in this event. European countries reigned supreme in this event until China began to make some progress in 1984. Between 1952 and 2004, only two gymnasts have won the uneven Olympic competitions back-to-back.
These are Soviet Union gymnast Polina Astkhova in 1960 and 1964 and Russian Svetlana Khorkina in 1996 and 2000.