Category: Gymnastics

USA. 

Katherine Hasenauer Cornetta:

Many men’s gymnastics followers point to the impact of Title IX as providing a critical blow to the sport on the collegiate level.

However, an in-depth look at the history of gymnastics in education over the past 60 years shows that while Title IX is used as an excuse to eliminate collegiate teams, there were several elements that offered up men’s gymnastics to the chopping block.

It was a perfect storm of court cases involving risk, injury and liability in physical education classes and school sports and a change in media coverage. …

While balance beam, parallel bars, vault, trampoline, rope climb and more used to be regular gym class activities, around 1978, they start disappearing from the curriculum. …

When existing equipment broke, it was not replaced, but phased out. When new schools were built and gymnasiums were stocked, gymnastics equipment was not ordered. …

… A Look At How Liability Caused A Decline in Men’s Gymnastics

Click through to read the entire article.

I graduated High School in 1975. I had school Gymnastics club and competition in Elementary, Middle School, and High School. Each was fairly well equipped.

By 1985 (or so) all three of my schools had eliminated all but basic P.E. Gymnastics. They sold off the equipment by auction. Clubs bought the best of it.