Women’s gymnastics events were first included in the Olympics in 1928. The sport itself had appeared at the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, but Olympic gymnastics was initially restricted to men. Women’s participation began at the Amsterdam Games, where a women’s team event was introduced.
The 1928 program was much less like the modern four-event competition. Women competed as teams in a combined display involving floor exercises, apparatus work, and coordinated movements. Individual event finals on vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor were added to the Olympic program later, beginning with the 1952 Games.
A common mix-up is 1936, when women’s gymnastics continued at the Berlin Olympics, or 1952, when the familiar women’s apparatus program was established. Neither is the debut date. The 1928 milestone refers to women gymnasts entering Olympic competition at all, specifically through a team event. Artistic gymnastics has remained a central Olympic sport ever since, while its scoring, apparatus, and competition formats have evolved substantially.