Vault comes first in the standard women's artistic gymnastics Olympic order. The complete sequence is vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise.
This order describes the rotation used in all-around and team competitions. Gymnasts are divided into groups, and each group begins on a different apparatus before moving to the next one. The rotation is circular, so the group that starts on vault later progresses through bars, beam, and floor.
Vault is a fitting opening event because it is brief and explosive: the gymnast runs along the runway, uses a springboard, contacts the vaulting table, and lands after the flight phase. The apparatus is shared by men and women, although the table is set at different heights. A frequent mistake is to confuse the women's order with the men's, which begins with floor exercise and continues through pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal bar.