Gymnastics is set back to Ancient Greece but it also was said that there was also evidence that the Chinese may have also practice the sport in 2nd Century BC. It is also returned in Germany in the 19 Century and was intoduced to Britian by Frederick Ludwig Khan. Thats how Gymnatics started in London! Gymnastics has been an Olympic sport since the first modern Games were held as a men's event in Athens in 1896 and for women at Amsterdam in 1928. And it really took off on the international stage with the emergence of superstars like Russia's Olga Korbut in the early Seventies