We can trace the origins of free-body gymnastics and with small tools guided by music to primitive peoples and to Chinese civilization, even though they have no comprehensive information. Under the Chinese emperor Yn-Kang-Chi, in fact, we find a type of physical activity based on agility and dexterity with the use of handy tools such as rods, sticks and balls. The same can be found in India where the population was and is very skilled in the exercises of balance and in practicing dances with aesthetic purposes.
In the tombs of the Egyptians are preserved paintings depicting young girls in gymnastic attitudes resembling those still used today and even looking at the civilization of ancient Greece we find evidence of public sports competitions during which, alongside running and boxing, there was no shortage of gymnastic events with small and great tools including the "dance" and the "spherical", the latter term that contains the games and the exercises with the ball.
In Rome there are gymnastic competitions as public performances, but with the advent of Christianity, it is lost track until the Middle Ages. Only in the Renaissance the movement-music union is part of the educational system for the harmonious development of the individual.
The real birth of a sport that summarized these characteristics came in the nineteenth century. Rhythmic gymnastics were inspired by the idea of Noverare, Delsarte and Bode who tried to use and perfect the movements borrowed from the dance. Their aim was to introduce aesthetic expression, grace and rhythm into every part of the human body. François Delsarte is considered the founder of one of the first schools that over time would become the basis for rhythmic gymnastics, created later by the French Jacque Dalcrose with the aim of fully embracing both the musicality and the feeling of moving to express themselves.
Isadora Duncan, with his famous rebellion against the dogmas of classical ballet, contributed to the invention of a new discipline. As a sport, rhythmic gymnastics began to develop in the forties in the then Soviet Union: it was precisely there for the first time that the spirit of sport was combined with the sensible art of classical ballet. FIG recognized this discipline officially in 1961, first as modern gymnastics, then as rhythmic gymnastics-sport and finally as rhythmic gymnastics, as it is known today. It became Olympic sport in 1984, and the Canadian Lori Fung became the first Olympic champion in the history of rhythm.
Olympic champions of rhythmic gymnastics
All the individualistic Olympic champions of the rhythm, from the left: Marina Lobatch (BLR) in Seoul 1988, Alexandra Timochenko (UT) in Barcelona 1992, Alina Kabaeva (RUS) in Atene 2004, Yevgeniya Kanaeva (RUS) in London 2012, Margarita Mamun (RUS) in Rio 2016, Kateryna Serebrianska (UKR) in Atlanta 1996, Yevgeniya Kanaeva (RUS) in Beijing 2008, Lori Fung (CAN) in Los Angeles 1984 and Yulia Barsukova (RUS) in Sydney 2000.