Wheel gymnastics is a form of gymnastics

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

 which originated in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

Wheel gymnasts do exercises in a large wheel known as the Rhönrad, gymnastics wheel, gym wheel, or German wheel.

There are three core categories of exercise: straight line, spiral, and vault.

History

The Wheel was invented in 1925 by Otto Feick in Schönau an der Brend

Schönau an der Brend

Schönau an der Brend is a municipality with 1378 inhabitants in the district of Rhön-Grabfeld in northern Bavaria, Germany. It consists of two villages: Schönau an der Brend and Burgwallbach.-Points of interest:* Gyrowheel Monument...

. The son of a blacksmith

Blacksmith

A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...

, Feick was inspired by the memory of an event from his childhood in Reichenbach

Reichenbach-Steegen

Reichenbach-Steegen is a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany. It has a twin town in France, Magny-en-Vexin....

, when he had tied sticks between two beer barrel bands that his father had made and rolled down a hill.

He filed for a patent as "wheel-gymnastic and sports equipment". He had invented the wheel in Ludwigshafen am Rhein ca. 1920-1922, on the grounds of the VSK Germania, a sports club, of which he was the founding chairman. The patent was issued on 8 November 1925; the name "Rhönrad" has been protected and registered since 1926.

In 1936 this sport was shown at the Olympic Games

1936 Summer Olympics

The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...

 in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, but was not presented as an Olympic discipline.

The focus of wheel gymnastics remains largely in Germany.

External links

• http://www.usawheelgymnastics.com/ (English)
• http://www.rhoenrad.com/ (English)
• German wheel gym sites
• http://www.rhoenrad.jp/ (Japanese)
• http://personal.inet.fi/urheilu/rhonrad (Finnish)
• Rhönrad in focus: photo reports of rhönrad competitions in the Netherlands (Dutch/English)