Gymnastics in Nigeria

Gymnastics in Nigeria

Strength, balance and grace

Gymnastics is a modern sport in Nigeria that involves the art of performing various types of exercise either on bars, beam, floor, and vaulting horse. The origin of this sport dates back to the ancient Greeks exercises associated with mounting and dismounting a horse which started in Sparta and Athens.

In Nigeria, there are different forms of competitive gymnastic events which are always managed by the national governing body called the Nigerian Federation of Gymnastics, affiliated to the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), the global governing body for competitive gymnastics, based in Switzerland.

Competitive Artistic gymnastics is the best known gymnastic event in the country where athletes perform short routines on different apparatus with a minimum time for vaulting.

These events require a vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise for women, and similarly, pommel horse, floor exercise, vault, parallel bars, still rings and a horizontal bar for men.

Conversely, the sport of gymnastics is not popular in Nigeria compared to other sports, specifically the modern Olympics. For many years the country made no mark in Olympic gymnastics because of poor facilities, lack of sponsors and absence of national competitions, until Uche Eke became Nigeria’s first Olympic gymnast at Tokyo 2020.

Benefits of gymnastics

Gymnastic is an indoor game that encourages a healthy lifestyle; it teaches fitness in a practical aspect. Gymnastic is a sport that has many physical benefits, learning experiences, cognitive gains as well as general health advantages.

Physically, gymnastic improves flexibility because it is a sport that requires bending and twisting the body without sustaining any type of injury. It is involved with a physical agility that helps gymnasts to move their body with styles; it also requires coordination and balance.

The most important aspect of gymnastics is physical education and this is where the learning experiences come in. The quantity of rotation of a body (angular momentum according to the physicist) is seen, felt and practised in gymnastics rather than reading it from a book or blog.

Gymnastics, on the other hand, provides cognitive importance; it helps to improve focus and mental coordination. Gymnasts gain the benefit of imagination stimulations and assistance to build up an understanding of how the body works through this sport.

It provides an organised knowledge of objects in relation to oneself and better communication skills especially in children who practice gymnastics.

Generally, gymnastic have several other health benefits just as other physical exercises do. It helps to reduce the risk of osteoporosis and age degeneration macular diseases. Similarly, it improves joint health; maintain muscular development and cardiovascular fitness.

Explore more on SitesNG

• Contact Nigerian Gymnastics
• History of Gymnastics in Nigeria
• Nigerian Gymnasts
• All sports in Nigeria
• Nigerian athletes
• Nigerian sports statistics