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USGF writes first major rules & interpretations book based on FIG code with A,B,C difficulty (USGF Rules for Men 1966-1968.)  The book includes extensions for trampoline. Bob Bollinger invents the Axial Rotation (AR) difficulty system for scoring.  AR differs greatly from the ordinal system of FIG in that it derives a numerical difficulty value from…

This was a big year.  For artistic gymnastics, it is the first Olympic year after the ABC difficulty system was written, and the first time the system was used to judge Olympic gymnastics. For trampoline, it is the year of the First World Championship.  The event was held in London (UK) on 21 March, and…

The first USGF national championship is held at Maine East High School in the suburbs of Chicago.  Although this represented an insurrection by the college coaches against the AAU, the AAU was still the official governing body and only path to international competition.   (The AAU, of course, continued to hold its own national championship.  It…

December 8, 1962, the college coaches create the USGF as a sport governing body for gymnastics.   AAU is still the official governing body.  Much more information is available at the USAG History Timeline. The FIG publishes a new scoring system in 1962 to be used in the 1964 Olympics.  The new system formalizes difficulty as…

Rudolf Spieth proposes that the FIG should include Trampoline as an FIG discipline. The FIG votes 11-1 to reject the proposal, suggesting that "This is not an attractive apparatus for female gymnasts."   How wrong they were.  Where the decisions in 1954 had left the door open for trampoline, this effectively closed it. This action sent…

This is the year that the FIG decided what gymnastics is, at least in terms of what events it would regulate and what would go into the Olympics (artistic gymnastics), starting with the 1956 games.  The free-for-all ended, at least in Europe, with 6 events for men and 4 for women.  For the men, rings…