Let me start with full disclosure. I fell so irreversibly in love with gymnastics after watching Olga Korbut and Cathy Rigby compete in the Munich Olympics that I checked out books from the library and practiced my skills on lawns and curbs. I ended up competing in high school and college. In the decades after, I have scoured the television for coverage of meets in between Olympic cycles, read everything I could find on the sport, and participated in Masters Gymnastics classes and competitions. With the advent of the internet, my quest to follow the sport got much easier. Now I can follow live blogs of events, listen to year-round podcast coverage, and even play fantasy gymnastics. I am not an impartial fan of the sport.
However, as a psychologist, I have long tried to figure out why this sport, out of all the hundreds of alternatives, so captivates me. I am sure the musical elements, the beautiful leotards, and the thought of flying, even temporarily, are part of it. I also love the discipline of the sport, the camaraderie of training with other gymnasts and coaches, and the thrill of overcoming fear to perform a physical feat. But for me, gymnastics also embodies many critical aspects of human accomplishment and serves as an excellent metaphor for life.
Gymnastics began with competitive exercises developed by the ancient Greeks. The first book about the sport, intended to serve as a guide for youth, was........