Gymnastics Order of Events: Olympic Order, Rotations and Abbreviations
The Olympic order of events in women’s gymnastics is vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. For men it is floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar (high bar). The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) sets this sequence for the Olympics and World Championships, and USA Gymnastics uses the same order for its meets.
Contents
The order works as a loop rather than a starting line. Several groups compete at the same time, each starting on a different event and moving one event along the order each round. A gymnast who starts on beam still competes all four events; she just finishes on bars. Each of those rounds is called a rotation.
Olympic Order and Abbreviations at a Glance
The table shows both sequences with the abbreviations FIG uses in its Codes of Points. The same codes appear on most schedules and results.
| Order | Women’s events | Men’s events |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vault (VT) | Floor exercise (FX) |
| 2 | Uneven bars (UB) | Pommel horse (PH) |
| 3 | Balance beam (BB) | Still rings (SR) |
| 4 | Floor exercise (FX) | Vault (VT) |
| 5 | — | Parallel bars (PB) |
| 6 | — | Horizontal bar, or high bar (HB) |
Women’s artistic gymnastics, often shortened to WAG, has four events, and men’s artistic gymnastics (MAG) has six. Floor and vault are the only events both compete, and they sit in different places: vault opens the women’s order, while floor opens the men’s. Our guide to men’s and women’s gymnastics events explains what each apparatus involves.
Other abbreviations on schedules and results
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| AA | All-around: one gymnast’s total across every event, four for women and six for men |
| HB and LB | In women’s gymnastics, the high bar and low bar of the uneven bars. In men’s results, HB is the horizontal bar |
| V | Vault, on schedules that use single letters |
| IES | Individual Event Specialist: a USA Gymnastics gymnast competing on selected events rather than the all-around |
Results sheets add score codes of their own, such as D and E for difficulty and execution or Q for a qualifier. Our guide to reading a gymnastics results sheet explains those columns.
Why Gymnasts Start on Different Events
If every gymnast started on vault, the other events would sit empty while a long line waited at the runway. Meets split the gymnasts into groups, usually called squads, and send each squad to a different starting event. When a rotation ends, every squad moves to the next event in the order, and after the last event a squad wraps around to the first. Running the events side by side is what keeps a session to a few hours; our guide to how long a gymnastics meet lasts shows how the time adds up.
Here is a made-up women’s session with four squads. Read across a row to see what is happening in the gym at that moment, or down a column to follow one squad.
| Rotation | Squad 1 | Squad 2 | Squad 3 | Squad 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vault | Bars | Beam | Floor |
| 2 | Bars | Beam | Floor | Vault |
| 3 | Beam | Floor | Vault | Bars |
| 4 | Floor | Vault | Bars | Beam |
A men’s session works the same way over six rotations: a squad that starts on rings goes on to vault, parallel bars, high bar, floor and pommel horse.
Starting events are settled before the meet. In USA Gymnastics women’s meets, each squad’s starting event is drawn and the start lists are posted at the competition. At the Olympics and World Championships, a draw also sets the qualification groups, while the team and all-around finals are seeded from qualification results.
The lineup changes from event to event
The order of gymnasts within a squad, called the lineup or competitive order, shifts too. In USA Gymnastics women’s meets, the first few gymnasts drop to the end of the lineup at each new event, and FIG does the same in the all-around final, so nobody has to go first every time. A squad’s starting event tells you where to watch; the lineup tells you when a particular gymnast is up.
How Rotations Work at the Olympics and Worlds
FIG’s 2026 Technical Regulations set out the World Championships format. The Olympic program follows the same pattern in principle, with its own number of gymnasts and some differences in how qualification and the apparatus finals are run.
| Round | How the rotations run |
|---|---|
| Qualification | Sessions called subdivisions. A draw places teams and mixed groups of individual gymnasts on their starting apparatus |
| Team final | Eight teams, at least two competing at once, all following Olympic order. The top two qualifying teams start on the first event. Three gymnasts per team compete on each apparatus, and all three scores count |
| All-around final | 24 gymnasts, no more than two per country, seeded into groups by their qualification results. The highest-ranked group starts on vault (women) or floor (men) |
| Apparatus finals | Eight gymnasts on each apparatus, competing in a drawn order. At Worlds, the ten finals are spread over the last two days, five a day |
Every gymnast also gets a short “touch” warm-up on the competition apparatus at the start of each rotation: 30 seconds on beam and floor and 50 seconds on bars for women, 50 seconds on each men’s apparatus apart from vault, and a limited number of practice vaults on vault. Our guide to all-around and event finals explains how gymnasts qualify for each final.
How to Read a Meet’s Rotation Schedule
Club meets publish a schedule, often called a rotation sheet or start list. Its main job is to show where a gymnast’s squad will be in each rotation. The terms below appear on most sheets, although the meet’s own key is the final word.
| Term | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Session | The block of the day the gymnast is entered in, from warm-up to awards |
| Squad or group | The gymnasts who move around the events together, often from more than one club |
| Flight | A set of squads that warm up and compete in turn with another flight, in meets with two sets of equipment |
| Lineup | Who competes first, second and so on within a squad on one event |
| Bye | A rotation in which a squad has no event |
- Find the right session: check the day, session number, level or division, and age group.
- Find the gymnast’s squad and its starting event. A competitor number identifies the gymnast; it isn’t her place in the lineup.
- Follow the squad through each rotation, including any bye.
- Check the lineup for each event to see when she competes.
- Note the warm-up format, so you know whether the first thing you see is warm-up or competition.
Warm-ups, flights and byes
USA Gymnastics women’s meets use a few formats. In a traditional meet, squads do timed warm-ups on all four events first, then compete on all four, with a 30-second touch warm-up offered before each event. The warm-ups run in Olympic order but begin on each squad’s second event, so a squad that will compete vault first warms up on bars, beam, floor and then vault.
In a modified traditional meet, a squad warms up on each event just before competing on it. Large sessions must use a format such as Capitol Cup, with two sets of equipment: one flight of squads warms up while the other competes, and the flights take turns until everyone has finished all four events. A gymnast on the equipment isn’t always doing her scored routine, so check which phase the schedule is in.
A bye is a planned rotation with no event. USA Gymnastics rules call for one when a squad would have four or fewer gymnasts, and a session divided into five squads on four events gives each squad one bye. Follow the bye on the sheet rather than moving the squad ahead. For the rest of the day, from arrival to awards, see our guide to a first gymnastics meet.
Following a Women’s Meet and a Men’s Meet
A women’s meet: four events
Each women’s event has its own rhythm. Vault is over in seconds once the gymnast runs, bars can pause while the rails are set for each gymnast, and beam has a short wait after each routine while the judges score. Floor warm-ups can have several gymnasts tumbling at once, but each scored routine is performed alone.
Keep a note with four boxes, VT, UB, BB and FX, and fill each one as the official score appears. Results pages usually list the events in Olympic order even when a gymnast started elsewhere, so an empty vault box may only mean she hasn’t vaulted yet. Compare running totals only between gymnasts who have finished the same number of events; our guide to reading scores at a local meet covers Start Values and rankings.
Team totals depend on the meet. USA Gymnastics lets the meet director, or the state committee for qualifiers and State, choose the method: for example, counting every score from a small team, counting five of six scores on each event, or counting a set number of scores from a larger team. Individual event finals may be held at invitationals but never at Development Program championships.
College meets have their own layouts. In an NCAA dual meet that runs two events at once, the home team starts on vault while the visitors start on bars; the teams swap, then do the same with beam and floor. Our guide to how college gymnastics meets run covers duals, quads and byes.
A men’s meet: six events
A men’s all-around covers six events, so a session needs at least six rotations. USA Gymnastics recommends the FIG order for its men’s meets: when all six events run at once, each squad moves one event along the order of floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and high bar, wrapping round from high bar to floor.
A team moves around the arena together, but not every gymnast competes on every event. The coach picks a lineup for each apparatus, and specialists may enter only some events, so a gymnast can sit out rings and then compete on vault. For USA Gymnastics men’s meets at state level and below, the program suggests counting at least the top three scores on each event toward the team total, and each meet must publish its method.
A men’s scorecard needs six boxes and an all-around total. Leave an event blank until its score is posted rather than writing zero, and write PB and HB rather than “bars,” which could mean either.
Common Questions
Does every gymnast start on vault or floor?
No. Squads start on different events and follow the same order from there. In the Olympic team and all-around finals, the top qualifiers start on the first event: vault for women and floor for men.
Is the order of events a difficulty ranking?
No. It is a fixed sequence for running a competition. Floor coming first for men doesn’t make it the easiest men’s event, and floor coming last for women doesn’t make it the hardest.
Why does TV show the events out of order?
Several events run at the same time, so broadcasts jump between them and add replays. The official start list or live results show where a gymnast actually is.
How many rotations are in a gymnastics meet?
A women’s all-around session usually has four rotations and a men’s has six, one for each event. A schedule with byes adds rounds in which a squad sits out.
Final Takeaway
Women’s gymnastics runs in the Olympic order of vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. Men’s runs floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar. The order is a loop: squads start on different events, move one event along each rotation and finish every event by the end of the session.
To follow one gymnast, find her session, squad and starting event on the rotation sheet, then check the lineup and the warm-up format. The codes VT, UB, BB and FX for women and FX, PH, SR, VT, PB and HB for men are the ones you will see on most schedules and results.
Main Sources
- FIG 2026 Technical Regulations (sequence of apparatus, World Championships formats, starting orders and touch warm-ups) and the 2025–2028 Codes of Points for women and men (apparatus abbreviations)
- USA Gymnastics 2026–2027 Women’s Rules & Policies, Chapter 7: meet formats, draws, order of events, warm-up order and team scores
- USA Gymnastics Men’s Program Rules & Policies: order of events and team scoring
- NCAA 2026–27 Women’s Gymnastics Rules Modifications, Section 8.4: dual-meet format