Egypt was selected by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) to help celebrate 125 years of the federation's founding. Inas Mazhar reports "Egypt was selected for its long and ancient history in the sport," Nerbert Beusche, former secretary-general of the FIG and in charge of the celebrations, said. "Egypt is one of the oldest countries in the world to join the membership of FIG and the oldest African country as well to join, in 1910. It's a long history," Beusche added. The celebrations will include gala events held worldwide, on five continents, at the end of 2006. Every continent will be represented by two countries. Only Egypt, South Africa and Australia have been selected so far. South Africa has yet to decide whether it will participate. Beusche, who visited Cairo recently to meet with Egypt's sports officials, said he was satisfied with the outcome. "I met Youth Minister Mamdouh El-Beltagui. It was a positive meeting. He was glad that we selected Egypt to take part in the celebrations and offered to provide us and the Egyptian Gymnastics Federation all the facilities needed to make it a remarkable and extravagant event," Beusche said. Beusche said he had asked that the event be staged at the Pyramids Plateau but El-Beltagui explained that the ministers of tourism and culture should be consulted. "So we will wait to meet with these two ministers. We still have a long time to go until we reach September. I believe there will be other visits." Five years ago, Egypt's former gymnastics world champion and honorary FIG member Mahmoud Abdel-Aal presented a research paper, "Gymnastics in Ancient Egypt", to the 73rd gymnastics congress held in Marrakech, Morocco, in the presence of 162 countries. "I am mesmerised by the impact of sports in Ancient Egypt," Abdel-Aal said. "I have revised several books on the topic. It was clear that science, arts and sports were an important part of Ancient Egyptian culture. They were aware of the valuable role of sports for health. Therefore they encouraged men, women and children to play fitness and recreational sports but they also had competitive events in swimming, weightlifting, rowing and gymnastics. Pharaohs, kings and queens also took part in sports and the people respected skillful rulers." Abdel-Aal said that in his review he had found that any mention of sports was couched in broad general terms without going into each specific sport in depth. "Gymnastics being my main interest I decided to examine this for myself." Guided by his readings, he visited the temples of Beni-Hassan, Sakkara, Karnak and the Egyptian Museum. "I was surprised by what I came upon. It seems that gymnastics originated in Ancient Egypt more than 5,000 years ago. Evidence to this was in the inscriptions and murals at the temples. Comparing Ancient Egyptian gymnastics and contemporary gymnastics I categorised them into rhythmic gymnastics, general gymnastics and acrobatics." In rhythmic gymnastics, Abdel-Aal found that the murals and hieroglyphics show definite evidence of the practice in Ancient Egypt using similar props as are used today such as balls and tambourines. "To my amazement, men also practiced this sport in Ancient Egypt while nowadays only women are the competitors." There is also strong evidence to group events performed by men, women and children such as those practiced today in events like the gymnastrada. Acrobatics, one of the more recent events engaged by FIG, was a commonly practiced discipline in Ancient Egypt. There is evidence of single, dual and group performances of acrobatics in Ancient Egypt. Comparisons between Ancient Egyptian and contemporary gymnastics are presented in a slide presentation and photo printout. "I believe that this project sheds light on the origins of the sport of gymnastics in Ancient Egypt," Abdel- Aal said.
