Record growth for gymnastics in Australia

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Updated: February 27, 2016

With 2016 – the year of the XXXI Olympiad – well underway, Gymnastics Australia is celebrating a record 179,558 registered members taking part in gymnastics in 2015; a 9 percent increase on 2014 numbers.

When, in 2000, Jai Wallace bounced his way into the history books as a trampoline gymnast, becoming the first Australian to win an Olympic medal in gymnastics, Gymnastics Australia had just 73,000 members.

Now 16 years later, the sport has experienced 15 years of continuous growth, at an average of 6 percent. Its almost 180,000-strong membership base includes a significant 86 percent of children under the age of 12 taking part in some form of gymnastics and places gymnastics in the top 10 of all sports in Australia for participation in this age bracket.

On top of this, a further 400,000 people are participating in gymnastics and other similar activities at 535 affiliated clubs across Australia annually, meaning the sport is exposed to over 580,000 participants nationally each year.

On top of this, with gymnastics being a particularly popular sport for girls – 76 percent of Gymnastics Australia’s total membership are female – Gymnastics is clearly one of the leading and most popular sports for Australian girls and families.

Gymnastics Australia chief executive Mark Rendell says that now more than ever, it’s an exciting time for the sport.

“Gymnastics is a great sport for boys and girls of all ages to participate in, and with the recent rise in the profile of women’s sport at a mainstream level, there is no more exciting time than now to watch the continual rise of Gymnastics in Australia,” he said.

“At Gymnastics Australia we are excited to deliver programs that not only produce athletes at the highest level along with the best in the world, but also actively target all Australians to live healthy active lives from an early age.

“In addition to that Gymnastics Australia has over 6000 registered and professionally trained coaches across the nation to ensure that gymnastics is accessible to all”.

Source: Gymnastics Australia