The FIG (Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique) today voted to change the size of men’s and women’s gymnastics teams at the Olympics from 5 to 4, beginning at the 2020 Olympics. This is in keeping with the trend in decreasing the size of gymnastics teams at the Olympics. In general, this has occurred every few years, with rare exceptions (1932, 1996). Since 1924, when the team all-around assumed basically the modern format, here are the allowed number of gymnasts in the team event at the Olympics.

This is really getting down to a small team, and not sure what the rationale is here. There will be four gymnasts in 2020, all competing on each apparatus, with the best three scores on each apparatus to count.

[table]

year,gender,###

1924,M,8

1928,M,8

1932,M,5

1936,M,8

1948,M,8

1952,M,8

1956,M,6

1960,M,6

1964,M,6

1968,M,6

1972,M,6

1976,M,6

1980,M,6

1984,M,6

1988,M,6

1992,M,6

1996,M,7

2000,M,6

2004,M,6

2008,M,6

2012,M,5

2016,M,5

2020,M,4

,,

1928,F,10

1936,F,8

1948,F,8

1952,F,8

1956,F,6

1960,F,6

1964,F,6

1968,F,6

1972,F,6

1976,F,6

1980,F,6

1984,F,6

1988,F,6

1992,F,6

1996,F,7

2000,F,6

2004,F,6

2008,F,6

2012,F,5

2016,F,5

2020,F,4

[/table]