Olympics

Tokyo 2020 — held in 2021 without spectators. Paris 2024 returned full crowds. Rebeca Andrade went back-to-back AA silver in Tokyo and Paris, breaking USA's grip on the WAG AA podium.

London 2012 — Gabby Douglas wins the all-around. Rio 2016 — Simone Biles wins her first Olympic AA. Tokyo 2020 (held 2021) — the first behind-closed-doors Olympics. The Biles era opens; the Romanian dynasty fades.

The Perfect-10 era ends in 2006. FIG adopts open-ended scoring for the 2008 Games — the Code of Points becomes a D-score plus an E-score, with no top end. A fundamentally different conversation about difficulty begins.

The Unified Team moment in Barcelona — Vitaly Scherbo wins six golds in one Games. American women break through internationally; the Magnificent Seven take team gold at Atlanta 1996.

Bookended by boycotts. Moscow 1980 without the West; LA 1984 without the East. Mary Lou Retton becomes the first non-Eastern-Bloc woman to win the all-around. Seoul 1988 returns the East to the Games.

Munich 1972 — Olga Korbut. Montreal 1976 — Nadia Comăneci's 10.0 on uneven bars. The sport's television-age modern history starts here, with the first two names still every fan's first two names.