horizontal bar

Gymnastics.

1. a bar fixed in a position parallel to the floor or ground, for use in chinning and other exercises.

2. an event in gymnastic competitions, judged on strength and grace while performing specific movements on such a bar. Also called high bar.

[1820-30]

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Event in men's gymnastics competition in which a steel bar fixed about 8 ft (2.4 m) above the floor is used for swinging exercises.

Competitors generally wear hand protectors and perform routines that last 15–30 seconds. Exercises include the giant swing and various vaults (such as the straddle vault). It has been an Olympic event since the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.

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▪ gymnastics

also called  high bar 

  gymnastics apparatus introduced in the early 19th century by the German Friedrich Jahn (Jahn, Friedrich Ludwig), usually considered the father of gymnastics. It is a polished steel bar 2.8 cm (1.1 inches) in diameter, 2.4 metres (7.8 feet) long, and raised about 2.8 metres (9.1 feet) from the floor.

      Competitors (men only) generally wear hand protectors and go through a routine that lasts from 15 to 30 seconds. Exercises include upstarts (by which the gymnast swings himself from a hang to a support above the bar); giant circles (rotating around the bar from a handstand position with the arms fully extended) with inverted or dislocated grips and changes of direction; vaulting over the bar, releasing the grip, and regrasping the bar; movements requiring turns and changes of the position of the body and the releasing and regrasping of the bar; and finishes with straddles over the bar or forward and backward somersaults from the bar.

      The horizontal bar has been an Olympic (Olympic Games) event in gymnastics since the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.

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