'By the 1954 Olympic Games apparatus and events for both men and women had been standardized in modern format, and uniform grading structures (including a point system from 1 to 10) had been agreed upon. At this time, Soviet gymnasts astounded the world with highly disciplined and difficult performances, setting a precedent that continues to inspire. The new medium of television helped publicize and initiate a modern age of gymnastics. Both men's and women's gymnastics now attract considerable international interest, and excellent gymnasts can be found on every continent.

Nadia Comaneci received the first perfect score, at the 1976 Olympic Games held in Montreal, Canada. She was coached by the famous Romanian, Bela Karolyi. According to "Sports Illustrated", Comaneci scored four of her perfect tens on the uneven bars, two on the balance beam and one in the floor exercise. Unfortunately, even with Nadia's perfect scores, the Romanians lost the gold medal to the Soviets. Nadia will always be remembered as "a fourteen year old, ponytailed little girl" who showed the world that perfection could be achieved.

In 2006, a new points system was put into play. Instead of being marked 1 to 10, the gymnast's start value depends on the difficulty rating of the exercise routine. Also, the deductions became higher: before the new point system developed, the deduction for a fall was 0.5, and now it is 0.8. The motivation for a new point system was to decrease the chance of gymnasts getting a perfect score.'

- from Wiki

BTW, brilliant video here of the aforementioned Nadia Comaneci...

http://www.videosift.com/video/14-Year-Old-Nadia-Comaneci-Makes-Olympic-Gymnasic-History

Damn! That's some good stuff. Some of them are moving so fast, and combined with the picture quality it's kinda hard to see what they're doing, they're like agile little blurs. Highly impressive though, thanks!

I know - shame about some of the picture quality, a lot of old footage.

Brilliant stuff. Really mesmerising.

The second girl shown on vault ( Elena Shushunova- i think, USSR ) and the first girl shown on floor ( Daniela Silivas, Romania ) both competed in the 1988 Olympics and both earned seven perfect tens, tying Nadia's record. It must have been a pretty intense competition.

I would love to see the full routines. You gotta be better than good to get a 10.

hey, that one girl did the worm on her back!

good lord, the floor exercise at 2:04 is freakin wild

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