History

Walter McGregor from Dundee became the first association president and was fundamental in the development of the organisation. This gave the sport a structure, creating a strong competition arrangements which led to a great deal of early success.In the post war era – the sport was gaining popularity, and began to expand and evolve, creating new disciplines and becoming far less militarised as it had been previously.
The association broke away from Boxing and Fencing as they set up their own autonomous governing bodies. In Scotland, Artistic Gymnastics, Acrobatics & Trampolining took off and the country soon began hosting international events in these disciplines, whilst also sending teams to various competitions across the country that had been established by British Gymnastics. Membership grew quickly, and soon people from all over Scotland were becoming involved in gymnastics training.
Approaching the 100th anniversary, the sporting landscape in Scotland was changing and like other sport governing bodies, Scottish Gymnastics began to receive funding in the form of sponsorship and grants which helped to grow the sport even further. The association moved into their first offices during this period, allowing for greater expansion plans to be put in place.
Rhythmic Gymnastics was established in Scotland and the first dedicated gymnastics facilities had been handed over to the association in order to develop new talent. The presidents during this period, Alex Strachan & David Watt both played pivotal roles in developing Scottish Gymnastics, increasing membership numbers and ensuring the sport had a strategic future in Scotland.

In 1994 Scotland had their first world-level gymnastics medal, coming from Joanne Walker’s impressive bronze winning performance at the Commonwealth Games Rhythmic Gymnastics competition in Victoria, British Columbia. This marked a significant moment for Scottish Gymnastics, as funding for the future began to arrive. The West of Scotland Institute for Sport and the Bellahouston School of Sport were each opened and continued the increasing world class aspirations of a number of young gymnasts that now had the opportunity to train in state-of-the-art facilities with dedicated national coaches.
With this potential for success and a new millennium on the way, Scottish Gymnastics made the very best of every opportunity that came their way. The association gained their first female president, Louise Martin, and with that the success of Scottish Gymnastics in all disciplines which now included disability gymnastics and pre-school age gymnastics programmes.
Sportscotland, the national agency for sport became a major funding provider in the early 2000s, and the success of Scottish team members Steve Frew & Barry Collie at the Manchester Commonwealth Games followed. Sportscotland funding ensured Scottish Gymnastics could implement a national squad programme and employ development staff to aid club development.

In recent years gymnasts Daniel Keatings, Dan Purvis, Shannon Archer and Louise Christie have been at the forefront of Scottish Gymnastics Commonwealth Games success. The last five years of gymnastics have been incredibly successful for Scotland, with a great number of medals won across the various disciplines both nationally and internationally. Expansions to gymnastics facilities and increasing members, the legacy build by our founding members continues to this day.
In March 2023, Scottish Gymnastics, in association with gymnastics governing bodies across the UK united to launch Leap Without Limits, a shared vision for the sport and used feedback from the community to shape the future. Built on a set of shared values, the vision helped to define the current working strategy for Scottish Gymnastics. You can read more about the organisation’s work on the Governance pages.