| This thesis takes the Portuguese Artistic Gymnastics coaches, gymnasts, judges, clubs and training equipment, and the results achieved by Portuguese gymnasts in national and international competitions, as the object of the study. By using the following methodology: collect and analysis of bibliography, interview, questionnaire, method of Delfi, observation, statistics and data analysis, we carried out a fairly overall analysis of the history and present situation of Portuguese Artistic Gymnastics, as well the study of the main problems existing currently in this discipline, and on this basis the corresponding coutermeasures for developing Artistic Gymnastics in Portugal were worked out.By studying the history of Gymnastics in Portugal, we know that: 1) Artistic Gymnastics developed fairly early in our country when GCP club had this discipline in 1875. In more than 100 years of history, and especially in the recent 50 years, the development of Artistic Gymnastics in our country was relatively slow. The results achieved in international gymnastics competitions were very unstable, sometimes good sometimes bad. Compared with several other european countries and especially with Spain, the difference becomes bigger. Spain has already entered into the world advanced level ranks; 2) In the period between 1950's and 1980's, there was an increase of the number of gymnasts and clubs participating in the national championship, but since then the number of both have been reduced; 3) Only 1 to 3 gymnasts usually took part in the main international competitions (Olympic Games, World and European Championships). There were very few occasions that Portugal participated on team competition. The results achieved in this kind of competitions were never outstanding; 4) Since the middle of 1990's, a progress in the development of Artistic Gymnastics in our country has been felt. This shows that there is still hope for this discipline in our country.By studying the present situation of Gymnastics in Portugal, we know that: 1) There are 9 clubs with men's Artistic Gymnastics team and 7 clubs with women's Artistic Gymnastics team; 2) There are 26 male and 15 female coaches; 3) Our country has 91 male gymnasts and 71 female gymnasts with the age above 7 (and who have ever taken part in competition); 4) In the year 2000, 55 male gymnasts and 47 female gymnasts took part in the national championship, among them there were only 6 male gymnasts of level five (the highest level -age above 16 ) and none for female gymnasts participating in the competition. Only 4 female gymnasts competed on level four. In men's level five, none of them achieved the average score above 9.000 points in the individual all-around event, while in the women's level four, none of them achieved the average score above 8.000 points in the individual all-around event. Mainly this reflects 3 basic problems concerning gymnasts: lack of some qualitys and capabilitys; lack of stability, especially in the most difficult movements; and lack of good posture; 5)There is insufficient equipment and lack of modern gymnastics apparatus; 6)There are 13 international judges, 40 national judges and 21 trainee judges.According Portuguese experts, the main problems existing in Portuguese Gymnastics are as follows: 1) The Ministry of Sports does not attach enough importance to gymnastics events; 2) The Portuguese Education System's demands and Sports System's demands (concerning high competition) are not well coordinated; 3) Portuguese Gymnastics Federation does not attach sufficient importance to the development of Artistic Gymnastics in the country; 4) Some Portuguese gymnastics associations do not attach sufficient importance to the spreadand development of Gymnastics in their districts; 5) Gymnastics event can not be implemented and developed in most part of schools, especially because they don't offer good conditions to its practice; 6) The number of sport clubs with gymnastics team is relatively small; 7) In some clubs, the training conditions are not the ideal to...
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