Janssen-Fritsen Gymnastics b.v. is a manufacturer of professional gymnastics

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

 equipment and apparatus, based in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. Janssen-Fritsen has supplied equipment to a number of world, European and continental championships, and four Olympic Games

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

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In the mid-1990s the company pioneered the design of the vaulting

Vault (gymnastics)

The vault is an artistic gymnastics apparatus, as well as the skill performed using that apparatus. Vaulting is also the action of performing a vault. Both male and female gymnasts perform the vault...

 table, a replacement for the pommel horse

Pommel horse

The pommel horse is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. Traditionally, it is used by only male gymnasts. Originally made of a metal frame with a wooden body and a leather cover, modern pommel horses have a metal body covered with foam rubber and leather, with plastic handles .- History :The pommel...

-like apparatus used since the 19th century in international competitions. The vaulting table, first introduced at the international level at the 2001 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

2001 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

The 35th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held in Ghent, Belgium, in 2001 at the Flanders Sports Arena. This was the first Worlds at which the 6-3-3—six athletes per team, three compete, all three scores count—format was used in team finals...

, has been used in Gymnastics at the 2004

Gymnastics at the 2004 Summer Olympics

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, three disciplines of gymnastics were contested: artistic gymnastics , rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline...

 and the 2008 Summer Olympics

Gymnastics at the 2004 Summer Olympics

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, three disciplines of gymnastics were contested: artistic gymnastics , rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline...

. The switch in apparatus has made the sport safer and enabled the introduction of more spectacular vaults, including Yurchenko-style vaults

Yurchenko (vault)

Yurchenko is the name of both a specific vault and a vault family in artistic gymnastics. The Yurchenko was named after Soviet gymnast Natalia Yurchenko, who originated the vault in the early 1980s....

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