gymnastic floors

I was watching a bit of gymnastic floor exercises on TV, and for the first time ever, noticed that the floor seemed to be bouncy. Not simply padded, absorbing shock, as I had always assumed, but springy, giving the gymnast added bounce.

Then I wondered what was under the padding; how complicated is a gymnastics floor? It turns out that it is called a spring floor, and it really does have short metal springs under it.

This Slate article provides some history of gymnastic floors. They didn't always have springs, which partly explains why gymnasts can do more complicated jumps nowadays than in the past.