One of the most elegant sports originated in Saint Petersburg. In 1914, a School of Artistic Movement was established in the city on the Neva River as part of Pyotr Lesgaft’s Higher Courses. The core subject combined acrobatics and choreography, hence the name rhythmic gymnastics. The teachers of this new school combined their expertise in related fields: aesthetic, dance, rhythmic gymnastics, and the free dance of the famous ballerina Isadora Duncan. Interestingly, the future athletes were trained by artists from the Mariinsky Theatre. They introduced them to classical, historical, and character dances. A few months before the start of the Great Patriotic War, in April 1941, the first city championship in rhythmic gymnastics was held in Leningrad. In 1948, the first All-Union Championship took place. By the mid-1950s, Soviet athletes began performing exhibition routines abroad, and soon the International Gymnastics Federation recognized this new sport. In 1963, the first international rhythmic gymnastics championship was held in Budapest. The Soviet athlete Lyudmila Savinkova won and became the first world champion in this discipline. Since 1984, rhythmic gymnastics competitions have been part of the Olympic Games program.