When rhythmic gymnastics first caught the attention of the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) in the middle of the 20th century, its devotees were calling it "modern gymnastics." Yet, its hazy history clearly traces to at least last century. In the 1800s rhythmic gymnastics operated under the guise of group gymnastics, and included a trace of elementary choreography. It grew slowly until the first experimental competitions appeared in Eastern Europe in the 1930s, but, by the time the FIG became interested, its complex floor routines had captured the attention of a wide circle of female gymnasts. Rhythmic gymnastics involves balletic grace incorporating many positions and leaps derived from classical ballet, including plies, jetes, attitudes and arabesques. However, it also grew out of the German system of emphasising apparatus work for muscle development, combined with the Swedish system of free exercise for developing rhythm. The FIG recognised rhythmic gymnastics as an official discipline in 1962, and, a year later, Budapest officials organised an international tournament. In 1964, the tournament officially was declared the first Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships. Ludmila Savinkova of the Soviet Union became the first world champion, partly because the field amounted to a rather modest 28 gymnasts from 10 European countries. The numbers swelled quickly, though, as interest spread to other parts of the world. Gymnasts from the United States first appeared at the championships in 1973, and rhythmic gymnastics slowly emerged from the shadow of the long-established artistic discipline. The rhythmic individual all-around competition was introduced into the Olympic Games in 1984, with Lori Fung winning gold for Canada. At the 1988 Seoul Games, gold medallist Marina Lobach of the Soviet Union almost gave away a sure victory. Indeed, her pianist may have become the real star. Lobach came with a second of exceeding the time limit in her club's routine, but, perhaps sensing the danger, the pianist sped up the tempo toward the end of the routine, and the Soviet gymnast finished exactly on the final signal. Her scorecard reflected the deceptive calm. A second from disaster, she had perfect scores in every apparatus in both the preliminary round and the final. The 1996 Atlanta Games came down to another tight finish, when a single score gave Spain the gold medal over the favoured Bulgarian group. The two teams were tied until the Spanish hoop routine, which featured a series of complex moves and thrilling exchanges, including one gymnast tossing her hoop high in the air and bouncing it off her chest into the hands of a team-mate. The successful routine gave Spain a 0.067 point edge.