History
The word "aerobics" was coined by Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper, a physician at the San Antonio Air Force Hospital in Texas, to denote a system of exercise he developed to help prevent coronary artery disease.
Cooper's book about the exercise system, Aerobics, was published in 1968. A year later, Jackie Sorenson developed aerobic dance. a series of dance routines to improve cardiovascular fitness.
During the next two decades, aerobic dance and exercise in various forms spread throughout the United States and into other countries. The number of aerobics participants in the U. S. alone grew from an estimated 6 million in 1978 to 19 million in 1982 and 22 million in 1987.
In 1983, Howard and Karen Schwartz organized Sport Fitness International (SFI) to oversee a new competitive sport they had developed, known as sportaerobics. SFI conducted the first national aerobic championship in 1984. Howard Schwartz founded the International Competitive Aerobics Federation (ICAF) in 1989, and the first world championships were held at San Diego in March of 1990, with athletes from 15 countries competing.
The ICAF has become the Association of National Aerobic Championships Worldwide (ANAC), which has 38 member countries. The national governing body is now the United States Competitive Aerobics Federation (USCAF), also founded in 1989.
Sportaerobics originally featured competition in four categories: Individual male and female, mixed pairs, and trio, which can include any three athletes. In 2002, competition was added for groups of six athletes.
Competitors are judged on a one-minute, 45-second routine done to music. Judges use two criteria, artistic merit and technical merit, with a maximum of 10 points each.
The Federation Internationale Gymnastique held its first world championships in 1995 and formally adopted sportaerobics as a gymnastics discipline the following year.
