The Gymnast is a memorial representation of the monument titled Flair Across America, which was created by the artist Richard MacDonald for the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. The Gymnast celebrates the triumph of the human spirit and the idealization of the human form. While its message is universal, the Gymnast also embodies the Olympic credo stated by the father of the modern-day Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, "the essence lies not in the victory, but in the struggle.