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How is artistic gymnastics different from rhythmic gymnastics?

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Simone Biles of Team United States performs a flip above the balance beam during the Women's Balance Beam Final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. — gymnastics Simone Biles performing on the balance beam at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (delayed until 2021). She won a bronze medal in the event.

Artistic and rhythmic gymnastics are distinct disciplines with different focuses, equipment, and scoring priorities.

Artistic Gymnastics
This discipline emphasizes technical precision, athletic strength, and agility. Athletes perform on various apparatuses, including the vault, floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, parallel bars, horizontal bar, uneven bars, and balance beam. Scoring is based on the difficulty of the movements and the execution of specific skills on these apparatuses. Both men and women compete in artistic gymnastics.12

Rhythmic Gymnastics
Rhythmic gymnastics is centered on presentation, style, and dance. Athletes perform routines on a floor area while using hand apparatuses: ropes, hoops, balls, clubs, and ribbons. Scoring prioritizes artistry, including fluidity of movement, body language, and synchronicity with music, over vigorous acrobatics. Currently, only women compete in rhythmic gymnastics at the Olympic level.13