The age requirements in gymnastics are established by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) and regulate the age at which athletes are allowed to participate in senior-level competitions. In the latter half of the 20th century, a series of controversies arose with regard to gymnast ages, some of them leading to sanctions by FIG, and paving the way for the age requirements to be raised from 14 to 15 in 1981, and then to 16 in 1997.