If you spend any amount of time in gymnastics facilities, you grow accustomed to the smell of chalk. It’s everywhere — in buckets by the uneven bars, on the bars themselves, on the mats, on hands and feet and leotards. Gymnasts use chalk because of the other thing you grow accustomed to smelling in gymnastics facilities: sweat. The chalk in question is made of magnesium carbonate — distinct from the calcium carbonate of classroom chalk — and it helps keep gymnasts’ hands dry. That’s particularly important on the uneven bars, where one of the scariest and most dangerous things that can happen is “peeling off” — having your hands slip off the bar while swinging, sending you flying.

Source: New York Times July 29, 2021 19:52 UTC