“The secrets we learn from other countries,” Haney said.

Mark Williams, the head coach of the men’s team at worlds , is as well versed as anyone when it comes to the history of honey and gymnastics. He competed in the 1970s and ’80s, when the practice began.

Until then, men relied on their chalked hands . But in the 1970s, as routines became more challenging, they needed to find a better way to hang on. Gymnasts were doing swings under the parallel bar that required a strong grip, like giants (when a gymnast begins in a handstand position then swings under the bars and back into a handstand).

The move toward stickiness can be traced to men on the Soviet Union teams, Williams said, although they didn’t actually use honey. It was too expensive and scarce in the homeland. To get sticky, they concocted a combination of boiling water and sugar.

Williams credits Bart Conner, who won two gold medals at the 1984 Olympics, with giving the Soviet approach an American twist.

“Connor took a Coke can and just sprinkled it on there,” said Williams, who is also the men’s head coach at the University of Oklahoma. “The sugar was sticky when it dried.”

Others experimented with corn syrup, the most popular being Karo. By the mid-1980s, the transition was complete: from sugar to corn syrup to honey.