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World Gymnastics

International gymnastics governing body

Summary

International gymnastics governing body

Field	Value
name	World Gymnastics
image	World Gymnastics.png
image_size	300px
msize
mcaption
formation
founding_location	Liège, Belgium
type
status
purpose
headquarters	Avenue de la Gare 12
location	Lausanne, Switzerland
region_served	Worldwide
language
leader_title	President
leader_name	Morinari Watanabe
main_organ
parent_organization
affiliations	Longines, VTB, Cirque du Soleil
revenue	US$17.32 million
revenue_year	2019
expenses	US$16.19 million
expenses_year	2019
website

World Gymnastics headquarters in Lausanne since 2016

World Gymnastics, formerly the International Gymnastics Federation, is the body governing competition in all disciplines of gymnastics. Its headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was founded on 23 July 1881 in Liège, Belgium, making it the world's oldest existing international sports organisation. Originally called the European Federation of Gymnastics, it had three member countries — Belgium, France and the Netherlands — until 1921, when non-European countries were admitted and the organization changed its name to the International Gymnastics Federation. Following other sport governing bodies, the organization took its current name in December 2025.

World Gymnastics headquarters in Lausanne (2008–2016)

The federation sets the rules, known as the Code of Points, that regulate how gymnasts' performances are evaluated. Seven gymnastics disciplines are governed by World Gymnastics: artistic gymnastics, further classified as men's artistic gymnastics and women's artistic gymnastics; rhythmic gymnastics; aerobic gymnastics; acrobatic gymnastics; trampolining; double mini trampoline, tumbling and parkour. Additionally, the federation is responsible for determining gymnasts' age eligibility to participate in the Olympics.

Organization

The main governing bodies of the federation are the president and vice presidents, the Congress held every two years, the Executive Committee, the Council, and technical committees for each of the disciplines.

In 2023, there were 161 national federations affiliated with World Gymnastics, one of which have been suspended, as well as one associated federation, one provisional federation and the following five continental unions:

European Union of Gymnastics (UEG)
Pan-American Gymnastic Union (PAGU)
Asian Gymnastic Union (AGU)
African Gymnastics Union (UAG)
Oceania Gymnastics Union (OGU)

Across all disciplines, participation in World Gymnastics-sanctioned events exceeds 30,000 athletes, about 70% of whom are female.

Russia and Belarus suspension

After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, World Gymnastics barred Russian athletes and officials, including judges. It also announced that "all of the World Gymnastics World Cup and World Challenge Cup events planned to take place in Russia ... are cancelled, and no other World Gymnastics events will be allocated to Russia ... until further notice." World Gymnastics also banned the Russian flag at its events. In 19 July 2023, World Gymnastics decided to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes and support personnels to participant events under individual neutral athletes.

Presidents, and their tenures, of World Gymnastics

Period	Name	Country
1881–1924	:fr:Nicolaas Cupérus
1924–1933	Charles Cazalet
1933–1946		Poland
1946–1956
1956–1966	Charles Thoeni
1966–1976	:fr:Arthur Gander
1976–1996	Yuri Titov

1996–2016	Bruno Grandi
January 2017–	Morinari Watanabe

Morinari Watanabe has served as president of the organization since his election in 2017.

Tournaments

Main article: List of gymnastics competitions

According to the technical regulations of World Gymnastics, the competitions officially organized are:

World Gymnastics Championships
- World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
- World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships
- Trampoline and Tumbling World Championships
- Aerobic Gymnastics World Championships
- World Acrobatic Gymnastics Championships
- Parkour World Championships
World Cup series
- Artistic Gymnastics World Cup
- Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup
- Trampoline World Cup
- Acrobatic Gymnastics World Cup
- Aerobic Gymnastics World Cup
- Parkour World Cup
World Challenge Cup series
- Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup
- Rhythmic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup

Other official World Gymnastics competitions include:

Olympic Games
Youth Olympic Games
World Games
Junior World Gymnastics Championships
- Junior World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
- Junior World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships
World Age Group Competitions

Defunct events formerly organized of sanctioned by World Gymnastics:

Four Continents Gymnastics Championships
Junior World Acrobatic Gymnastics Championships
Olympic Games Test Events

Age eligibility rules

Main article: Age requirements in gymnastics

World Gymnastics regulates the age at which gymnasts are allowed to participate in senior-level competitions. The purpose is to protect young gymnasts. This has caused some controversy, and there have been cases of age falsification.

References

Perelman, Rich. (24 May 2020). "Who's in the money? EXCLUSIVE analysis of our survey of International Federation finances". The Sports Examiner.
"Today in Francophone History". About.com.
"Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique / History / Milestones". FIG.
Duffy, Patricia. (December 9, 2025). "International Gymnastics Federation rebrands as “World Gymnastics”".
"Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique". FIG.
"FIG – About / Population". FIG.
(8 March 2022). "International Gymnastics Federation Bars Russia, Belarus As Sports World Reacts To Ukraine Invasion". Forbes.
(26 February 2022). "FIG decision regarding the conflict in Europe". International Gymnastics Federation.
(19 July 2023). "FIG Executive Committee decision concerning the participation of athletes with Russian and Belarusian sporting nationality in international competitions".
(Oct 19, 2016). "Watanabe elected as president of International Gymnastics Federation". Japan Times.
"Technical Regulations 2018". FIG.
"Rhythmic Gymnastics". worldsport.com.
"Sports Acrobatics". worldsport.com.
"FIG – 6th Junior Sports Acrobatics World Championships".
(2015). "Technical Regulations Version 2015". FIG.
(May 2014). "Qualification System – Games of the XXXI Olympiad – Rio 2016: Fédération Internationale De Gymnastique: Artistic Gymnastics".
Elliot, Sarah. "Why Is There an Age Limit for Gymnasts in the Olympics?".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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