Dr. Alfons Hölzl – DTB-President

• On the championships in Stuttgart

Personally, I have never experienced a world championships with such a large crowd. It makes my heart beat faster when you see how many people want to see the competition. Qualifications in gymnastics is a special experience for all gymnasts of all nations when the stands are full. The atmosphere is extremely positive and we as the organisers are especially happy about that! 

Ulla Koch – Coach of German women’s team

• On making the qualification for Tokyo

I am very relieved we made it! In the beginning I was not sure whether we would qualify for the team final. That it would be such a close race, I would have never expected. Of course, we made avoidable mistakes, but other nations made mistakes, too. I was a little bit sad yesterday [because of not reaching the final], but the Olympic qualification and the four finals are worth a lot.

• On the team for Tokyo

The criteria for making the team have been defined some time ago. The first criterion is the medal chance, the second the chance of making a final and the third the team. There will be a lot of pressure on the athletes to become better at some apparatus in order to make it on the team.  

Kim Bui 

• On the competition

I have already experienced many competitions and noticed how quickly the moment passes. That is why I decided to enjoy the competition and everything around it. I also focused on the mental preparation. I often imagined what it would be like, how it would feel to compete. But I can say that it exceeded all my expectations.

Emilie Petz

• On the competition

This was my first world championships and it was a fantastic experience to compete in Stuttgart. I am very proud of my team and wish Sarah and Eli all the best, and that they can repeat their great performance from qualifications in the all-around final.

Pauline Schäfer

• On helping Sarah Voss for the beam final 

I would like to tell her to take it easy, but that is not possible. Of course, I will support Sarah as best I can and give her tips if she wants me to. She is a very experienced gymnast and will certainly be able to do that!

Sophie Scheder

• On her injury

I’m already feeling better now. It is very bitter when you have prepared for such a long time but can’t participate in the competition after all. I was very happy that the team did such a great job. It’s great to have the opportunity to experience the atmosphere and everything else here in Stuttgart.

Elisabeth Seitz

• On her bars final

What is possible is still written in the stars. Every year it starts from zero and you have to prove yourself again. Especially the bar final this year, it is very crowded again. The lowest qualified gymnast had a 14.700, that’s crazy. Theoretically everything is possible, it could mix up again completely.

• On being so strong

I think there’s a lot coming together. Among other things the world championships bronze medal last year, that it’s a home world championships and that the Olympic Games will take place next year. Also, my body is currently playing along. There are so many highlights that motivate me personally, and that has an effect on everything else. You can see it here and hopefully next year in Tokyo as well.

Sarah Voss

• On her mental preparation

Due to my injury I had to reduce my training, also on the beam. I went through the exercise on the beam mentally, posed and imagined the jumps. At the end of the exercise I went through the complete exercise mentally again, if possible without any mistakes. Because I noticed that you also make mistakes mentally. It helped me to keep the feeling for the elements during my injury break.

• On her beam routine

I will try to recall the feeling from qualifying, concentrate on myself and what I can do.

Monday 7th October – the men’s qualification competition finishes today, with teams from USA, Japan, Canada, People’s Republic of China, Belgium, Finland, Australia, Ukraine, People’s Republic of Korea, Great Britain, Netherlands, Romania and Switzerland competing in subdivisions five to six. 

At the end of the day, we will know which teams have booked their place at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. The top 12 teams here will qualify. Three teams are already qualified from last year’s world championships: the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation and Japan. That leaves a further nine Olympic tickets avaiable.

Also at stake are places in the all-around and apparatus finals here in Stuttgart. As well as teams, there are a few standout individuals with medal hopes, such as Yulo Carlos Edriel of the Philippines, a floor specialist, and Croatian Tin Srbic, a horizontal bar specialist. 

The top teams to follow are Japan and USA (subdivision 5), China (subdivision 6), and Great Britain (subdivision 7). All were finalists at the world championships last year.

The final subdivision features high bar specialist, Epke Zonderland of the Netherlands.  Despite the fact that they reached the team finals last year, the Dutch are honest about their chances this time. Zonderland says “We’re not here to make the team finals again, that was a really impressive result last year.”

Todays October 6th marks the beginning of Men´s competition at these World Championships. In the first of two qualifying rounds, six teams started their competition in Stuttgart. On the podium in this subdivision: the teams from France, Hungary, Norway, Kazakhstan, Chinese Taipei and Italy.

Cyril Tommasone from France showed an impressive routine on pommel horse. Compared to last year, he increased his difficulty score by 0.2 points and entered the competition with an upgrated 6.3 D-score. Scoring a 14.666 he put himself into 4th position after the first qualifying round.

Also the Italians provided an exciting competition for the audience. Reigning world bronze medallist on rings, Marco Lodadio from Italy, scored a 14.666 on this apparatus and hopes to compete again in the event finals.

Hopeful of today´s qualifying competition: the team from Turkey. After a promising start, they had some major mistakes on pommel horse and placed 8th. Although it might be hard for Turkey to get into team finals, there´s still hope for representation in the event finals, especially on parallel bars.

Russia`s all-around gymnasts Nikita Nagornyy and Artur Dalaloyan had a strong competition, placing first and second respectively in the all-around competition. As well as in the all-around, the team achieved a lead of more than 9 points over Chinese Taipei, who is currently in second place.

Arthur Zanetti from Brazil scored a huge 14.700 on rings, which put him into second place after the first day of qualification. The team showed an impressive performance as well and finished in third place.

The appearance of the German team raised cheers in the arena. Karim Rida, who is the youngest gymnast on the German team, describes the crowd as being „absolutely crazy and breathtaking.“ Altough the exhilaration of the german crowd was enormeous, Germany had some problems on parallel bars and pommel horse and thus had to settle for fifth place. Lukas Dauser leads the starter field on parallel bars.

The team from Spain was supported by a vociferous fan base in the arena. The Spanish gymnasts seem to have benefited from the support: the team outdistanced the German team and made it to fourth place.

The Simone Biles show

5 October – The women’s qualification competition concluded on Saturday with a packed house cheering every move that the American gymnast Simone Biles made. She and her teammates topped the field as predicted, with two gymnasts in every final except beam.

“I don’t think I put out my best performances tonight,” she said afterwards, having stuttered on all events except beam. “I think there’s room for improvement.” 

Nevertheless, she easily finished in first place all-around and successfully showed her two new elements on floor and beam, which will now be named after her in the code of points. 

Joining USA in the team final will be People’s Republic of China, Russian Federation, France, Canada, Netherlands, Great Britain and Italy. 

In ninth place, unlucky Germany missed the team final by a mere 0.034 of a point. However, they will be consoled by qualification to the Olympic Games, and both Elisabeth Seitz and Sarah Voss qualifying to the all-around final. Seitz also reached the uneven bars final and Voss the beam final.

Rounding out the list of Olympic qualifying teams are: Belgium, Japan and Spain. Brazil, team finalists in Doha last year, were hampered by an injury to Jade Barbosa on their first event, vault, and could only manage 14th place.

STUTTGART (GER), 5 October 2019:

Following the second and last day of women’s qualifications at the 49th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart (GER), the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has officially updated the list of qualified teams and confirms the individual gymnasts who have earned a nominative place from the 2019 World Championships for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The list has been published on the 2020 Olympic Games event calendar page on the FIG website.

On 12 and 13 October, the three highest placed eligible gymnasts in each apparatus final in Stuttgart will also book their Olympic tickets.

The specialists have another opportunity to qualify with the current Apparatus World Cup series that ends in March 2020. The four women’s and six men’s winners on each apparatus – a ranking decided by taking the best three results of each participant in the series – will be Tokyo-bound (on the condition that these gymnasts have not actively participated in the qualification of their respective teams).

There will be the possibility of gaining extra individual places for the competing countries via the 2020 All-around World Cup series – these will be available to the top three countries in this four-stage series running in March and April of that year.

The final qualifying opportunity will come at the continental championships in spring 2020 when there will be two individual places at stake for each of Africa, America, Europe and Asia and one place for Oceania.

For more information on the Olympic qualification system, click here.

Sunday 6th October – teams from Italy, Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan, Norway, Hungary, France, the Russian Federation, Belarus, Turkey, Spain, Germany and Brazil compete in the first four subdivisions of the men’s qualifying competition. 

The teams are kicking off their quest for Olympic qualification. The top 12 teams in Stuttgart make it to Tokyo, with three teams already qualified from last year’s world championships: the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation and Japan. That leaves a further nine Olympic tickets up for grabs.

Also at stake are places in the all-around and apparatus finals here in Stuttgart, and there are plenty of individuals seeking these places  too. 

Look out for Artem Dolgopyat of Israel, hoping for a place in the floor final; pommel horse specialist Rhys McClenaghan of Ireland and Manrique Larduet of Cuba, all-around bronze medalist in 2015 now returning after injury.

The top team to follow is 2018 team silver medalists from the Russian Federation, featuring last year’s all-around champion, Artur Dalaloyan and this year’s European all-around champion, Nikita Nagornyy. They compete in subdivision 3.

There will be great expectations for the home team, Germany, who compete in subdivision 4. They will be hoping the home crowd lifts them to the team final.

Full results will not be known until the conclusion of the second day of men’s qualifications on Monday.

The first day of women’s qualifications concluded with two teams well ahead of field – the People’s Republic of China in first place, with a team total score of 169.161. Trailing them by 2.448 points are the team from France on 166.713.

China excelled on beam, taking the top three places on that apparatus. In the all-around standings, however, the leader is Melanie de Jesus dos Santos of France, with 56.782 points. Santos is also the current leader on the floor exercise.

Second and third all-around went to Liu Tingting and Li Shija of China respectively.

The teams from Canada, Germany and Belgium took the next three places. Nina Derwael of Belgium was the highest scorer on uneven bars.

The sad story of the day was the continued decline of the team from Romania. They suffered several falls and errors throughout their competition, ending the day in tenth place and losing any hopes of qualifying to next year’s Olympic Games. 

All the teams are vying for a top 12 place in order to qualify to the Olympic Games. They will now have to sit and wait to see what happens on day two of the women’s qualification competition.

Saturday 5 October – the women’s qualification competition concludes with the last six subdivisions, starting at 9 am in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle.

Full teams competing are: Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Mexico, Japan, Argentina, Russia, Hungary, Switzerland, Brazil and USA.

At the conclusion of the day, the top 12 teams from Friday and Saturday will earn their ticket to the Tokyo Olympics next year. 

The top three teams from last year’s world championships have already qualified – these are USA, Russian Federation and People’s Republic of China. This means a further nine spaces are available.

Also at stake is a place in the team final here in Stuttgart. The top eight teams will compete again for the team title on Tuesday 8th October.

The highlight of the day will be the appearance of the women from USA, featuring the Olympic champion Simone Biles. Her difficulty levels keep getting higher, and she is expected to show at least one of two new moves, which will be named after her if she completes them successfully. They compete in the last subdivision at 8 pm.

Earlier in the day, watch out for the Italians, who are fielding a team with many new seniors. They are the reigning Junior European champions and are expected to make an improvement from their 12th place finish at last year’s world championships.

As the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships return this week to Stuttgart (GER), FIG President Morinari Watanabe said, “Now, the World Championships have come back to Germany, which is Gymnastics’ home. I congratulate the organisers in Stuttgart from the bottom of my heart.”

Site of the 1989 and 2007 World Championships, Hanns-Martin-Schleyer Hall will once again play host to the World Championships, this year attracting more than 540 gymnasts from a record 92 nations. Taking place 4-13 October, the 2019 World Championships will award 14 sets of medals as well as team and individual Olympic berths in the final global competition before the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo (JPN).

“On the eve of competition, we can say that Stuttgart and the region have been gripped by World Championships fever,” said Dr. Alfons Hölzl, President of the German Gymnastics Federation. “With this Gymnastics Worlds we want to inspire and set new trends for the sport. I think we are not only ready for this, but already well on the way.”

Wolfgang Drexler, President of the Swabian Gymnastics Federation added: “The audience response is phenomenal. We have already sold more than 90% of the tickets and expect 100,000 spectators from around the world in the arena. We are excited that we are able to provide the athletes with this fantastic stage for their performances!”

14 sets of medals at stake

The competition will determine the winners of eight sets of medals for men (Team, All-around, Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse, Still Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar) and six for women (Team, All-around, Vault, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam, and Floor Exercise). The medals, designed and produced exclusively by companies in the local Baden-Wurttemberg region, took more than 2 1/2 years to create and are adorned with sustainable ribbons.

Olympic qualification continues

Olympic qualification, which kicked off at last year’s World Championships in Doha (QAT), continues in Stuttgart, where the top nine teams in each discipline will qualify to Tokyo (excluding the three already qualified by winning team medals in 2018 – People’s Republic of China, Russian Federation, and Japan for the men, and the United States, Russian Federation, and People’s Republic of China for the women).

Additionally, individuals from countries that do not qualify teams to Tokyo have a chance to earn Olympic berths in Stuttgart. The top 12 male and top 20 female gymnasts in the All-around qualifications will qualify to Tokyo, with a maximum of one gymnast per nation in each discipline.

In addition, the three highest placed eligible athletes on each apparatus from apparatus finals will earn one quota place for the Olympics with a maximum of three gymnasts per country for all apparatus.

Click here for more on the 2020 Olympic qualification process and refer to the applicable rules.

Defending champions return

The American women and Chinese men, the team champions from Doha, have brought their strongest teams to Stuttgart to in defense of their titles.

All 12 individual champions from 2018 are in Stuttgart as well. In the women’s competition, American Simone Biles (All-around, Vault, Floor Exercise), Belgian Nina Derwael (Uneven Bars), and China’s Liu Tingting (Balance Beam) are back, while Russia’s Artur Dalaloyan (All-around and Floor Exercise), China’s Xiao Ruoteng (Pommel Horse) and Zou Jingyuan (Parallel Bars), Greece’s Eleftherios Petrounias (Still Rings), Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s Ri Se Gwang (Vault), and the Netherlands’ Epke Zonderland (Horizontal Bar) are set to defend their world titles.

Simone Biles chases more records

Biles, the only female gymnast to win four world All-around titles, also owns the individual record for gold medals at the World Championships with 14. With 20 World medals to her name, Biles has a chance to become the most decorated gymnast in history as she eyes Belarusian legend Vitaly Scherbo’s record of 23 World medals won from 1991-1996. She won six medals in Doha, the first gymnast to win a medal in every event at the Worlds since 1987.

2016 Olympic champions star in Stuttgart

All but two of the reigning Olympic champions from 2016 are in the lineup in Stuttgart. In addition to Biles (All-around, Vault, and Floor Exercise), Petrounias (Still Rings) and Ri (Men’s Vault), 2016 Olympic champions Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands (Balance Beam), Max Whitlock of Great Britain (Men’s Floor Exercise and Pommel Horse) and Oleg Verniaiev of Ukraine (Parallel Bars) are chalking up to perform in front of a packed arena in Stuttgart.

The established stars of the sport will face off with rising stars of sport hoping to make their marks in Stuttgart.

Olympic champions Fabian Hambuechen (GER) and Catalina Ponor (ROU), now retired, are serving as the 2019 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships Ambassadors.

The championships start on Friday with the first day of the women’s qualification competition. A total of 12 teams together with several groups of individuals will go through their paces during the course of the day. 

The six subdivisions feature teams from Ukraine, Australia, Czech Republic, Belgium, Egypt, Germany, People’s Republic of Korea, South Korea, Romania, France, China and Canada. 

At stake is Olympic qualification. The top 12 teams after tomorrow’s competition concludes will qualify. Three teams already qualified at the world championships last year in Doha – USA, the Russian Federation and China. 

The USA and Russia compete tomorrow, so today will be a chance to check the credentials of the young Chinese squad, competing in the last subdivision which starts at 8 pm. 

As well as the team Olympic qualification, there are Olympic places available for all gymnasts, with or without a team, and all-around and apparatus finals for later in these championships. The top 24 all-around individuals (with a maximum of two gymnasts per country) and top eight on each apparatus (again, two per country) will proceed to the finals.

Also at stake is a place in the team final here in Stuttgart, which takes place on the 8th October. The top eight teams will qualify to the final. Last year, Germany reached the final and will be hoping to repeat that this year in front of a home crowd.