If you love gymnastics, there are a million and one reasons that should make every effort to get to Stuttgart. For a start, the German city will be full of gymnastic events, which means there will be shows and opportunities.
One of the biggest is the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the USA team training. Here are just a few gymnasts that you won’t want to miss! Join the podium training today to get your preview. Or watch the qualifying rounds, tickets are here.
Which Amercicans to look out for at the Stuttgart Championships.
Simone Biles
Of course, Biles needs absolutely no introduction. She is the best in the world at what she does, and yes, she will be there! One of her biggest achievements came at the 2019 U.S. Gymnastics Championships, where she claimed her sixth US all-around title, which is the first time a this has been achieved by a woman in more than half a century.
Biles is also the most decorated American gymnast ever, a proud accolade to go with her record of being the first American gymnast to win a world medal at every event. We’re all looking forward to seeing what she can achieve next.
Best apparatus: Who can choose? Floor and vault. And she is also our pick for the all-around title, where she is amazing.
Sunisa Lee
Her name might not be known to everyone just yet, but she should be on your radar — it’s only a matter of time! She has already impressed, winning the uneven bars gold medal and the all-around silver medal at the 2019 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships.
Lee is the very first Hmong-American (a minority group descended from southern China) gymnast to compete at her level and has received lots of support from the Hmong community in her hometown in Minnesota. Her career is going from strength to strength, and she strives to honour her community with every event.
Best apparatus: Uneven bars
Grace McCallum
Born in Cambridge, Minnesota, McCallum already has a slew of awards behind her as a 2018 world team champion, the 2018 Pacific Rim senior all-around champion, and the 2018 Pan-American all-around champion. McCallum is one you’ll want to catch in full flow!
Best apparatus: Floor and vault
Sam Mikulak
Mikulak is one of the United States’ best artistic gymnasts and has a cabinet full of awards to prove it. He is the current US all-around, floor exercise, pommel horse, parallel bar and high bar champion.
The horizontal bar world bronze medallist in 2018, Mikulak is a six-time US all-around champion (2013–16 and 2018–19), four-time US parallel bars champion (2013, 2015, 2018–19), and a three-time US high bar champion (2013, 2018–19). Be sure to catch him in action — it really is like watching poetry in motion!
Best apparatus: High bar
The World Artistic Gymnastics Championships will be held from October 4 – 13. People from all over the world will gather in Stuttgart to witness gymnastics history in the making. Here are 5 things you need to know about the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
- For the third time since 1989 and 2007, the 2019 World Gymnastics Championships will be held in Stuttgart at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle
- 500 gymnasts from over 90 nations will be competing for ten days (4 through 13 October) with 100,000 spectators.
- A total of 18 team places for the Olympic Games will be awarded (consisting of nine women and nine men)
- At the 2018 Championships in Doha, Simone Biles became the first American to win a medal in every single event at a single World Championships. The last time someone achieved this was in 1987, by Russian Gymnast Yelena Shushunova.
- The first edition of the championships was held in 1903, exclusively for male gymnasts. Since 1934, Women’s events and Men’s events were held together.
A record 92 nations have registered to participate in the 49th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart (GER), which is preparing to play host to the competition for the third time after memorable events in 1989 and 2007.
The provisional entries for the 2019 World Championships, scheduled for 4-13 October at the 7,500-seat Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, has hit a new high, surpassing the previous record of 86 federations at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow (GBR). The number of entries for 2019 is eight more than took part in Stuttgart 2007 and nearly double the 48 that participated in Stuttgart 1989.
In addition to awarding eight sets of medals in the Men’s competition and six sets in the Women’s competition, the 2019 World Championships will serve as a qualifying event to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo (JPN). Click here for more on the 2020 Olympic qualification process and refer to the applicable rules.
All federations may enter individuals, but only the top 24 teams from the 2018 World Championships in Doha (QAT) in both the men’s and women’s competitions may enter full teams, with the addition of a men’s team from either Australia or New Zealand to ensure full continental representation. The age limit is 18 years (born 2001) or older for men and 16 years (born 2003) or older for women.
The full roster of gymnasts scheduled to compete at the competition will be released following the nominative registration deadline of 4 September.
Olympic champions Fabian Hamuechen (GER) and Catalina Ponor (ROU), who both competed in Stuttgart 2007, will return this fall as the Gymnastics Ambassadors for the World Championships. Hambuechen retired from competition after achieving his ultimate goal of winning gold on Horizontal Bar at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (BRA), while Ponor bid competition adieu in 2017 after three Olympic appearances, with five Olympic and five World Championship medals to her name.
This year’s event also marks the fifth time overall that Germany has played host to the competition, including the World Championships in Dortmund in 1966 and 1994.
Reference: FIG
Four-time world All-around champion Simone Biles (USA) heads the mouthwatering list of gymnasts who have confirmed their participation at the FIG Individual All-around World Cup in Stuttgart (GER) on 16-17 March.
The Stuttgart event will be the second in this year’s World Cup series and Biles will be joined by other big names like Russia’s Aliia Mustafina and David Belyavskiy as well as the 2018 World Cup series winners Elisabeth Seitz (GER) and Sun Wei (CHN).
Women´s Competition
It will be the first time for Biles to compete at the Stuttgart World Cup and the 21-year-old – holder of four Olympic gold medals and 14 World Championship golds – will take top billing at the Porsche Arena where she will get a taste of the conditions before the city hosts the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in October.
Competing alongside Biles will be the experienced Mustafina (RUS), twice an Olympic gold medallist on Uneven Bars and the 2010 All-around world champion, and local favourite Seitz (GER), whose silver medal in her adopted home city of Stuttgart 12 months ago preceded a memorable World Championships in Doha where she won her first medal with bronze on Uneven Bars. The women’s field also features Anne-Marie Padurariu (CAN), who is making her World Cup debut following her silver-medal success on Balance Beam in Doha.
- Carolyne Pedro (Brasilien)
- Lorette Charpy (Frankreich)
- Elisabeth Seitz (Deutschland)
- Hitomi Hatakeda (Japan)
- Anne-Marie Padurariu (Kanada)
- Aliya Mustafina (Russland)
- Simone Biles (USA)
Men´s Competition
The roster for the men’s competition includes Belyavskiy, who won two medals at Rio 2016 and ranked fourth in the All-around, and Sun Wei, a team gold medallist with China at the Doha World Championships who is returning for the third year running to Stuttgart, where he took bronze in 2017
- Wei Sun (China)
- Marcel Nguyen (Deutschland)
- Frank Baines (Großbritannien)
- Teppei Miwa (Japan)
- Bart Deurloo (Niederlande)
- David Belyavskiy (Russland)
- Eddy Yusof (Schweiz)
- Petro Pakhniuk (Ukraine)
- Akash Modi (USA)
The Stuttgart World Cup is the second of four events in the 2019 FIG series, and follows the American Cup on 2 March. The series will continue on 23 March in Birmingham (GBR), and conclude in Tokyo (JPN) on 7 April. The top eight teams from the 2018 World Championships received priority invitations to the event.
The field for each event involves eight male and eight female gymnasts chosen by the participating federations, plus one optional ‘wildcard’ gymnast each from the host federation. Gymnasts collect points for the 2019 World Ranking lists that will determine the winning federations, and the results of all four events count towards the final ranking.
Prize money of a total of CHF116,000–124,000 is at stake in each leg of the series, with the FIG paying an additional CHF100,000 to the overall top three-ranked gymnasts – male and female – at the end of the series.
SCHEDULE
March, 15, 2019
9.00 A.M. | Team Challenge Qualification Women
1.30 P.M. | Team Challenge Qualification Men
March, 16, 2019
12.30 P.M. | FIG All-Around World Cup Men
5.00 P.M. | Team Challenge Final Women
March, 17, 2019
12.15 P.M.| FIG All-Around World Cup Women
4.00 P.M. | Team Challenge Final Men
Further information can be found at www.enbw-dtbpokal.de.
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