FIG Announces New (Olympic) Team Rules

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  &#8211; Revised rights of the affiliated Federations to send judges to the World Championships
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  <strong>The Council also approved with an overwhelming majority the principles of the new qualification system and competition calendar for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.</strong> Under the approved system, the number of gymnasts in the team competition will be reduced from five gymnasts to four, opening up 24 extra spaces for male and female gymnasts at the Olympic Games.
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  <strong>Up to two gymansts from countries already qualified for the team competition would be eligible to compete as All-arounders or on their specialities based on a qualification system that includes results from the Continental Championships, World Cup and World Challenge Cups</strong>. &#8221;
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  According to Steve Butcher, chair of the Men&#8217;s Technical Committee, &#8220;<span style="color: #141823;" data-reactid=".1j8.1:4:1:$comment10203183526109149_10203183889038222:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.0"><span data-reactid=".1j8.1:4:1:$comment10203183526109149_10203183889038222:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.0.$end:0:$0:0">the team format will be four gymnasts, four compete on each apparatus, and three scores count. The best countries will be able to qualify up to two individual gymnasts also through World Cups, Challenge Cups, and Continental Championships</span></span><span style="color: #141823;" data-reactid=".1j8.1:4:1:$comment10203183526109149_10203183889038222:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.3"><span data-reactid=".1j8.1:4:1:$comment10203183526109149_10203183889038222:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.3.0"><span data-reactid=".1j8.1:4:1:$comment10203183526109149_10203183889038222:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$0:0">. There are many other formulas for AA gymnasts to qualify outside of the teams. The final details are still to be worked out, but the format is now set.</span></span></span>&#8221;
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  What is the purpose of this? Increasing the importance of the continental meets, allowing the chance to more event specialists to qualify (in the past gymnasts that were not part of a qualified team had to either compete on all events and qualify for a World AA final or to win a gold medal at Worlds in order to qualify).
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  On the not so bright side the risk is that even less gymnasts from less powerful gymnastics countries will make it to the Olympics (now that they get to compete with gymnasts from the big powers for the individual spots too) and a weird meet format in which gymnasts that are present at the Games and are from the same country will not be allowed to be a part of the team competition.
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  In the end it will be interesting to see what the qualifying rules will be and it is odd that such an important part of the change was not worked out too.
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  <strong>Article: Bea Gheorghisor</strong>
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