The FIG has treated itself to a new website – and a new virtual image. Today, we're pleased to unveil a site that is more beautiful, more copious and more user-friendly than ever, a cutting-edge portal that connects gymnasts from all over the world. It is designed to meet the needs of gymnasts and their fans, member federations, the media and our authorities.

Building often means moving over and making room. For a few weeks, the FIG website was limited to a few pages only – a bare minimum that was nonetheless necessary to maintaining Gymnastics’ day-to-day news, freeing up resources for work on the reconstruction of a new site. Today, we’re back on track and pleased to open these beautiful new pages to the public!

The designers have opted for simplification and clarification, and they invite us to discover not only a public website, but also the database and administrative tools of an international sports federation. Three portals, three applications, three good reasons to get excited about a choice that is more user-friendly in terms of presentation, navigation and information categorisation.

The public website

Coherence, visibility, user-friendliness, mobile accessibility, and quality content qualify the FIG’s new virtual image. An uncluttered page showing only the content navigation bar is straightforward and encourages users to come back. It is interactive, with scrolling menus and sub-menus that allow for direct access to essential information without wasting the user's time or causing them to lose their place.

Here visitors will find a permanent source of breaking news, current information regularly updated by our editorial staff and their correspondents with the 135 FIG affiliated federations. There is direct information on calendar events and their content, including the programme, timetable, venue and participants.

The site honours the present and its news, as well as the past and its richness.

Welcome to the FIG Administration!

This is without a doubt the most spectacular improvement to the FIG website. A single key made available to the federations and authorities will allow them to access the various databases at the heart of FIG management. No more Intranet: from now on it’s FIG Administration, access to gymnastics administration in all its forms.

Users now hold the keys to the FIG mansion, its floor plan and the services available behind each door: the activities, calendar, rules, working plans, minutes, documents to download and more.

FIG Database

The most remarkable and significant innovation in the project is perhaps the fact that the affiliated federations have now been made responsible for handling their own online data. It is their job to ensure that their respective data is both accurate and updated. This outsourcing from the FIG to its federations gives them greater responsibility as well as the freedom to act on and provide quality information.

Essentially, it boils down to registering a delegation for a World Championships, managing gymnasts, judges and (in the near future) coaches as well as a duly recognised and certified medal corps.

It’s a first step in the direction of online and decentralised global management. All functions will progressively be made accessible. The launch of the final components is scheduled for June 2014.

FLASHBACK

It all started in 1999, when the FIG inaugurated its first website. The World Championships in Tianjin (ART) and Osaka (RG) were the first to leave their footprint.

Then in 2000, website provider Worldsport announced brutal news: bankruptcy smack in the middle of the Sydney Olympic Games, depriving the FIG of its website and e-mail address book. A time of crisis had arrived.

That same day, fate would smile on the federation with the appearance of a new partner, Canadian Mercator, giving life and gymnastic colour back to Olympic data. But the company would suffer the same fate as Worldsport, with bankruptcy striking again. Back in Switzerland, the FIG teamed up with Exel, who would stabilise the situation and pump credibility back into the FIG website for years to come.

Finally, the FIG signed on with Sportcentric in London, an active enterprise among international sports federations.

 Collaboration drew to a close at the end of 2013, allowing the FIG to reclaim its authority and control over the data that is now consolidated and stored under its own roof.