BY ALAN SOMMERVILLE, OBE CDIR FIOD
PRESIDENT, BRITISH GYMNASTICS

Bringing this event to Scotland for the first time, British Gymnastics and the City of Glasgow, together with our partners from Event Scotland and UK Sport, take great pleasure in welcoming the FIG’s 46th World Gymnastics Championships to Glasgow.

Glasgow has a longstanding event partnership with British Gymnastics. After staging our first ever Grand Prix in 1997, the City continued to host the prestigious annual FIG World Cup until the present time, including the Artistic and Rhythmic World Cup Final in December 2000 at the Braehead Arena, and the 21st World Acrobatic Gymnastics Championships in 2008.

In 2014 gymnasts graced Glasgow’s magnificent new 12,500-seat SSE Hydro Arena for the first time at the Commonwealth Games. It is at this same state-of-the art arena, where we will welcome the world’s best in October, when an estimated 525 gymnasts from 80 countries will take part in 10 days of competition, in this most crucial and important qualification World Championships for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

British Gymnastics and Glasgow have a reputation for staging quality international gymnastics events and with Glasgow’s famous hospitality and the huge support of our other partners, these championships promise to be one of the greatest celebrations of world-class gymnastics ever seen. There is no doubt that the city will embrace the championships and each and every gymnast will experience the welcome and support of the people. We look forward to welcoming all competitors, officials and supporters to Glasgow and showcasing British Gymnastics and this wonderful city to the world!

FROM GLASGOW
TO RIO

En route to the Olympics, the world’s top Artistic gymnasts will stop off in Scotland.

For the future competitiors of the 2016 Olympic Games, the World Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow (GBR) in October are just the beginning of the Olympic odyssey.

In addition to World title bragging rights, the Glasgow Worlds at the SSE Hydro will determine the top eight men’s and women’s federations who advance directly to Rio for the team competition.

Teams ranked ninth to 16th will also get a ticket to Rio, although only to April’s Olympic Test Event. The top-four men’s and women’s teams at the Test Event will earn their spot to the big party in Brazil in August.

Other roads to Rio, if your federation isn’t sending a team, or if your team doesn’t finish in the top 16 in Glasgow: Win a medal on any event in Glasgow. Top individuals from Federations who don’t qualify teams to the Test Event will also earn one last chance to make the Olympics.

For the Chinese men and American women, their decade of dominance could continue at the Glasgow Worlds. China has not lost a World team title in Men’s Gymnastics since 2001. The American Women, confident in their refined training system and deep pool of talent, seem an equally well-oiled machine.

The World Championships are a competition where surprises often upend expectations. Still, barring injury, reigning World champions Kohei Uchimura and Simone Biles, both regarded as being among the most talented gymnasts in the history of the sport, are poised to break records if they win again.

In Glasgow, Uchimura will be going for his sixth consecutive World All-around title, something not even the greatest names in the sport have accomplished. Biles, for her part, could become the first woman in history to win three in a row.