Press Release – FIG World Championships (Liverpool 2022)

GNZ AdminInternational, Media Release, Men's artistic gymnastics, Women's artistic gymnastics

‘A World Gymnastics Championships to remember’ awaits in Liverpool
LAUSANNE (SUI), FIG Office, 26 October 2022
Fourteen new World champions will be crowned and six teams will qualify to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the 51st Artistic Gymnastics World Championships from 29 October-6 November in Liverpool (GBR).  
By scope and prestige, the World Championships is the biggest annual event in the popular Olympic discipline. This year’s edition has drawn more than 400 gymnasts from 74 countries across the globe, including more than two dozen World and Olympic medallists. Among them are Tokyo 2020 champions Rebeca Andrade (BRA, Women’s Vault), Jade Carey (USA, Women’s Floor Exercise), Nina Derwael (BEL, Uneven Bars), Artem Dolgopyat (ISR, Men’s Floor Exercise), Hashimoto Daiki (JPN, Men’s All-Around and Horizontal Bar), and Zou Jingyuan (CHN, Parallel Bars).
 
For the first time this year, gymnasts have had to earn the right to compete at the World Championships via events including the FIG World Cup series and continental championships, rendering the field one of the most competitive in history. 

“This is a very exciting time for Gymnastics. Only a year after the Tokyo Olympic Games, gymnasts and coaches are already starting to think about Paris 2024, and Liverpool gives them the chance to gain valuable experience on the world stage,” commented FIG President Morinari Watanabe Morinari. “Since the last World Championships in Kitakyushu 12 months ago, fascinating new talents have emerged all over the world. At this competition, they will meet the greatest of this generation. Like everyone else, I cannot wait to see what happens.”  

This championship will see the first World team competition since 2019, with the U.S. aiming to break the record of five consecutive titles set by Romania during the 1990s in the women’s team final on 1 November. Japan, the People’s Republic of China and Great Britain are all expected to be in contention for men’s team honours on 2 November.   

The women’s and men’s All-Around finals, which will determine the world champions among gymnasts who compete on all events, are set for 3 and 4 November, while ten apparatus finals round off the event on 5 and 6 November. 

Liverpool is the fourth British city to host the World Championships, following Birmingham (1993), London (2009), and a standard-setting event in Glasgow (2015), which ushered in a new era of sports presentation. Each World Championships on home soil has lifted British gymnasts to new heights. This year’s British teams, considered among the strongest the country has ever fielded, are led by 2019 World Parallel Bars champion Joe Fraser and Tokyo 2020 team bronze medallists Alice Kinsella and Jessica and Jennifer Gadirova.

Gemma Williams-Fox, Championships Director said: “On behalf of the Local Organising Committee partners, I am delighted to welcome all delegations to Liverpool 2022.   “Liverpool is one of the Gymnastics strongholds in the country and has a longstanding relationship with British Gymnastics, staging the British Championships at M&S Bank Arena, nine times since 2011. This makes the 2022 World Championships a great way to celebrate over a decade of working together on world-class Gymnastics events, an opportunity to showcase the sport and the city not only to the spectators here, but to a global audience.  

“For the first time since 2019, we are particularly excited to be able to welcome back all the incredible fans from across the globe, who make the event so special for the gymnasts.”
Six 2021 World champions — Zhang Boheng (CHN, Men’s All-Around), Nicola Bartolini (ITA, Men’s Floor Exercise), Stephen Nedoroscik (USA, Pommel Horse), Carlos Yulo (PHI, Men’s Vault), Rebeca Andrade (BRA, Women’s Vault), and Wei Xiaoyuan (CHN, Uneven Bars) — will aim for more glory as they build toward Paris 2024.  

The top three teams in the men’s and women’s team final will qualify their nations to the team competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. For them, added pressure in Liverpool will mean less stress during the final Olympic team qualifier, set to take place at the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp (BEL) in a year’s time.   “No matter what happens, this will be a World Championships to remember,” Watanabe promised.