FIG Executive Committee: 2021 World Cups scheduled and more
The FIG Executive Committee (EC) met by videoconference on Thursday, September 17, to make several important decisions, including assigning the World Cups for 2021, medical guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic, solidarity fund grants, and more.
Keep reading for the EC’s release and our breakdown of any particularly notable decisions.
Official news from the Executive Committee – September 2020
The Executive Committee (EC) met by videoconference on 17 September. Here are the main decisions and information that came out of this meeting:
Solidarity Fund
The FIG office has received 24 requests from 21 national federations for special financial aid following the setting up of a solidarity fund to help athletes affected by the pandemic and federations severely hit by the economic repercussions of the health crisis. The FIG Foundation for Solidarity, which administers this special fund, will soon remit grants to all applicants.
TAKEAWAYS: Based off the number of member federations and athletes, only 24 requests seems low, but it sounds like all requests will receive some sort of grant from the FIG solidarity fund, which is great news.
Athletes’ Licenses
Due to the cancellation or postponement of the large majority of the competitions scheduled for this year, the EC has decided that all athletes’ licenses created or renewed between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2020 will be automatically renewed for a further 12 months free of charge.
Medical Guidelines During the COVID-19 Pandemic
With the resumption of competition coming soon, the EC has approved the Medical Guidelines for FIG Competitions and Events During the COVID-19 Pandemic. They are aimed at providing all stakeholders of the FIG, especially the Local Organizing Committees, with medical considerations and risk‑mitigation protocols to ensure that athletes and their entourages can take part in Gymnastics events within a safe and secure environment.
TAKEAWAYS: This is a necessary risk-management step by the FIG to keep all parties safe when FIG competitions resume in the coming months. Said guidelines have yet to be published to the FIG website, but it will be interesting to see what the federation has come up with. These guidelines will almost certainly be used as a resource by individual country federations.
Anti-Doping Rules
The EC has approved the updated FIG Anti-Doping Rules, which comply with the new requirements of the 2021 World Anti-Doping Code. The EC has also approved a significant change in the results‑management process. Starting from 2021, results management will be delegated to the Court of Arbitration for Sport Anti-Doping Division, instead of the Gymnastics Ethics Foundation. The updated Anti-Doping Rules will take effect on 1 January 2021.
2021 World Cups and World Challenge Cups
The EC has assigned the World Cups for 2021. Please click here to find a table recapitulating all the events scheduled for next year.
TAKEAWAYS: The World Cup lineup for 2021 is predominantly a list of rescheduled 2020 meets that were canceled because of COVID.
It’s important to note that there will be no American Cup this year for a couple of reasons: (1) the 2020 American Cup results will stand and count for the All-Around World Cup portion of Olympic qualifying, and (2) there have been rumors that the 2020 edition of the meet was the last and it has been canceled altogether moving forward. This has not been confirmed, but Gymnastics Now did reach out to USA Gymnastics in the spring to inquire about the status of the meet. We received no response.
Other items to note: While the remaining three All-Around World Cups (Stuttgart, Birmingham, and Tokyo) were expected to take place in the March-April timeframe. In actuality, while the Stuttgart and Birmingham meets are set to take place, tentatively, on back-to-back weekends in late March, it looks like the Tokyo World Cup will happen in early May. This differs from USAG’s 2021 tentative calendar for the women, which had the Tokyo meet happening the first weekend in April, immediately following Birmingham. Based on that tentative calendar, and the request for proposal (RFP) bid information document, the 2021 Pan American Championships are also set to be held the same weekend as the Tokyo World Cup.
For the Apparatus World Cup schedule, Cottbus replaces Melbourne as the first meet of the series. Only the Doha meet is a “postponed” event from 2020. As such, it will count as the final event of the 2018-2020 series and will be the only Apparatus World Cup in 2021 that acts as a qualifier for the Tokyo Games. The last 2020 Apparatus World Cup that actually took place was the Baku meet, but it was canceled before finals, with the results of qualifications counting toward Olympic qualification standings.
Secretary General’s Term of Office
Following the proposal of FIG President Morinari Watanabe, the EC has approved the extension by one year, until the 31 December 2021, of the current term of office of Nicolas Buompane as FIG Secretary General.
FIG Commissions
The EC has been informed that upon the Presidential Commission’s decision, the terms of office for all FIG Commissions have been extended for a further year, until the end of 2021.
