The President's Note N° 12 2019

Dear members of the Gymnastics family!  

The previous month can be considered as the month of important meetings and interesting deliberations. It started with the Executive Committee (EC) Meeting of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) which was held in Lausanne (SUI) on 5 and 6 November which completed its work for this year. Following the discussions, we approved the updated General Judges’ Rules bringing together the Rules and requirements concerning all gymnastics disciplines, the duration of the World Championships in Rhythmic Gymnastics (RG) and Artistic Gymnastics (AG), the organisation of RG Symposium for coaches and judges in Moscow (RUS) early next year etc.  

Following the EC Meeting of the highest governing body in global gymnastics, we had the President’s Board and EC meetings on our continental level one day prior to the start of the biennial 28^th Congress held in Sofia (BUL) on November 15 & 16. The Bulgarian Gymnastics Federation made every effort to offer the most favourable conditions for our General Assembly and I am very grateful to them.  

Yes, the General Assembly was the main event for our European gymnastics family last month and it was the first Congress for me as a president. In my report, I tried to outline all the work we carried out together since I could not do anything alone. We have a big team consisting of our EC members, Technical Committees, office and we all work together. During this period, we always felt the support of all our member Federations. We cannot say that we have solved all the existing problems within these 2 years, but, I think, we carried out a sufficiently good work already mentioned in the report. Therefore, I would like to emphasise the main points we experienced together during the General Assembly.

Delegates from 47 UEG affiliated Federations (out of 50) took part. For a non-electoral Congress, this is a very good number. This means that all the federations are active and wish to work together. There was no difference in morning and evening sessions as the same enthusiastic atmosphere dominated. We all could see how the people were united with their thoughts and it found its reflection in the voting. The amendments made to the Statutes, change of the name of UEG into European Gymnastics and all other issues, put forward for voting, were almost approved unanimously without any negative remarks. It shows that we all think in the same way and this is the very solid step towards the unity within the European Gymnastics family.

And our family, as usual, was supported by its official partners, the main partners Eurovision & SmartScoring, as well as the apparatus suppliers GYMNOVA, SPIETH Gymnastics, Janssen-Fritsen and EUROTRAMP.

It was very pleasant to see FIG Vice-President Ms. Nellie Kim, FIG EC Member Mr. Mouhammed Youssef Al-Tabbaa, President of the Pan American Gymnastics Union (PAGU) Ms. Naomi Chieko Valenzo Aoki and President of the Chinese Gymnastics Association Mr. Zhongyi Miao among our esteemed guests.

Interesting deliberations taken place at the panel discussions within the framework of the Congress, where more guests took part in, helping us to reveal some important points for the further development of gymnastics. We are all aware that one of our important strategical tasks is to get more visibility on TV for the people to know more about us. Therefore, we invited the representative of our main partner – the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to discuss the problems we had on this field. Mr. Glen Killane, EBU Deputy Director of Sports made a wonderful presentation and emphasised a very positive impact of multi-sport events in getting visibility.

Very interesting presentation was made by Sports Director of the European Olympic Committee Mr. Peter Brüll after which the floor was given to our guest from European Athletics Mr. Marcel Wakim who is the Head of New Product Development. Mr. Wakim’s presentation enabled us to see and compare what we had in common with athletics and what could be integrated from this sport which we do not have but would be useful to apply.

After the presentation by acting Secretary General of Swedish Gymnastics Federation Pia Josephson, there were discussions on the problems we encounter when we organise national events. Here we could see that we mainly had the same difficulties common for National Federations.

FIG Artistic Gymnastics TC Member Jeff Thomson’s presentation, dedicated to the physical literacy made us experience some kind of burst of energy. Everybody was also impressed by presentations made by the Organisers of the future UEG events.

I would like to express my gratitude to all our guests and people who made the presentations and shared their opinions.

Our panel discussions showed once again that we are all aware of the problems, difficulties and concerns we had. But, none of us know an immediate exact solution to them for the time being. This is normal, as we need to investigate and arrive at a decision together. Therefore, the discussions of this kind are very important. In the course of the discussions different ideas appear, and, sometimes, the simplest ideas become the most successful ones. We often complain about the problems or certain circumstances but if they are not a part of global discussions, they are useless. But such panel discussions allow us openly to discuss them, to look to the face of truth, to underline all the advantages and disadvantages by accurately defining what is right and wrong. Sometimes, we consider the problem from one side, but, during the discussions of this kind, we reveal other sides for ourselves and they give us an opportunity to learn more from each other. I was pleased that we had such deliberations during the Congress and I wish the Federations to be active and send their ideas not only before these events but every time they appear. We are a family and each family member should be heard before any decision is taken. We are proud of being a European Gymnastics which is our honour and face and which we need to modernise to keep up with the pace of the world of innovations we live in. There is always some fear inside us when we are about to change something, even, we are sure about. This is normal as we feel responsibility. But the main thing is to overcome this fear and go towards what we are confident about.

In the afternoon of the last day of the General Assembly, we also had an opportunity to discuss the future FIG Congress and the elections to be held in 2020. We familiarised ourselves with the candidates we have from our continent for the FIG EC and Technical Committees. I liked the way the people were active during the discussions of elections as well. We will continue to work in this direction and organise other meetings of this kind in order to make the correct choices and to assist our candidates. The FIG is the highest governing body issuing the rules and regulations concerning all the aspects of gymnastics events worldwide which is mostly followed by the continents. Therefore, the decisions taken at this level are very important for us and we need to have strong candidates from all the continents.

The development of global gymnastics and progress of separate gymnastics disciplines are not possible without the participation of the continental unions. For example, the number of countries that participated in the last European Championships in acrobatic gymnastics was 18 while this number was 19 at the last Worlds. It shows once again that the development of gymnastics disciplines should be through the continents, and we are ready to help other continents with it. We should all be together as this is our sport discipline, and, as the strongest continent we are ready to assist for the further progress of gymnastics. We cannot develop European Gymnastics without participation of its affiliated Federations like the National Federations cannot progress without their National clubs. This is like a chain, and, in gymnastics, this chain finds its final point at its highest governing body – FIG.

November also witnessed the year’s last Olympic Games qualifying event, the 34^th FIG Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships. This time, we all gathered in the homeland of FIG President Mr. Morinari Watanabe - Tokyo (JPN / November 28 – December 1). The event was held at the venue, where the 2020 Olympic Games will be hosted. It was the first competition taking place at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre. The Japan Gymnastics Association did their best to organise the event at the highest level. I would like to emphasise sports presentation in gymnastics. Here, we have improvement with each event organised in gymnastics disciplines. There is already established some kind of tradition to have big monitors and present the competitors in the most favorable way. And there is such a tendency like every organiser wishes to introduce something new in the pursuit of modernity. This, naturally, draws the attention of our audience and brings more people to the spectators’ stands. Taking this opportunity, I would like to congratulate the European representatives with Olympic qualification. 3 out of 5 male gymnasts qualified for the Games were from Europe while this number was 3 out of 6 among female gymnasts. 12 out of 21 medals in all categories (Trampoline, Double Mini-Trampoline, Tumbling) both in men’s and women’s competitions went to Europe. And in the Mixed All-Around Team Ranking, the winner represented our continent again. I congratulate all the qualifiers, medallists, winners in Individual & Synchronised Trampoline, Tumbling and Double Mini-Trampoline. I am confident that the European athletes will take an advantage and more athletes will qualify through the World Cups next year.

Thus, influenced by enthusiastic deliberations at the Congress and successes of the European athletes at the year’s last Worlds, November was completed in a positive mood. This is good as we gained some energy for December.