The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the German Gymnastics Federation (DTB) signed a contract Sunday officially attributing the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships to the city of Stuttgart (GER).
To be held less than a year before the 2020 Olympic Games, these World Championships, scheduled to take place from October 4 to 13, will be especially important because they will serve as a major Olympic qualification event for the Tokyo Games.
FIG President Bruno Grandi (ITA) and DTB President Rainer Brechtken (GER) took advantage of the 2015 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart this week to sign the contract, which follows a vote in favor of the German bid to host the Championships during the FIG Council last May.
"This is the third time that we are allocating Stuttgart the organisation of the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. After the success of the 2007 edition, Stuttgart was an obvious choice: it is a city with high-quality infrastructures and has proven extremely capable of putting on first-rate sports events, as we've seen demonstrated again this week," Grandi said.
"With the German Federation as our partner, we know that our highlight competitions are in good hands," he added.
"We're looking forward to organising the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. We wanted to host these Worlds because of their importance to Gymnastics, the athletes and our federation," remarked Brechtken. "We have already successfully hosted the World Championships in 2007, the year before an Olympic Games, which had a durable impact."
Upcoming editions of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships will be held in Glasgow (GBR) from October 23-November 1, 2015; in Montreal (CAN) from September 27-October 9, 2017; and in Doha (QAT) from October 25-November 3, 2018.
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only