Gymnastics Organization Wants to Change Qualification Rules of Olympic

The International Federation of Gymnastics wants the participation of more countries to compete and promote second layer of tournaments. The body wants to change the Olympic qualification rules to meet this objective. The FIG will vote to reduce the size of team of artisitic gymnastics from 5 to 4 at the Tokyo Olympics. There were six members of a team at the 2008 Olympics. The governing body said 12 spaces for men and 12 for women would become available with this proposal complying with quota of 98 of IOC for each gender.

Event specialists of advanced countries could fill those spaces which could result in two more places and thus smaller nations were unable to qualify for the team. The 2012 London games witnessed 58 nations participating and the International Olympic Committee wants the participation of even more under its universality policy. FIG said that continental events and its World Cup series would be included under the proposed rules and smaller championships will thrive with this change.

FIG added results of several competitions will determine the qualification of gymnasts under the new system. World championships in the year before the Olympics and the subsequent test event in the host country are the stages for team qualification currently. Winning world medals and the rankings at the test event can help individual gymnasts to qualify.