The novel coronavirus continues disrupting gymnastics competition season. Today, just hours after the announcement of the Doha World Cup being postponed, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has announced that the Stuttgart World Cup, second in the All-Around WC Series is canceled. There were no announcements of countries withdrawing from the event prior to the cancelation, although Russia was considering it. FIG did not make an announcement regarding the DTB-Pokal Team Challenge that traditionally takes place alongside the Stuttgart World Cup but it’s safe to assume the team competition is canceled as well.
Cancellation of one of the four World Cups will not affect the Olympic qualification that much – the rules state that it is enough to hold three events in the series for the purposes of the qualification. However, if one more World Cup (either Birmingham or, more likely, Tokyo) is canceled, the spots (three for men, three for women) will go back in the pool and will be redistributed according to the results of the 2019 World Championships. At the moment, both Birmingham and Tokyo World Cups are still slated to happen.
