European Gymnastics has announced the new dates for both MAG and WAG 2020 European Championships. The competitions were originally supposed to be held at the end of April in Paris (for WAG) and at the end of May in Baku (for MAG). Both ended up postponed until further notice due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, the French gymnastics federation pulled out of hosting the WAG Euros at a later date. As a result, both championships are now scheduled for December of 2020 and will take place in Baku.
The MAG European Championships will be held on December 9-13 and the WAG European Championships will follow them on December 17-20. The federation opted to keep the format meaning that there will be both senior and junior competitions. At the time, the 2020 Euros are still an Olympic qualifier according to the FIG Olympic qualification rules. Thus, gymnasts will have to be ready to fight for an Olympic spot in the all-around competition.
Of course, with the situation changing daily, it is not clear whether the competition will actually take place (the Tokyo Olympics might still be in jeopardy as well). Farid Gaibov, the president of European Gymnastics, said:
“These decisions were taken with the current information available from our National Federations and the situation in Europe as it is now. At the moment, we think that it is possible to organise these events in autumn. However, European Gymnastics will continue to evaluate the situation during the next months. Should the situation at a later date not be considered safe enough anymore, we will react accordingly. The health of the gymnasts, coaches, spectators remains our main concern.”
Currently, some of the European countries are starting to open up and even preparing to welcome tourists. Others are still dealing with a large number of active cases or experiencing a resurgence. Most national-team-level European gymnasts have only recently been able to return to training and for some, it requires entering a strict lockdown at their training centers. It is also not clear if there will be any competitions leading up to the European Championships.
