The European Union of Gymnastics (UEG) has published the qualification procedure for the 2nd European Games that will take place in Minsk in 2019.
At the inaugural games in Baku, the format was a bit different from the competitions like Euros or Worlds with only 3 gymnasts per team. For the 2019 Games, the number of gymnasts across all disciplines was drastically cut and that likely was the reason why we will not see a team competition. In 2015, 180 spots were allocated to artistic gymnastics, while this year it’s only 90: 42 women and 48 men (in 2015, the numbers were 90 WAG and 90 MAG).
Gymnasts will be able to qualify to the European Games through 2018 and 2019 European Championships (the process is the same for both WAG and MAG):
- top six teams at the 2018 Euros receive two non-nominative spots
- top 18 gymnasts at the 2019 Euros who didn’t qualify with a team will get a nominative spot
- top 3 athletes in each event final at the 2019 Euros will get a nominative spot
Each country can only receive three spots for altogether – so, a country like Russia would likely get 2 non-nominative spots through the team competition and one nominative spot through the event finals (if they have several athletes in the top-3, they get to choose which athlete they will take to the Games).
The 2019 European Championships will also not feature a team competition as Euros alternate between team years and individual (all-around final) years.
