Many sports have World Championships for the junior athletes, however, artistic gymnastics wasn’t one of those sports until now. Currently, juniors compete at some smaller meets international (like Gymnix or Junior Japan) and there are also continental championships and Youth Olympic Games. However, some continental championships take place only biannually (like European championships for the juniors) and the Youth Olympic Games allow only two gymnasts (one MAG, one WAG) per country to compete. Considering that some juniors overscore the senior gymnasts in their countries (like Emma Malabuyo, Gabby Perea and Maile O’Keefe did this year), junior Worlds can be an exciting competition. Andrei Rodionenko told the press t that the FIG decided to start conducting Worlds Championships for the junior gymnasts:
“For the first time, in this quad, there will be Junior World Championships, this is a final decision. The competition will take place in 2019, Hungary wants to host it. It hasn’t been decided how often the competition will happen, but it’s already clear it won’t be annual. FIG is taking a difficult step. It’s hard to say what will be the competition format, whether there will be a team competition or just the individual finals. The Americans are advocation for the team competition. We need to be cautious about it since very young athletes will be competing, who can’t withstand too heavy loads”.
