Press release

said SmartScoring’s CEO Emin Mukhtarov who -earlier this week- listened carefully to all the remarks of the UEG’s TC Presidents during the discussions and workshops, in order to fully understand the needs of each discipline.

UEG President Georges Guelzec has also expressed his confidence in the successful cooperation with this ambitious Azerbaijani company:

Preview of the 11th TeamGym European Championships, held in Maribor (SLO) from 12 to 15 October 2016

At the last TeamGym Europeans, in Reykjavik (ISL) in 2014, the Danish delegation impressively clinched 5 European titles, leaving only the senior women’s title to Sweden. Can Denmark repeat this feat? They are certainly aiming for another spectacular performance but face tough competition in Maribor’s Lukna Sports Hall.

What is TeamGym?

This spectacular and fast-paced gymnastics discipline is UEG’s youngest discipline, which started in Scandinavia, but is quickly growing in popularity all over Europe, and outside, with teams competing in the USA and Australia as well. TeamGym is a competition for teams, which must present performances on floor, trampet and tumbling. All three disciplines provide great entertainment and a spectacle for both participants and spectators. The European Championships are the bi-annual pinnacle of the sport, the highest level of international competitions!

Who to watch?

Many big names are scheduled to compete in Maribor! Most notably, Jacob Melin from Sweden, who has announced this will be his last competition so he’ll be looking to end in style. From the 2014 All Star team known names like Kristoffer Hayes (DEN), Hema Gaur-Sharma (GBR), Lucas Bodin (SWE) and Kolbrun Tholl Thorradottir (ISL) have arrived in Maribor. However, as the name implies, TeamGym is a team sport! Every athlete contributes to the team score and the better they work together, the better their performance will be. Sweden, Denmark and Iceland are the biggest powerhouses, but don’t count out Norway, Finland, France and Great Britain. For the first time ever, Great Britain sends teams in all categories, and we have teams fromthe host nation Slovenia on the roster for the first time too.

Competition format

All teams compete on three events: Floor, Tumbling and Trampet. The combined score determines the finalists, the top 6 advance to the final. In the final scores start from zero. The team with the highest combined score becomes European Champion!

Teams will compete in 5 categories: junior women’s and mixed team, senior women’s, men’s and mixed team. For the junior men’s teams there will not be an official European champion as not enough teams registered.

Schedule

All Star team

At the end of the competition the 2016 All Star team will be selected, based on the individual performance of the athletes. The top two men and women on floor, tumbling and trampet make this prestigious team. This selection includes gymnasts from the combined junior and senior competitions and will be announced during the Farewell dinner. This announcement will be shown live on UEG’s Facebook page.

How to follow?

For the first time ever, UEG is providing a livestream of the entire competition! This can be watched live and in replay on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqB9xgf9RpD96ci4RuFEKzQ. The junior and senior finals will be broadcasted live on Icelandic TV and the senior finals in Sweden and Denmark. For this reason the livestream will be geoblocked in those countries during the finals.

As usual UEG will provide start lists, results, interviews, quotes and competition reports on its website and social media. Results of past championships are available on our website.

Official hashtag of the event: #TeamGym2016

Follow us on:

Preview of the 5th Golden Age Gym Festival in Portoroz

What is the Golden Age Gym Festival?

This Gymnastics Festival of movement and joie de vivre informs the 50+ generation of the 50 affiliated member Federations of the European Union of Gymnastics (UEG) about the various forms of movement. The focus is on health, movement and enjoying yourself. The UEG first organised the official Golden Age Gym Festival in 2008 in Maspalomas on Spain’s Canary Islands, after a successful test event in 2005. Since then, Golden Age Gym Festival has become a steady fixture in our calendar, held every two years.

In 2016, more than 1800 gymnastics enthusiasts from 18 countries all over Europe, will enjoy the Slovenian hospitality in the Piran municipality, making this the most successful edition so far!

Previous editions:

The next edition will be in September 2018, in Pesaro, Italy!

Schedule

The Festival starts with a parade followed by the Opening Ceremony. Daily, the participants are invited to high-level workshops and get to perform in the city under the joyful watch of other participants, supporters and locals. Each night a theme-party is organised as well. Highlights of course are the Gala on Thursday and the closing ceremony on Friday.

Flash Mob

The LOC prepared a choreography for the GAGF 2016 Flash Mob. This will be danced by all participants together during the Golden Age Parade. The Flash Mob was choreographed by Azra Selimanović from Libero Dance Center to a song named “Only Love” from 2002 Slovenian Eurovision contestants Sestre. A song from Eurovision Song Contest was chosen because this year Eurovision celebrates 60 year anniversary. You can find a video with step by step choreography on the GAGF 2016 website.

http://www.goldenage2016.com/2016/09/07/gagf-2016-flash-mob/

How to follow the action?

As usual UEG will provide photos, videos and interviews on its website and social media.

Find all info concerning #GAGF2016 on our event page: http://www.ueg.org/en/event/goldenAgeGym.html. The local website is http://www.goldenage2016.com/.

The European Sports Federation members of the European Championships Board are pleased to announce the start of the host venue selection process for the 2022 edition of the multi-sport event.

The European Championships is a major new multi-sport event every four years, which aggregates the existing senior continental championships of Athletics (European Athletics), Aquatics (LEN), Cycling (UEC), Gymnastics (UEG), Rowing (FISA), Triathlon (ETU), with a new Golf Team Championships (ET & LET), unified under a common brand.

The event will bring together Europe’s very best athletes in an exciting new format with the full support of Europe’s free-to-air broadcasters. The first edition will be staged from 1-12^th August 2018, co-hosted by Glasgow and Berlin, and the second edition is planned for summer 2022.

The first step in the bidding process for 2022 is the distribution of the official Bid Information Document to interested parties, with a preliminary questionnaire to be submitted by the end of 2016. The participating European Sports Federations will announce the 2022 hosts in November 2017.

The European Championships Board has expressed its preference for all events to be staged in one city or region in a window between late July and August 2022.

The key highlights of the European Championships 2022 for a host city/region are:

• The opportunity to host 7 European championships with 13 disciplines across 12 days: Athletics (including road events), Aquatics (Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming and Open Water), Cycling (Track, Road/time trial, BMX, Cross Country Mountain Bike), Artistic Gymnastics, Golf, Rowing and Triathlon.
• Over 4,500 competitors contesting over 170 gold medals.
• A projected 250 hours of host broadcaster coverage showcasing the city’s sports venues, landmarks and tourist destinations.
• An anticipated 2,700 hours of television coverage broadcast on free-to-air public networks.
• An estimated cumulative TV audience of over 1 billion with many more opportunities to access content across digital and radio platforms.
• Millions of fans engaged on the road to 2022 across multiple social media and digital platforms.
• Approximately 700,000 spectators will have the chance to see the Championships in stadia, competition halls and at road and open water events.
• Attention from all the major media outlets with 3,500 media professionals expected to attend.
• A platform for a creative and far-reaching mass participation programme across all sports.
• Public, commercial partnership, educational, technology, cultural, sporting and economic benefits for the host city, region and nation, with strategic opportunities to utilise the European Championships in city regeneration and development programmes.

European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen, co-chair of the 2018 European Championships Board, said:

Fellow co-chair Paolo Barelli, President of the Ligue Européenne de Natation (European Aquatics), said:

Colin Hartley, Glasgow 2018 Championships Director, said:

The European Championships Board requests that parties interested in staging the 2022 European Championships email EC2022@europeanchampionships.com to receive hosting information.

European Championships Management (ECM) is co-ordinating the selection process for the 2022 European Championships on behalf of the European Federations.

For media enquiries, please contact European Athletics Head of Communications and European Championships Strategic Communications Working Group Chairman James Mulligan at +41 79 694 48 29, james.mulligan@european-athletics.org

European Week of Sport 2016

After enjoying a very successful first edition in 2015, the 2016 European Week of Sport kicked off last Saturday in Kosice (SVK). The aim continues to be promoting participation in sport and physical activity and raising awareness about their benefits. A truly European event, with both centralised events and activities, and national ones held across EU countries, it targets people of all ages, backgrounds and fitness levels.

UEG’s ‘1000 Cities Gymnastics Flash Mob’ all over Europe on Saturday 17^th September at 12:00 CET

On Saturday 17 September 2016 at 12:00 CET gymnasts all over Europe will perform UEG’s FlashMob to show their love for gymnastics! Guy Maeder (SUI) choreographed it, here is the link:

Want to participate? Let us know by sending an e-mail to tgerets@ueg.org. Thanks!

UEG organises a Clip contest: send a video of maximum 1’30’’ of you and your gym friends training or performing the Flash Mob in the gym, outside or in a very special place to 1000citiesflashmob@gmail.com and this will be published on our Youtube and Facebook pages. The most original video will win a prize!

Last year the ladies at Sports Club Gaudium NS+ won. Here’s their video:

Let's get 1000 cities together!

Glasgow have pledged to take the European Gymnastics Championships to the next level as the city signed the formal agreement to stage the event as part of the inaugural 2018 European Championships.

The Host City Agreement (HCA) with the European Union of Gymnastics (UEG) guarantees to deliver an event that elevates the status of European gymnasts when they come to the city in August 2018 to take part in the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

The HCA was signed at a UEG Executive Committee meeting in Lausanne last weekend and reaffirms all partners’ commitment to delivering a world-class event in 2018. It details all aspects of the delivery of the 33^rd Men’s and 32^nd Women’s European Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

The events will be staged at the £130million SSE Hydro – the same venue that hosted the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and the gymnastics competitions at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Glasgow has a longstanding relationship with gymnastics having hosted its first Grand Prix event in 1997 at the famous Kelvin Hall International Sports Arena. Last year the city hosted a World Gymnastics Championships that was credited with setting a new standard for the sport. Around 80,000 spectators watched the event, which attracted a record 594 gymnasts from 87 nations. 

Georges Guelzec, President of the UEG, said:

Glasgow 2018 Championships Director, Colin Hartley, said:

The European Championships is being staged for the first time in 2018 in a partnership between the Host Cities of Glasgow and Berlin. This sporting partnership will create a new event on the world stage every four years elevating the status of European Champions and attracting a potential television audience of 1.03 billion with a wider audience via digital platforms.

As part of the inaugural European Championships around 3,025 athletes will visit Scotland for six events (aquatics, cycling, golf, gymnastics, rowing and triathlon) while a further 1,500 athletes will compete in Berlin as part of the European Athletics Championships.

The event will build on Glasgow and Scotland’s track record of hosting major international events including the 2014 Commonwealth Games, 2014 Ryder Cup and 2015 World Gymnastics Championships.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

John Egan, Glasgow 2018, 0141 287 3565 / 07445 293 488 john.egan@glasgow.gov.uk   

Tina Gerets, UEG, +41791027903, tgerets@UEG.org

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

1. The 2018 European Championships will be staged by the European Federations and the Host Cities of Glasgow and Berlin.

2. The Glasgow 2018 event will be held between 1st and 12th August and the European Athletics Championships will be between 7th and 12th August in Berlin.

3. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the umbrella body for Europe free-to-air channels, will be the broadcast partner for the Championships. There is a potential television audience of around 1.03 billion for the event with many more viewers across multiple digital platforms.

4. Around 3025 athletes will travel to Scotland as part of a total delegation of around 8500 including officials, media and others. A further 1500 athletes will compete in Berlin.

5. The European Aquatic Championships will take place at Glasgow's Tollcross International Swimming Centre, with diving and synchronised swimming taking place at Edinburgh's Royal Commonwealth Pool and open water swimming being staged at Loch Lomond.

6. Four European Cycling Championships will be staged in Glasgow. Track, Road, Mountain Bike and BMX will attract 650 of Europe’s top names to the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, the Cathkin Braes Mountain Bike Trails, the streets of Glasgow and a new world championship and Olympic standard BMX track to be built in the Knightswood area of the city.

7. The European Golf Team Championships will take place at the Gleneagles PGA Centenary Course in Perth & Kinross.

8. The European Artistic Gymnastics Men’s and Women’s Championships will be staged at The SSE Hydro, the venue for the 2015 FIG World Gymnastics Championships.

9. The European Championships for both Rowing and Triathlon will both be staged at Strathclyde Country Park in North Lanarkshire.

10. Berlin's Olympic Stadium will be the venue for the European Athletics Championships with the road races and race walking events held throughout the city.

The European Union of Gymnastics (UEG) and its President, the Frenchman Georges Guelzec, express their compassion and solidarity with the victims of attacks in Paris on 13 November.

he said, on behalf of the Union authorities and millions of affiliated gymnasts on the European Continent.

These bombings are an attack against human rights and against all the values ​​upheld by sport in general and particularly by gymnastics, the European gymnasts express their unreserved support to victims.

From the floor of the upcoming Statutory Congress of the UEG, which will be held next week in Bratislava (SVK), the President will invite delegates from the 50 member federations to promote forcefully the message of peace and tolerance that gymnastics has never ceased to promote through its activities.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the European Union of Gymnastics (UEG) have reached a 4 year agreement for exclusive worldwide media rights on all platforms (radio, television and digital) as well as a services partnership. It prolongs the current UEG/EBU agreement, for the period 2017-2020 covering 10 championships and including all Men's and Women's European Artistic and Rhythmic Championships.

This deal takes the organisations’ 30-year relationship to a new level, co-operating on the presentation of European Gymnastics to the future audiences in a multi-platform approach.

The UEG’s 2018 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships will also be integrated in the European Sports Championships, joining the prestigious line up of leading sports who will stage their European Championships together in 2018 for the first time in their history, through an exclusive agreement with the EBU.

Full service!

Eurovision, the EBU’s operational arm, will be the UEG's exclusive service provider for worldwide distribution as well as the main sponsor for all the UEG European Championships.

This agreement also includes the live broadband streaming of all European Artistic and Rhythmic Championships. This initiative is part of the cooperation with the UEG to further develop its digital strategy and increase the visibility of Gymnastics, one of the Top 3 of the most viewed disciplines of the Olympic programme.   

A long term vision.

The EBU and the UEG express their will through this agreement to follow the evolution of the expectations expressed by the public and give the corresponding gymnastics formats. This vision in the long run will meet these expectations and to give this sport the content expected by viewers, listeners and the growing number of Internet users.

EBU Director Sports & Business Stefan Kürten said:

EBU Head of Sports Rights - Indoor Sports, Ingolfur Hannesson, added:

For his part, the President of the UEG, the Frenchman Georges Guelzec, commented the agreement as follows:

Note to editors:

About the EBU

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is the world’s leading alliance of public service media (PSM). We serve 73 Active Members in 56 countries that run over 780 TV and 1040 radio services and broadcast in 123 languages to a potential audience of 1.03 billion people. An additional 21 Associate Members operate in Asia, Africa and the Americas. The EBU operates EUROVISION and EURORADIO.

EBU Media contact

Dave Goodman

Communications Officer

+41 79 634 9097

About the UEG.

The European Union of Gymnastics (UEG) is a nonprofit association, according to the Swiss law. It is the exclusive governing body for gymnastics in Europe. Established in 1982, the UEG is one of the four continental gymnastics unions of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).

The UEG governs eight disciplines: Gymnastics for All, Men's Artistic, Women's Artistic, Rhythmic, Trampoline, Aerobic, Acrobatic Gymnastics and TeamGym. The UEG counts 48 national member federations, more than a third of the FIG total affiliated.

The UEG has its international seat in Lausanne (SUI), the home city of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and boasts a 6-persons staff.

UEG Media contact

Tina Gerets

Head of Media

tgerets@ueg.org

The organisers of the European Sports Championships (ESC) confirmed the participation of artistic gymnastics on the program of the first edition of this multi-sport event, that will take place in August 2018, simultaneously in Glasgow (GBR) and Berlin (GER).

Already designated in the most important top three sports of the Olympic program and after its success in the recent European Championships in Montpellier (FRA), gymnastics strengthens its position in European sports environment  and confirms the high degree of popularity among a wide audience.

Currently in Glasgow, which is hosting the 46th World Championships in Artistic Gymnastics, the President of the European Union of Gymnastics (UEG), the Frenchman Georges Guelzec welcomed this decision.

The UEG has 48 national member federations, a gymnastics population estimated at some 60 million of supporters distributed thousands of clubs in Europe. In 2016 and 2017, the UEG will organize its artistic gymnastics European championships respectively in Bern (SUI) and Bucharest (ROU). In 2018, after the 2015 Worlds, Glasgow and its prestigious SSE Hydro Site will return with gymnastics competitions, hosting this first edition of the European Sports Championships.