★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★
★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★
≡ FEDERATIONS HAVE LIMITS ≡
World Gymnastics ended its restrictions on Russian and Belarusian athletes on 18 May, ending any ban on participation in international events.
But the federation acknowledged Monday that its stance doesn’t mean much to countries – notably in Europe – who have no interest in having Russian or Belarusian participation so long as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues.
So on Monday, World Gymnastics posted a statement that included:
“[T]he Executive Committee acknowledges the concerns that the immediate implementation of this decision may have raised, particularly in relation to potential government restrictions over which World Gymnastics has no control. As a result, the situation was reassessed during the Executive Committee meeting held from 22 to 24 July 2026.
“While the Executive Committee is not reconsidering its decision, it has recognised that a degree of flexibility may be required, until further notice, for events allocated before the May 2026 decision where binding local restrictions prevent the full implementation of the standard World Gymnastics framework.
“Accordingly, the Executive Committee has confirmed that, in principle, all Russian and Belarusian athletes should be granted full representation at all World Gymnastics-sanctioned events. However, exceptions may be considered for events allocated before the May 2026 decision on a case-by-case basis, where applicable decisions or restrictions imposed by local authorities prevent the implementation of this framework.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the FIG Ad Hoc Rules will not be reinstated.
“Should such circumstances arise, World Gymnastics will liaise directly with the relevant Member Federations and event organisers to ensure an appropriate and consistent approach.”
This is reality, which may be related to the upcoming European Artistic Championships in Zagreb (CRO) from 13-23 August, with a meeting of European Gymnastics on the matter scheduled for 28 July. Croatia is one of 37 nations which signed a March 2026 declaration supporting sports sanctions against Russia and Belarus.
World Gymnastics learned this lesson the hard way in 2025 as Indonesia, host of the World Artistic Championships in Jakarta, refused – at the 11th hour – to allow Israeli athletes to enter the country, after assuring the federation that “everyone” was welcome.
Indonesia has had a long history of barring Israeli athletes from competitions and forced the cancellation of the 2023 ANOC World Beach Games and move of the 2023 FIFA men’s U-20 World Cup to Argentina, specifically because of its refusal to allow Israeli participation.
World Gymnastics did nothing, despite its own rules stating an event so affected must be cancelled. Secretary General Nicolas Buompane (SUI) stunningly said in a news conference that the federation did not see this coming:
“When it comes to it, it was previsible not that much in our sense.
“Okay, we know that there is no relationship if I may say so between both countries. But at the same time when the bid has been allocated to Indonesia, we receive a confirmation from the government and this is part of the bidding process mentioning that all participants will be granted with a visa and it was the case until the 9th of October.
“Everybody got their visa and suddenly because of these threats [of riots if Israel participated] and all this they had to change their mind for security reason.”
Confronted with the federation’s rules, he explained:
“Well, indeed, but as I said, we are focusing on this specific article. We would have loved to be able to respect it. But then you have other articles which speak also about security – force majeure – impossibility to cancel or to relocate at such a short notice.
“So that has to be taken into consideration. So what should we do? If we just take into account the article you just mentioned, we should tell them, you know, guys go home. Go home. So is that the answer to such a question? You know, we have been talking about this with our politicians, with many stakeholders. I will not mention all of them because the list would be too long, but at the end of the day, the only way was just to go for it.
“So violation in a way, but we have a defense on that too, because once again you cannot just extract one article which is the one everybody’s pointing out at in this moment in time. There are others that will help us to defend ourselves because once again it’s not our decision, and we would love – contrary to that decision – to have everybody here on site, but again not possible as of today.”
In a possibly not unrelated development, Buompane, who has been Secretary General since 2019, announced he will leave at the end of 2026 “to pursue a new direction in his professional career.”
Observed: World Gymnastics is one of the oddest federations in the Olympic world. It receives a top-tier – with athletics and aquatics – payment from the International Olympic Committee as a share of Olympic television rights, has significant financial reserves … and pays no prize money for any of its competitions.
Its performance related to Israel in 2025 was abysmal and angered the IOC, which has taken no formal action against the federation so far.
In contrast, European Gymnastics (actually the Croatian federation) is paying first-time prize money of €150,000 total for its championships of €3,000-2,000-1,500-1,000-800-700-600-400 for places 1-8 in the All-Around and apparatus finals. It’s not a lot, but it’s a start.
¶
★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.
For our updated, 681-event International Sports Calendar for 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!
