World Artistic Gymnastics Championships facts for kids

The Artistic Gymnastics World Championships are the world championships for artistic gymnastics governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG). The first edition of the championships was held in 1903, exclusively for male gymnasts. Since the tenth edition of the tournament, in 1934, women's events are held together with men's events.

The FIG was founded in 1881 and was originally entitled FEG (Fédération Européenne de Gymnastique), but changed its name in 1921, becoming the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG); this name change roughly correlates with the actual naming of the World Championships. Although the first such games were held in 1903, they were not initially entitled the 'World Championships'. The first competition ever actually referred to as a 'World Championships' was a competition held in 1931 that, while referred to in an official FIG publication as the "First Artistic Men's World Championships", often seems to go ignored by various authorities in the sport. The championships prior to the 1930s, beginning back in 1903, would eventually be recognized, retroactively, as the World Championships.

Although the FIG had changed its name from the FEG back in 1921, the true transcontinental nature of the sport would not start to change at the World Championship level until a substantially later time. Perhaps the first non-European delegation to participate at a World Championships was Mexico, which sent a men's team who travelled all the way to compete at the 1934 Worlds in Budapest, a trans-Atlantic endeavor they repeated at the 1948 London Summer Olympics - a rare non-European delegation appearance even 14 years later.

It was at those same 1934 World Championships in Budapest that there was finally the first-ever women's competition at a world championships, despite women having participated in various world championships since the first such international competition in 1903.

Perhaps the first African contingent was the Egyptian one which offered forth a full male team at the 1950 World Championships in Basel. By the time of these World Championships, a total of 60 male athletes from 6 countries and 53 female athletes from 7 countries comprised the competitive field. By the 2013 World Championships, the competition had grown to include 264 men from 71 countries and 134 women from 57 countries. As of 2023, over fifty editions of the championships have been staged, and over fifty countries have earned medals in artistic gymnastics events.

The most successful nation, both in gold medal results and total number of medals, is the former Soviet Union (not including medals from its successor states), and China is the second. The United States is the third most successful country in gold medal results while Japan is the third in total number of medals. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, the traditional powerhouses in men's and women's individual still had expressive results: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, China, United States, Japan, and Romania. The last two decades were marked by increasing results from two emerging powers: Great Britain and Brazil and at the same period a big decrease in results from Belarus, Romania and Ukraine. After a busy schedule and some tests which led to the holding of two separate world championships in 1994 (one for individual events and one for teams), it was decided that in each Olympic year the championship would not be held and that the edition held in the subsequent year of the Games, only the competition individual would be held. However, this cycle was broken in 2021,when the COVID-19 pandemic led to the 2020 Summer Olympics to be delayed by one year, the edition scheduled for that year was not cancelled. While the Games were held between July to August 2021, the World Championships was allocated to the end of the same year.

Editions

Year	Edition	Host City	Country	Events (men/women)	First in the Medal Table	Second in the Medal Table	Third in the Medal Table
1903	1	Antwerp	Belgium	6 / 0	France	Luxembourg	Netherlands
1905	2	Bordeaux	France	5 / 0	France	Netherlands	Belgium
1907	3	Prague	Austria-Hungary	5 / 0	Bohemia	France	Belgium
1909	4	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	5 / 0	France	Italy	Bohemia
1911	5	Turin	Italy	6 / 0	Bohemia	Italy	France
1913	6	Paris	France	6 / 0	Italy	France	Bohemia
1922	7	Ljubljana	Yugoslavia	6 / 0	Yugoslavia	Czechoslovakia	France
1926	8	Lyon	France	6 / 0	Czechoslovakia	Yugoslavia	France
1930	9	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	7 / 0	Yugoslavia	Czechoslovakia	Hungary
1931	Unnumbered†	Paris	France	6 / 0	N/A	N/A	N/A
1934	10	Budapest	Hungary	8 / 2	Switzerland	Czechoslovakia	Germany
1938	11	Prague	Czechoslovakia	8 / 6	Czechoslovakia	Switzerland	Yugoslavia
1950	12	Basel	Switzerland	8 / 6	Switzerland	Poland	Sweden
1954	13	Rome	Italy	8 / 6	Soviet Union	Japan	Czechoslovakia
1958	14	Moscow	Soviet Union	8 / 6	Soviet Union	Japan	Czechoslovakia
1962	15	Prague	Czechoslovakia	8 / 6	Soviet Union	Japan	Czechoslovakia
1966	16	Dortmund	West Germany	8 / 6	Soviet Union	Japan	Czechoslovakia
1970	17	Ljubljana	SFR Yugoslavia	8 / 6	Japan	Soviet Union	East Germany
1974	18	Varna	Bulgaria	8 / 6	Soviet Union	Japan	East Germany
1978	19	Strasbourg	France	8 / 6	Soviet Union	Japan	United States
1979	20	Fort Worth	United States	8 / 6	Soviet Union	United States	Romania
1981	21	Moscow	Soviet Union	8 / 6	Soviet Union	East Germany	China
1983	22	Budapest	Hungary	8 / 6	Soviet Union	China	Romania
1985	23	Montreal	Canada	8 / 6	Soviet Union	China	East Germany
1987	24	Rotterdam	Netherlands	8 / 6	Soviet Union	Romania	China
1989	25	Stuttgart	West Germany	8 / 6	Soviet Union	Romania	China
1991	26	Indianapolis	United States	8 / 6	Soviet Union	China	Romania
1992	27	Paris	France	6 / 4	CIS	China	United States
1993	28	Birmingham	Great Britain	7 / 5	Belarus	United States	Romania
1994	29	Brisbane	Australia	7 / 5	Belarus	Romania	China  United States
1994	30	Dortmund	Germany	1 / 1	China  Romania	N/A	Russia
1995	31	Sabae	Japan	8 / 6	China	Ukraine	Romania
1996	32	San Juan	Puerto Rico	6 / 4	Russia	Romania	Belarus
1997	33	Lausanne	Switzerland	8 / 6	Romania	Russia	China
1999	34	Tianjin	China	8 / 6	Russia	China	Romania
2001	35	Ghent	Belgium	8 / 6	Romania	Russia	Bulgaria
2002	36	Debrecen	Hungary	6 / 4	Romania	China	United States
2003	37	Anaheim	United States	8 / 6	China	United States	Japan
2005	38	Melbourne	Australia	7 / 5	United States	China	Slovenia
2006	39	Aarhus	Denmark	8 / 6	China	Romania	Australia
2007	40	Stuttgart	Germany	8 / 6	China	United States	Germany
2009	41	London	Great Britain	7 / 5	China	United States	Romania
2010	42	Rotterdam	Netherlands	8 / 6	China	Russia	United States
2011	43	Tokyo	Japan	8 / 6	China	United States	Russia
2013	44	Antwerp	Belgium	7 / 5	Japan	United States	China
2014	45	Nanning	China	8 / 6	United States	China	North Korea
2015	46	Glasgow	Great Britain	8 / 6	United States	Japan	Russia
2017	47	Montreal	Canada	7 / 5	China	Japan	Russia
2018	48	Doha	Qatar	8 / 6	United States	China	Russia
2019	49	Stuttgart	Germany	8 / 6	United States	Russia	Great Britain
2021	50	Kitakyushu	Japan	7 / 5	China	Japan	Italy
2022	51	Liverpool	Great Britain	8 / 6	United States	China	Japan
2023	52	Antwerp	Belgium	8 / 6	United States	Japan	China
2025	53	Jakarta	Indonesia	7 / 5	Future event
2026	54	Rotterdam	Netherlands	8 / 6	Future event
2027	55	Chengdu	China	8 / 6	Future event

† There seems to be a history of inconsistency from the FIG's publications regarding whether these 1931 games are considered to be a World Championships. About these games, it is written in a 100-year Anniversary publication from 1981, that Following "agreements, objections, and discussions" this manifestation was called "World Championships", however on the following page of that same publication, it is stated "Logically, the manifestations of the 50th anniversary of the FIG cannot be placed among the official competitions". Additionally, in a 125-year Anniversary Publication from 2006, it is said about these games "Premiers concours sous l’appellation Championnats du Monde de Gymnastique artistique masculine a Paris", yet they were referred to as "unofficial" and their results were omitted from the results section of that book. As it currently stands (as of as recently as 2021), about these games in 1931, the FIG states “1931 First Artistic Men's World Championships held in Paris.”

All-time medal table

Last updated after the 2023 World Championships.

Men's events

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	69	37	30	136
2	Soviet Union	61	46	31	138
3	Japan	50	56	61	167
4	France	25	29	20	74
5	Switzerland	19	15	14	48
6	Czechoslovakia	18	16	14	48
7	Yugoslavia	17	9	8	34
8	Italy	14	9	23	46
9	Russia	13	21	14	48
10	Romania	12	9	5	26
11	Belarus	12	7	11	30
12	United States	10	12	16	38
13	Bohemia	10	8	10	28
14	Hungary	9	10	5	24
15	Greece	7	3	2	12
16	Great Britain	6	10	6	22
17	Germany	6	9	12	27
18	East Germany	6	6	14	26
19	South Korea	6	2	3	11
20	North Korea	6	0	2	8
21	Netherlands	5	5	2	12
22	CIS	5	2	3	10
23	Ukraine	4	9	14	27
24	Bulgaria	4	6	11	21
25	Brazil	4	4	3	11
26	Slovenia	3	4	0	7
27	Finland	2	5	2	9
28	West Germany	2	5	1	8
29	Spain	2	3	1	6
30	Philippines	2	2	2	6
31	Turkey	2	1	0	3
32	Ireland	2	0	1	3
33	Croatia	1	3	1	5
34	Israel	1	2	3	6
35	Australia	1	2	2	5
	Poland	1	2	2	5
37	Luxembourg	1	0	4	5
38	Armenia	1	0	2	3
39	Kazakhstan	1	0	1	2
40	Belgium	0	4	4	8
41	Canada	0	3	4	7
42	Cuba	0	2	2	4
43	Chinese Taipei	0	2	1	3
	Latvia	0	2	1	3
45	Austria-Hungary	0	1	1	2
	Jordan	0	1	1	2
47	Mexico	0	1	0	1
48	Azerbaijan	0	0	1	1
	Puerto Rico	0	0	1	1
	Russian Gymnastics Federation	0	0	1	1
	Sweden	0	0	1	1
	Uzbekistan	0	0	1	1
–	Unattached athlete	0	0	1	1
Total		420	385	376	1181

Women's events

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	56	43	31	130
2	Soviet Union	50	40	28	118
3	Romania	36	36	37	109
4	China	23	23	18	64
5	Russia	23	22	22	67
6	Czechoslovakia	16	13	6	35
7	East Germany	11	7	15	33
8	Japan	5	3	11	19
9	Brazil	4	5	5	14
10	Great Britain	4	2	6	12
11	Poland	4	0	7	11
12	Ukraine	3	4	5	12
13	Sweden	3	1	1	5
14	Hungary	2	5	3	10
14	North Korea	2	3	1	6
16	Belgium	2	0	2	4
17	Belarus	2	0	0	2
18	Italy	1	3	6	10
19	Germany	1	2	4	7
20	Australia	1	2	2	5
	Uzbekistan	1	2	2	5
22	Austria	1	1	1	3
	Russian Gymnastics Federation	1	1	1	3
24	Bulgaria	1	0	2	3
25	Spain	1	0	1	2
26	Canada	0	4	2	6
27	Netherlands	0	3	1	4
28	Yugoslavia	0	2	0	2
29	France	0	1	7	8
30	CIS	0	1	2	3
31	Switzerland	0	1	1	2
32	Algeria	0	1	0	1
33	Cuba	0	0	1	1
	Mexico	0	0	1	1
	South Korea	0	0	1	1
	Vietnam	0	0	1	1
Total		254	231	234	719

Overall

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union	111	86	59	256
2	China	92	60	48	200
3	United States	66	55	47	168
4	Japan	55	59	72	186
5	Romania	48	45	42	135
6	Russia	36	43	36	115
7	Czechoslovakia	34	29	20	83
8	France	25	30	27	82
9	Switzerland	19	16	15	50
10	East Germany	17	13	29	59
11	Yugoslavia	17	11	8	36
12	Italy	15	12	29	56
13	Belarus	14	7	11	32
14	Hungary	11	15	8	34
15	Great Britain	10	12	12	34
16	Bohemia	10	8	10	28
17	Brazil	8	9	8	25
18	North Korea	8	3	3	14
19	Ukraine	7	13	19	39
20	Germany	7	11	16	34
21	Greece	7	3	2	12
22	South Korea	6	2	4	12
23	Netherlands	5	8	3	16
24	Bulgaria	5	6	13	24
25	CIS	5	3	5	13
26	Poland	5	2	9	16
27	Slovenia	3	4	0	7
28	Spain	3	3	2	8
29	Sweden	3	1	2	6
30	Finland	2	5	2	9
31	West Germany	2	5	1	8
32	Belgium	2	4	6	12
33	Australia	2	4	4	10
34	Philippines	2	2	2	6
35	Turkey	2	1	0	3
36	Ireland	2	0	1	3
37	Croatia	1	3	1	5
38	Israel	1	2	3	6
	Uzbekistan	1	2	3	6
40	Russian Gymnastics Federation	1	1	2	4
41	Austria	1	1	1	3
42	Luxembourg	1	0	4	5
43	Armenia	1	0	2	3
44	Kazakhstan	1	0	1	2
45	Canada	0	7	6	13
46	Cuba	0	2	3	5
47	Chinese Taipei	0	2	1	3
	Latvia	0	2	1	3
49	Austria-Hungary	0	1	1	2
	Jordan	0	1	1	2
	Mexico	0	1	1	2
52	Algeria	0	1	0	1
53	Azerbaijan	0	0	1	1
	Puerto Rico	0	0	1	1
	Vietnam	0	0	1	1
–	Unattached athlete	0	0	1	1
Totals (55 entries)		674	616	610	1,900

Statistics

Multiple gold medalists

Boldface denotes active artistic gymnasts and highest medal count among all artistic gymnasts (including those not included in these tables) per type.

Men

All events

Rank	Artistic gymnast	Country	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Vitaly Scherbo	Soviet Union  CIS  Belarus	1991	1996	12	7	4	23
2	Kōhei Uchimura	Japan	2009	2018	10	6	5	21
3	Joseph Martinez	France	1903	1909	10	1	–	11
4	Yuri Korolyov	Soviet Union	1981	1987	9	3	1	13
5	Dmitry Bilozerchev	Soviet Union	1983	1987	8	4	–	12
6	Li Xiaopeng	China	1997	2005	8	2	1	11
7	Marian Drăgulescu	Romania	2001	2015	8	2	–	10
8	Chen Yibing	China	2006	2011	8	–	–	8
9	Eizō Kenmotsu	Japan	1970	1979	7	5	3	15
10	Alexander Dityatin	Soviet Union	1978	1981	7	2	3	12
	Akinori Nakayama	Japan	1966	1970	7	2	3	12

Individual events

Rank	Artistic gymnast	Country	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Vitaly Scherbo	Soviet Union  CIS  Belarus	1991	1996	11	7	4	22
2	Kōhei Uchimura	Japan	2009	2018	9	3	4	16
3	Marian Drăgulescu	Romania	2001	2015	8	2	–	10
4	Dmitry Bilozerchev	Soviet Union	1983	1987	7	3	–	10
5	Joseph Martinez	France	1903	1909	7	1	–	8
6	Yuri Korolyov	Soviet Union	1981	1987	6	2	1	9
7	Eugen Mack	Switzerland	1934	1938	5	3	1	9
8	Alois Hudec *	Czechoslovakia	1931	1938	5	3	–	8
	Marco Torrès	France	1909	1913	5	3	–	8
10	Akinori Nakayama	Japan	1966	1970	5	2	3	10
	Alexei Nemov	Russia	1995	2003	5	2	3	10

Note

* Alois Hudec of Czechoslovakia won 3 individual gold medals at the commemorative competition which was held in Paris, France, in 1931 and referred to as the "First Artistic Men's World Championships". However, as stated before there has been a history of inconsistency from the FIG's publications as to the recognition of the official or unofficial status of this event. Without the medals he won at this competition, Hudec would not occupy a place on this Top 10 list.

Women

All events

Rank	Artistic gymnast	Country	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Simone Biles	United States	2013	2023	23	4	3	30
2	Svetlana Khorkina	Russia	1994	2003	9	8	3	20
3	Gina Gogean	Romania	1993	1997	9	2	4	15
4	Larisa Latynina (Diriy)	Soviet Union	1954	1966	9	4	1	14
5	Ludmilla Tourischeva	Soviet Union	1970	1974	7	2	2	11
6	Daniela Silivaș	Romania	1985	1989	7	2	1	10
7	Simona Amânar	Romania	1994	1999	6	4	–	10
8	Nellie Kim	Soviet Union	1974	1979	5	4	2	11
	Yelena Shushunova	Soviet Union	1985	1987	5	4	2	11
10	Lavinia Miloșovici	Romania	1991	1996	5	3	5	13

Individual events

Rank	Artistic gymnast	Country	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Simone Biles	United States	2013	2023	18	4	3	25
2	Svetlana Khorkina	Russia	1994	2003	9	5	2	16
3	Gina Gogean	Romania	1993	1997	6	2	4	12
4	Larisa Latynina	Soviet Union	1958	1962	6	3	1	10
5	Daniela Silivaș	Romania	1985	1989	6	–	1	7
6	Ludmilla Tourischeva	Soviet Union	1970	1974	5	2	2	9
7	Maxi Gnauck	East Germany	1979	1983	5	1	–	6
	Shannon Miller	United States	1991	1994	5	1	–	6
9	Yelena Shushunova	Soviet Union	1985	1987	4	3	2	9
10	Helena Rakoczy	Poland	1950	1954	4	–	3	7

Note

Few non-primary sources state that at the 1938 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, in Prague, Vlasta Děkanová of Czechoslovakia won 2 or 3 golds on multiple apparatuses. According to some sources, Děkanová and her compatriot Matylda Pálfyová shared gold medals in parallel bars (this event was replaced with uneven bars in the women's program at all subsequent world championships), while others state that Pálfyová shared this victory with Polish gymnast Marta Majowska, not Děkanová. The only primary source on the subject, a book officially released by the International Gymnastics Federation containing the results of the World Championships from 1903 to 2005, informs that medals were distributed only in the team all-around event and in the individual all-around event. Therefore, according to official reports, Děkanová's official number of gold medals is four, two in individual all-round (1934 and 1938) and two in team events (1934 and 1938) - not six or seven.

Best results of top nations by event

Men's results

Only nations with medals in five or more events are listed. Positions below third place are not taken into account. Results for Germany and West Germany have been combined.

Event	BEL	BLR	BOH	BUL	CHN	CIS	FIN	FRA	GBR	GDR	GER	ITA	JPN	ROU	RUS	SUI	TCH	UKR	URS	USA	YUG
Team				–		–
Individual all-around						–								–
Floor exercise	–		–
Pommel horse	–	–					–
Still rings
Vault	–		–																		–
Parallel bars				–										–
Horizontal bar									–

Women's results

Only nations with medals in three or more events are listed. Positions below eighth place are not taken into account. Results for Germany and West Germany have been combined.

Event	AUS	AUT	BRA	CAN	CHN	FRA	GBR	GDR	GER	HUN	ITA	JPN	NED	POL	ROU	RUS	SWE	TCH	UKR	URS	USA
Team		6							6				5
Individual all-around						5			6				5
Vault	–											5	6
Uneven bars	6			8
Balance beam		–				4	–										–
Floor exercise		–		5					–								–

See also

In Spanish: Campeonato Mundial de Gimnasia Artística para niños

• Junior World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
• Gymnastics at the Summer Olympics
• Gymnastics at the Youth Olympic Games
• Gymnastics World Championships
• List of gymnastics competitions
• Major achievements in gymnastics by nation