Kaylia Nemour

The FIG released the nominative roster for the world cup in Cottbus, which will mark the first major international competition of the year and will serve as the first in a series of qualifiers for this year’s world championships.

The apparatus world cup series will offer a way for “specialists” to qualify individually to worlds this year, with the eight highest-ranked eligible gymnasts per apparatus earning nominative spots in Rotterdam. Athletes will earn points based on their ranking at each of the six world cups this season, with the four highest rankings per gymnast counting toward their total. “Eligible” gymnasts are those that do not qualify to worlds as part of a team or as all-arounders, and a total of two gymnasts per country are able to qualify on each apparatus.

Once again, the continental championships act as the primary qualifiers to worlds, as they determine the teams and all-arounders that will compete. The world cup series once again concludes before the continental championships, so many athletes who are ranked via the apparatus world cups and later qualify through the continental meets will have their points reallocated to the next-eligible gymnasts.

The reallocation of points is always a very messy system, and the individuals hoping to qualify as specialists will have an incredibly long wait to see if they’ll get the chance to compete at worlds with the final continental qualifier – European Championships – not happening until August. It’s not ideal, but we’ll again keep you updated throughout the year as the qualifiers get underway.

Included on the list of Cottbus competitors are 2025 world champion Kaylia Nemour of Algeria and 2025 world medalists Nazar Chepurnyi of Ukraine, Artur Davtyan of Armenia, Patrick Hoopes of the United States, and Mamikon Khachatryan of Armenia.

The competition will begin on February 19. A full list of athletes expected to compete is below.

Article by Lauren Hopkins