Sebastian Sponevik
Athletes competing in men’s artistic gymnastics from 24 countries set, matched, or broke records for their nations at the world championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands, making history in the sport and inspiring future generations of athletes to follow in their footsteps.
View the complete list of world championships records.
ARMENIA
Four Armenian athletes competed as specialists at world championships this year, and all four walked away with medals – an outstanding achievement in itself, but made even more exciting as three of these athletes added their names to the history books with their wins here!
Both Hamlet Manukyan and Mamikon Khachatryan won medals on pommel horse this year, and Manukyan taking the title was a first for the Armenian men on this apparatus, breaking Khachatryan’s second-place record from 2025.
Another first was a medal on rings, with Artur Avetisyan winning the bronze medal. Prior to this, the best the Armenian men had finished was fourth place, which had happened three times over the past decade, including from himself in 2022 along with Artur Tovmasyan in 2018 and Vahagn Davtyan in 2023.
Finally, Artur Davtyan won his and the program’s second gold medal on vault with two basically perfect runs. His title here matches his record from 2022.
BELGIUM
Kilan van der Aa was a surprise in the pommel horse final this year, where his seventh-place finish matched the record set by Donna-Donny Truyens in 2010.
CHILE
Joaquin Alvarez had a strong performance on rings in qualifications, finishing in 13th place to break the 24th-place record set by Juan Francisco Raffo in 2013.
CHINA
In a class of his own, Lan Xingyu was excellent on rings as usual, winning the program’s 11th gold medal, and his second gold after he also took the title in 2021. Others who have topped the podium on rings include Li Ning in 1985, Dong Zhen in 1999, Chen Yibing in 2006, 2007, 2010, and 2011, Yan Mingyong in 2009, and Liu Yang in 2014 and 2023.
Also unsurprisingly getting a title for China was Zou Jingyuan, who won the program’s 19th gold on this apparatus, and his fifth after also winning in 2017, 2018, 2022, and 2025! Other wins came from Lou Yun in 1983, Li Jing in 1989, 1991, and 1992, Huang Liping in 1994, Zhang Jinjing in 1997, Li Xiaopeng in 2002 and 2003, Yang Wei in 2006, Weng Guanyin in 2009, Feng Zhe in 2010, Lin Chaopan in 2013, You Hao in 2015, and Hu Xuwei in 2021.
COLOMBIA
The young athletes who make up the Colombian MAG team didn’t walk away with any medals this year, but their results were fantastic overall, especially as they reached the team final for the first time in program history, where their eighth-place finish breaks the previous record of 17th place, set in 2014. Congratulations to Jorman Alvarez, Angel Barajas, Thomas Mejia, Camilo Vera, and Yan Zabala!
Individually, Barajas finished fifth in the all-around to break his own record of sixth place from 2025, and his 20th-place finish on floor in qualifications breaks Jossimar Calvo’s 25th-place record from 2017. Also adding his name to the list is Vera, who finished in 23rd place on rings to break Kristopher Bohorquez’s 26th-place record from 2021.
CROATIA
With Illia Kovtun, who represented Ukraine at the Olympic Games last quad, now competing for Croatia, it was clear he’d make a major impact. Though it wasn’t his strongest competition overall, his silver medal win on parallel bars was the first medal on this apparatus for the program, breaking Alexei Demjanov’s 18th-place record from 1997!
He also finished 11th in the all-around final, breaking Filip Ude’s 22nd-place record from 2007, and he was ninth on floor in qualifications, breaking Aurel Benovic‘s 11th-place record from 2022.
CYPRUS
We saw a couple of new program bests for Cyprus in Rotterdam, where Neofytos Kyriakou finishing 12th in vault qualifications broke his 18th-place record from 2023.
Additionally, the team finishing in 24th place is another new record, besting their 30th-place finish from 2018. Congratulations to Kyriakou along with teammates Georgios Angonas, Ilias Georgiou, Marios Georgiou, and Sokratis Pilakouris!
ECUADOR
Stefano Romero was the first MAG athlete from Ecuador to compete two vaults at world championships, setting the program record in 22nd place.
GUATEMALA
Rahi Garcia, who made his worlds debut here at just 17 years old, finished in 106th place on pommel horse to break the 126th-place record set by Mynor Juarez in 2013.
HONG KONG
Cheung Ching finished an impressive 30th place on floor in qualifications, breaking Shek Wai Hung’s 65th-place record from 2015.
ICELAND
Agust Davidsson finished in 25th place on floor this year, breaking teammate Dagur Olafsson‘s 49th-place record from 2025.
JAPAN
With his fourth worlds all-around win after also taking the titles in 2022, 2023, and 2025, Hashimoto Daiki also earned the program’s 13th all-around gold! Others on this list include Kenmotsu Eizo in 1970, Kasamatsu Shigero in 1974, Tomita Hiroyuki in 2005, and Uchimura Kohei in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2015.
The team also won a gold medal in Rotterdam, which is the eighth title for the Japanese men after they also won in 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 2015, and 2023. Congratulations to Hashimoto along with teammates Doi Ryosuke, Kawakami Shohei, Maeda Fusuke, and Oka Shinnosuke, along with alternate Nao Ojima!
KAZAKHSTAN
It was a bummer to see Nariman Kurbanov finish fourth in the pommel horse final for the third time, though this is still a record for the program. His other fourth-place finishes came in 2021 and 2022, and Valeri Liukin also notably finished fourth in 1993.
Additionally, the team finished 12th here, which is a new record breaking the previous best of 16th place, which happened in both 2018 and 2019. Congratulations to Kurbanov and teammates Ilyas Azizov, Nurtan Idrissov, Milad Karimi, and Dmitriy Patanin!
MONGOLIA
Usukhbayar Erkhembayar finishing in 47th place during all-around qualifications smashed his and his program’s previous 84th-place all-around record from 2023!
MOROCCO
Hamza Hossaini ended up in 61st place in all-around qualifications here, breaking Abderrazak Nasser’s 72nd-place record from 2022.
NORWAY
One of the most exciting additions to the history books was Sebastian Sponevik surprising to win a bronze medal on vault! In the very first appearance from a Norwegian MAG athlete in any apparatus final, we also got to see the program’s first ever world championships medal. The previous best finish on vault for the program was Sponevik in 10th place last year.
PERU
Edward Gonzales finished in 98th place on high bar here, breaking Daniel Alarcon’s 103rd-place record from 2025.
SERBIA
Petar Vefic finished in 28th place on parallel bars, breaking his own 32nd-place record from 2025.
SLOVENIA
The Slovenian program qualified four specialists to world championships via the world cups, and three of these athletes ended up breaking records! On floor, Anze Hribar finished in 13th place to break Rok Klavora’s 15th-place record from 2017. On rings, Luka Bojanc finished in 39th place to narrowly top his own 40th-place record from last year. And on vault, Beno Kunst finished in 25th place to break Ziga Silc’s 37th-place record from 2014.
SOUTH KOREA
Hur Woong had the best-ever pommel horse finish for the South Korean program here, finishing in sixth place to break Lee Joohyung’s long-standing eighth-place record from 1999! Sadly, had he not incurred a surprising three-tenth penalty, he would’ve landed on the podium after showcasing a fantastic routine.
SWEDEN
It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Swedish MAG program break any records, but David Rumbutis did it in a big way this year, surprising to earn a spot in the parallel bars final, where he finished in seventh! Simply making the final was history for the program, with the previous best for the program Michael Hjorth’s 30th-place finish from 2002.
TAIWAN
Gym fans finally got to see high bar favorite Tang Chia-Hung win the gold medal on his key apparatus, and against some tough competition! His win here marks the first high bar medal in Taiwan’s history, with his fifth-place finish in 2018 the program’s previous best.
UNITED STATES
On a day where most of the top floor medal contenders had bouncy landings to take themselves out of the running, Fred Richard was absolutely locked in, and it got him to the very top of the podium! His first-place finish on floor was the fourth in U.S. history, following in the footsteps of Kurt Thomas in 1978 and 1979 as well as Paul Hamm in 2003.
Article by Lauren Hopkins
