Which gymnastics federations should be allowed to join the Bureau of European Gymnastics Associations (now the FIG)?
How are the International Tournaments different from the Olympic Games? Should there even be an International Tournament? They are costly to run, and President Cupérus was originally opposed to the idea of gymnastics competitions.
These are some of the questions that the Bureau of European Gymnastics Associations had to answer during the 1907 Congress.
During the 1928 Olympics, the Czechoslovak publication Sokol lamented that there weren’t any Slavic people in positions of power at the FIG. Well, that changed.
Dr. Klinger of Czechoslovakia became a vice president on the Executive Committee in 1932. (The Executive Committee would become the Men’s Technical Committee.)
One year later, Charles Cazalet, who was president of the FIG after Cupérus, died in January of 1933, and Count Adam Zamoyski of Poland was elected the next president of the FIG that same year.
As we’ll see, his election was celebrated across the Slavic gymnastics community.
Do you wish that pommel horse weren’t a part of men’s artistic gymnastics? If Sweden had its way in 1950, the apparatus would be gone.
Do you wish that men would use floor music? Hungary and Poland wanted that to happen in 1950.
Do you wish that women still competed on flying rings? Well, you have several federations to blame for that.
Oh, and you have Hungary to thank for the size of today’s floor exercise.
Let’s dive into the details of the 1950 FIG Congress.
What did the FIG discuss at its congress in 1896?
Here are the extant minutes from the meeting — as printed in Le Gymnaste, December 12, 1896.
Note: It wasn’t called the FIG at that point, nor was it called a Congress. What transpired was a meeting of the European Federations of Gymnastics (Fédérations européennes de gymnastique).
In my post about the 1964 Olympic Games, I mentioned China’s withdrawal from the FIG. Over the holidays, I was able to find the official statement from the Gymnastics Association of the People’s Republic of China.
Below, you can find a translation, as well as the original in Chinese.
On November 6, 2021, at the 83rd Congress in Antalya, Turkey, Watanabe Morinari will face off with Farid Gayibov for the FIG presidency.
When Watanabe was elected president, it was a big deal. Let’s take a look at what was said in the Japanese press at the time.
How much did it cost to be an FIG member in 1968? What was the FIG’s budget in 1968? Will Israel finally be approved to compete in the European Championships?
All that and more in the notes from the 1968 FIG Meeting.
In my post about the men’s technical committee meeting, I noted that Arthur Gander had been voted the next president of the FIG, replacing Charles Thœni.
Let’s take a look at some of the key decisions that were made during the FIG Congress in Dortmund.
As we go through the information, try to guess which decisions became a thorn in Arthur Gander’s side.
