ST. PETERSBURG, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) Council has approved new qualifying systems for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games here on Saturday.
Under the new systems, the number of gymnasts to compose a team in the men's and women's artistic competition, will return to a maximum of five.
"It is aiming to return to simpler and more understandable criteria," said FIG in a statement. The qualification system is subject to the approval of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Tokyo 2020 introduces a complicated system, which is called "4+2 system" in artistic competition. Each team has four athletes to compete in the team event and two additional athletes only in individual events.
"It was also crucial for us to implement a qualification system for Paris 2024 that everybody can understand while being fair to the best athletes," FIG President Morinari Watanabe underlined.
According to FIG, the 2022 World Championships will be the first qualifying event for Paris 2024, with the top three teams qualifying for the Games. Most of the Olympic berths for both team and individual competitions will be at stake at the 2023 worlds, with the final tickets coming from the 2023-24 Apparatus World Cup Series and the 2024 Continental Championships.
Both 2022 and 2023 Artistic World Championships will limit the number of participants to 208 for men and 201 for women, in order to cut the duration of the championships to 11 days instead of 15 at the 2018 edition.
"Every national federation, even the smallest, must have a chance to host a World Championships," said Watanabe. "One of the most common criticisms was that our World Championships were too long. The format changes that we have adopted will help reduce the length and the costs, make the competition more thrilling as well as enhance the value of the continental championships."
The FIG Council also made other important decisions regarding to trampoline and rhythmic gymnastics during its meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia on May 2 and 3.
