DORNBIRN, Austria, July 6, 2019 – The 329-member U.S. delegation is ready to perform at the 2019 World Gymnaestrada, July 7-13, in Dornbirn, Austria. More than 18,000 participants of all ages from 60-plus countries around the globe are expected to participate as part of this year’s World Gymnaestrada, which is held every four years.
Eight U.S. gymnastics clubs are participating in this year’s event: Chattooga Gymnastics and Dance in Marietta, Ga.; GymTrix from Alpine, Calif.; Columbia Gymnastics in Columbia, Md.; Encore from Walnut Creek, Calif.; La Jolla (Calif.) YMCA; Showcase from Katy, Texas; Skyview Gymnastics in Mt. Airy, Md.; and Westport-Weston Family Y in Westport, Conn. The U.S. delegation also includes individual participants from Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and Texas.
The United States will be represented in the Group Performances, City Performances, the Pan American Gymnastics Union Evening, the World Team Large Group, the Educational Forum and the International Gymnastics Federation Gala. The groups will participate in the opening and closing ceremonies. For the first time ever, there will be a special USA Show featuring all of the U.S. participants.
The World Gymnaestrada is a gymnastics festival where everyone actively participates. Gymnaestrada is the official FIG world event for “Gymnastics for All” (group gymnastics) and traces its history back to the World Gymnastics Festival in second half of the 19th century. The World Gymnastics Festival was an outgrowth of national gymnastic festivals in Sweden, Norway, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. In 1950, the FIG General Assembly decided to integrate an International Gymnastics Festival, called “Gymnaestrada,” into their official event program. The first Gymnaestrada was held in 1953 in Rotterdam. Other cities that have hosted the event include Zagreb, Croatia; Stuttgart and Berlin, Germany; Vienna, Austria; Basel, Lausanne and Zurich, Switzerland; Herning, Denmark; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Göteborg, Sweden; Lisbon, Portugal; and Helsinki, Finland.
For more information on the World Gymnaestrada, visit www.wg2019.at.