INDIANAPOLIS, July 7, 2015 — The U.S. delegation of 257 will perform at 2015 World Gymnaestrada, July 12-18, in Helsinki, Finland.
Nine U.S. gymnastics clubs are participating in this year’s event: American Sokol Stickney in Stickney, Ill.; Berks East Gymnastics in Parkerford, Pa.; Biron Gymnastics from Houston; Chattooga Gymnastics and Dance in Marietta, Ga.; Columbia Gymnastics in Columbia, Md.; La Jolla YMCA in La Jolla, Calif.; Skyview Gymnastics in Mt. Airy, Md.; West Bend Gymnastics in West Bend, Wis.; and Westport-Weston Family Y in Westport, Conn. The U.S. delegation also includes participants from Colorado.
More than 21,000 participants of all ages from 50-plus countries around the world are performing as part of this year’s World Gymnaestrada, which is held every four years.
The United States will be represented in the Group Performances, City Performances, the Pan American Gymnastics Union Evening, the World Team Large Group, and the International Gymnastics Federation Gala. The groups will participate in the opening and closing ceremonies.
The World Gymnaestrada, the official FIG world event for “Gymnastics for All” (group gymnastics), is a gymnastics festival where everyone actively participates. Gymnaestrada traces its history back to the World Gymnastics Festival, which was an outgrowth of national gymnastic festivals that date back to the second half of the 19th century in Sweden, Norway, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. In 1950, the FIG General Assembly decided to integrate an International Gymnastic Festival into their official event program called "Gymnaestrada." The first Gymnaestrada took place in 1953 in Rotterdam. Other cities that have hosted the event include Zagreb, Stuttgart, Vienna, Basel, Berlin, Zurich, Herning, Amsterdam, Berlin, Göteborg Lisbon and Lausanne.
For more information on the World Gymnaestrada, visit www.wg-2015.com.