KYODO – The Japan Gymnastics Association announced Thursday it has submitted a bid to host the 2023 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Tokyo.
The International Gymnastics Federation concluded a meeting of its executive committee Wednesday in Lausanne, Switzerland, where it also accepted a bid from Belgium to host the event in Antwerp.
The championships are held annually in non-Olympic years. The host city will be decided at a FIG conference in St. Petersburg in May.
Tokyo is aiming to host the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships for the first time since 2011. This year’s event will be in Stuttgart, Germany, from October 4-13, while Copenhagen and Liverpool will host the 2021 and 2022 editions, respectively.
The Japanese capital will host a FIG Individual All-Around World Cup event in April and the 2019 Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships in November in the run-up to the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games.
In January 2017, Japan’s Morinari Watanabe was appointed the FIG’s first Asian president. He was elected a member of the International Olympic Committee in October and appointed an executive board member of Tokyo 2020 the following month.
The 59-year-old had made huge strides in overhauling gymnastics in Japan after the country failed to earn medals at the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games in Atlanta and Sydney.
Click to enlarge
