Gymnastics was not an exception. Starting in February, from Melbourne (Australia) to Milwaukee (USA), from Baku (Azerbaidjan) to Doha (Qatar), from Birmingham (G. Britain) to Tokyo (Japan), from Gothenburg (Sweden) to Utah Valley (USA), to Swakopmund (Namibia) to Osijek (Croatia), from Cluj-Napoca (Romania) to Cairo (Egypt) and more, gymnastics doors closed one by one. Artistic Asian Championships cancelled. Pan American Championships postponed. Rhythmic Asian Championships cancelled. Aerobic World Championships in Baku postponed… And more, and more…

During human history, many infectious diseases have caused pandemics, some with devastating consequences. Now is the time of Coronavirus. 2020 is the year of Coronavirus. The pandemic emergency has hit all continents and almost all countries in the world. It hit our society brutally, including the sports industry and everything that it entails at national, regional and global level. A long list of sports events was affected by the Coronavirus outbreak.

These days, the world of sports is watching carefully. Gymnastics in particular is facing a great challenge – the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Mersin, in December, which also shows the prospect of possible failure. Why? The organization of the European Championship in December against the background of an alarming increase in coronavirus cases in Europe is a risky attempt. Although the efforts in finding a new host city for the events must be praised.

Is it good that it will take place? There are (more) opposing views, as there are supporting views (for various reasons more or less visible). However, we must be honest and admit that there are a number of worrying signals.

The first signal. The 37th European Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships. The tournament was initially scheduled to be held in Paris (April 30 and May 3), but the French Gymnastics Federation decided against hosting it due to the global spread of the novel coronavirus. The competition was moved to Baku, to be held alongside the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships in May, but soon after, Baku postponed both championships to December and finally decided to withdraw from hosting, as no major events will be hosted in Azerbaijan until the end of 2020. The European Union faced a heavy hurdle. After long talks, the competition was moved again to Mersin, Turkey (December 9-13). Let us also add that the Danish Gymnastics Federation (DIF) had pulled out of staging the World Championships, which had been scheduled to take place at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen from 18 – 24 October, 2021. All of these cancellations and moves, of course, leave strong marks.

Second signal. During a meeting regarding this year’s planned events, the European Gymnastics Executive Committee made the decision to exclude Olympic qualification as a result of the current situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, the 2021 European Championships scheduled for April in Basel – four months after the competitions in Mersin – will serve as an Olympic qualifier, and countries might want to focus on preparations for that competition. Also, the directives published by the European Gymnastics Federation outline that delegations are not guaranteed reimbursement in case the events will be canceled and they have to buy additional insurance that covers COVID-19 because the current insurance that the FIG members have does not cover it. If the pandemic situation does not get better in the coming period, there is a risk that federations will lose large amounts of money in an already precarious economic situation.

Third signal. So far 12 countries have withdrawn from the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships to be held in Turkey. A worryingly high number. Most of them are among the great forces of European and world gymnastics. The German Gymnastics Association (DTB), which organized the World Championships in artistic gymnastics last year, confirmed that it would not send any athletes to either event “to ensure the health of athletes and teams”. Great Britain also announced they would not participate in the competition. The Dutch Gymnastics Federation has announced they will not send gymnasts to the upcoming WAG and MAG Championships in Mersin, Turkey. Denmark, Armenia, Spain and Norway are also among the countries that have withdrawn from both the WAG and MAG competitions. Ireland withdrew from the WAG Euros but is still on the list for MAG Euros. Similar decisions are expected (according to information) from Italy and France. Polish gymnasts are set to miss two upcoming major events after European Gymnastics suspended its national federation over unpaid debt. More and more countries are opting to skip the competition since the second wave of the pandemic is progressing in Europe and the championships will no longer server as an Olympic qualifier. Another “blow” came from Russia, which has become the latest country to withdraw from the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships, citing concerns over coronavirus and the political situation in Turkey. Russian national head coach Valentina Rodionenko told to the Russian state news agency TASS: “We decided to refuse to participate in the European Championship. 12 countries have already refused to go to Turkey due to the coronavirus and the difficult political situation. It is a pity that this year we will not be able to perform at such a major event. Perhaps in December we will organise a special tournament for members of national teams…”

Faced with this situation, Farid Gayibov, President of European Gymnastics Union, a fervent supporter of the idea of the pursuit of these championships, said: “Refusal of participation does not entail any sanctions, since nothing is written about this in our rules. Each federation has the right to decide whether to participate in the tournament or not.”

All of these raise a lot of questions, from the value of the participants to what will happen after the championships on multiple levels. Usually, 38 countries participate in the European Championships. This time 12 have already withdrawn, including those who have constantly produced medalists. For now there are 26 other countries that can participate. But there is also the possibility that by November 30 some other countries might also give up. And then?

There are many who say that, given all the organizational expenses so far, if the meeting is not cancelled, it should at least be turned into an international tournament, without the designation of the European Championship. That’s an idea. How many more are there in this respect. Of course, the European federation has the last word… And it’s not too late.