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AIPS DELEGATES
will soon also be world championships in ski flying for women. After the 2025 Alpine World Ski Championships in Saalbach and the 2027 Freestyle and Snowboard World Champion- ships in Montafon, Austria could organise more major events in the next few years. Hochfilzen applied for the Biathlon World Championships 2028, the Ramsau for the Nordic Ski World Championships 2031.
“And with St. Anton, the next Austrian ski resort is already in the starting blocks for the biggest Alpine event in the world,” said Scherer at the Forum in Styria, which - by the way - has been secured for the next few years. In 2024 it will take place in Lenzerheide (SUI), in 2025 in Val di Fiemme (ITA).
Gymnastics
By Nicolae Gavrea - AIPS Gymnastics Delegate
Gymnastics: 2023 was a competi- tive “warm-up” year for the 2024
Olympics The competitive year 2023 was very important for artistic gymnastics, because it was the period in which the teams that will participate in the Olympic Games in Paris 2024 were confirmed. And after Antwerp, where the World Championships were held, we also found out those who climbed to the first step of the awards podium for individual events.
The first major competition of 2023 was in An- talya where we witnessed the continental com- petitions of Europe and where we watched the interesting developments presented by a num- ber of athletes from the new generation. In the men's team, the team from Italy with Lorenzo Casali dominated the competition, followed by the teams that represented Turkey, Great Brit- ain, Switzerland, Germany and Spain. In the women's team, the team from Great Britain (with leader Jessica Gadirova in great competi- tive form) won, followed by Italy , Holland, Hun- gary, Romania and France.
In the men’s all-around competition, the title of European champion went to Illia Kovtun (Ukraine). He was followed by Adem Asil (Tur- key) and Jake Jarman (Great Britain). In the women's category, Jessica Gadirova (Great Britain) won, surprisingly followed by Zsofia Kovacs (Hungary) and Alice D Amato (Italy). The European Championships in Antalya were just a warm-up for what followed in Antwerp, where the tickets for Paris 2024 were also awarded.
The World Championships in Belgium ensured the possibility of qualification to the Olympic Games for teams, but due to medical reasons, the women's team of the host country did not participate and missed qualification to the Paris Games, as did Germany, which did not benefit from the contribution of all the gymnasts in the team originally established.
The men's competition was interesting, where gymnasts from Japan won the first place by a wide margin after a battle with those from Chi-
ABOVE L-R: Daiki Hashimoto and Simone Biles (Photo by FIG)
na and the USA. The teams from Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Italy also qual- ified for Paris 2024. The fight for the Olympic medals will be very spectacular.
In the men’s all-around, Daiki Hashimoto (Ja- pan) was the leader in Antwerp, he said he also wants the gold medal in Paris. He was followed by the 2023 European champion, Illia Kovtun (Ukraine) and Frederick Richard (USA). Kenta Chiba (Japan), Sun Wei (China), Yumin Abbadini (Italy) or Milad Karimi (Kaz) also had good per- formances.
In the women's team competition, the USA won, with the invincible Simone Biles as the absolute leader. But the fight for the gold medal was spectacular, the team from Brazil being close to the first place. France climbed the podium for the first time, and the ranking was completed by China, Italy, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Japan, Australia and Romania.
Biles dominated the individual all-around with sensational performances. She was followed by Rebeca Andrade (Brazil) and Shilese Jones (USA).
Athletes who have not qualified for Paris 2024 will have the opportunity to do so by participat- ing in a series of world apparatus competitions organised by the International Gymnastics Fed- eration in 2024 in Cairo (EGY), Cottbus (GER), Baku (AZE), Doha (QAT) or at the European Championships which are scheduled for May in Rimini, Italy.
Handball
By Björn Pazen - AIPS Member
French women become world champions for the third time France
and Norway remain the dominant forces in in- ternational women’s handball – and this time the French side were on top again, as “allez les bleus” was the name of the game for the third time at a Women’s Handball World Champion- ship. After 2003 and 2017, the French women stood on the winners’ podium again in Hern- ing, Denmark, and sang their Marseillaise as
loudly as they could. As in Hamburg in 2017, they won in a World Championship final against Norway after losing the finals of the 1999, 2011 and 2021 World Championships and the 2020 European Championships against the same opponent.
Being Tokyo Olympic champions and now new- ly crowned World champions, the team of head coach Olivier Krumbholz is the big favourite for the 2024 Olympic Games on home ground, in Paris and Lille. Both sides had already qual- ified for the Olympic Games before the World Championship, France as hosts, Norway as Eu- ropean champions. Thanks to this constellation, Denmark as runners-up of the EURO 2022 and bronze medalists of the World Championship directly qualified for Paris. Besides those three European powerhouses, Angola, South Korea and Brazil had booked their Paris 2024 tickets as winners of their continental qualifications. The remaining six spots for the women’s tour- nament in Paris will be decided in three qual- ification tournaments in April, hosted by Ger- many, Hungary and Spain. The composition of those tournaments is the following: Tournament 1 (in Debrecen, Hungary): Sweden, Hungary, Cameroon, Japan
Tournament 2 (in Torrevieja, Spain): Nether- lands, Czechia, Argentina, Spain
Tournament 3 (in Neu-Ulm, Germany): Germa- ny, Montenegro, Slovenia, Paraguay
The three winners and runners-up will clinch their berth for Paris. At the Olympic Games, the first ten match days – preliminary rounds of women and men will be played in the South Arena Paris, from the quarter-finals on, the tour- naments moved to the football arena in Lille, where on 10 and 11 August the medal match- es of women and men will take place. In both competitions, France are the defending Olym- pic champions.
At the 2023 Women’s World Championship, France won all nine matches, including twice against Norway, in the main round and in the final. Within 24 years, it was France's 14th med- al at major tournaments (World Championships, European Championships and Olympic Games) - and all under coach Olivier Krumbholz, who also led his team to the European Champion- ship title in 2018 and Olympic gold in 2021 and
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