European Artistic Gymnastics Championships Explained

The European Championships sit below the Worlds and Olympics in prestige but follow broadly the same underlying format, restricted to gymnasts representing European nations.

Governing body

The European Artistic Gymnastics Championships are organised by European Gymnastics, the continental federation formed in 1982 as the European Union of Gymnastics (UEG) and renamed European Gymnastics in 2020. It sits under the FIG in the same way British Gymnastics does within the UK.

Format

As of the 2024 edition (Rimini, Italy), the men’s and women’s championships are held as separate competitions — different dates, often the same host city — each running a team final (the top eight teams from qualification, three gymnasts per team scoring on each apparatus), an all-around final (with a two-per-country limit), and apparatus finals (the top eight on each apparatus, also two per country). This is the same team, all-around and apparatus logic used at Worlds and the Olympics, run at continental scale. Older editions used a different, alternating men’s and women’s schedule, so the format has changed over time.

The 2026 Championships

The 2026 European Championships were held at Arena Zagreb, Croatia — the women’s championships on 13–16 August and the men’s on 19–23 August. Great Britain’s men won the team title with 246.728, successfully defending the European crown, with Switzerland third. According to European Gymnastics, Harry Hepworth’s floor routine sealed the win, with Courtney Tulloch and Joe Fraser among the team.

Why it matters for British gymnasts

The European Championships are a regular part of Great Britain’s competition calendar between Olympic and World cycles. Under the FIG Technical Regulations, the continental championships also serve as the qualifying event for team and all-around places at the World Championships in the two years before an Olympics — so a strong European result can be the first step towards a World and then Olympic place. See World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.