GB stars chase Olympic qualification at World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam

Great Britain’s leading gymnasts head to the 54th World Championships in Rotterdam from 20-25 October, where team qualification places for the 2028 Olympic Games are up for grabs and the action will be broadcast live on the BBC.

More than 400 artistic gymnasts from 84 nations are entered for the championships, with the top three nations in each team event in the Netherlands earning places for Los Angeles 2028. China and Japan start as favourites on the men’s side, while Great Britain go into the meet having retained the European title in August with a near-flawless display.

The United States women have won every team final since 2011 and will lean on the experience of Skye Blakely, who is competing at her fourth World Championships; several of her team-mates, including Olympic team gold medallist Hezly Rivera, are at their first senior Worlds. The Russians, competing under neutral status and European women’s gold medallists, will be without three female gymnasts after those athletes were denied visas to travel to Rotterdam, including reigning world all-around champion Angelina Melnikova.

Reigning men's all-around champion Daiki Hashimoto of Japan is aiming for a fourth consecutive world title, while Algerian Kaylia Nemour could become the first African winner in the women's all-around. Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade returns to a major global championships for the first time since her four-medal haul at the 2024 Olympics, which included gold on the floor.

Great Britain finished fourth at the most recent Olympics and at the European Championships and are led by multiple major medallist Alice Kinsella, who returned to training 13 months after giving birth and is competing at her sixth World Championships at age 25; Kinsella said the GB return was "hard to put into words." Martin was part of the fourth-placed British team at the Paris Olympics and earned a world bronze medal in the floor event last year.

On the men’s side, Tulloch, 31, is known as Great Britain’s "King of the Rings" and became the first British gymnast, and first black man, to win a World Championship medal on that apparatus in 2022. Hepworth, 22, made a notable Olympic debut at Paris 2024 by winning Team GB’s first ever Olympic medal on the vault and becoming the first Briton to make an Olympic rings final; Fraser won Britain’s first-ever world gold on the parallel bars in 2019 and later became Britain’s first European all-around men's champion and is now 27.

Reuben Ward makes his World Championships debut this year. Leat, now 21, represented Great Britain at the 2025 European Championships and World Championships, is British balance beam champion and was part of the England team that won bronze at the 2026 Commonwealth Games. Evans, now 19, became the first Welsh female artistic gymnast in 28 years to represent Team GB at the Paris 2024 Olympics at age 17 and is a Commonwealth gold medallist and a world silver medallist on floor from last year.

BBC coverage is available on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app with the following scheduled slots: 18:25-21:30 (men's team final on iPlayer), 19:00-21:30 (men's team final on BBC Two), 18:25-21:00 (women's team final on iPlayer), 19:00-21:00 (women's team final on BBC Two), 18:25-21:00 (men's all-around final on iPlayer), 19:00-21:00 (men's all-around final on BBC Two), 18:20-21:00 (women's all-around final), 19:00-21:00 (women's all-around final on BBC Two) and 13:00-17:00 for apparatus finals on BBC Two.

The immediate stakes are clear: the top three teams in each team event at Rotterdam will secure Olympic qualification places for Los Angeles 2028, and medal and all-around contests at the meet feature several returning champions and high-profile debuts.