The 2020 women's European Championships were planned for Paris from 30 April to 3 May 2020. The organisers presented the event as the last major European meeting before the Tokyo Olympics, a chance for fans to see the best European gymnasts in the heart of the French capital before they left for Japan.
What was planned
The provisional programme followed the usual even-year pattern with juniors and seniors: junior women's qualification on the Thursday, senior qualification on the public holiday of 1 May, then finals over the weekend. Entry deadlines had been set for January and March 2020, and ticket sales had started.
What happened instead
In March 2020 the pandemic halted international sport. Events across the gymnastics calendar were postponed or cancelled, and the Tokyo Olympics were moved to 2021. The Paris championships could not go ahead as planned. A reduced women's European Championships was eventually staged in Mersin, Turkey, in December 2020, with many leading federations choosing not to travel.
Why this entry is in the archive
This page exists because the Paris event was widely linked at the time and people still look for it. It is a reminder of how abruptly the season stopped: the event pages, entry deadlines and ticket links were all live when the calendar collapsed.
The bigger picture
- Gymnasts lost months of competition in the year they expected to peak. - Federations had to rebuild selection processes with little competitive data. - The 2021 European Championships in Basel became the first major continental meet of the restart. We cover the preparations in Basel in a separate story.
Related
Our story on the COVID-19 event cancellations explains how the 2020 calendar unravelled.
