Gymnastics at the 2022 World Games: preview, schedule and stars to watch in Birmingham, Alabama

Six gymnastics disciplines - rhythmic, trampoline, tumbling, acrobatics, aerobic and parkour - are on the sport programme for the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama.

While the sport has featured in all 10 previous World Games editions, parkour is making its debut this year.

The competition is sure to be fierce, especially in rhythmic gymnastics, where - unlike at the Olympic Games - medals for the individual apparatus are up for grabs. The star-studded rhythmic field includes eight Tokyo 2020 Olympians, as well as recently crowned European all-around champion Daria Atamanov of Israel.

Here's what to look for when competition gets underway Sunday (10 July), including how to watch right here on Olympics.com..

Gymnastics at World Games 2022: Schedule

Parkour is the first gymnastics sport to take center stage in Birmingham. Below is the complete schedule (all times local to the event).

10 July

• 3pm - Parkour, qualifying and final, men's speed and women's freestyle

11 July

• 3pm - Parkour, qualifying and final, men's freestyle and women's speed

12 July

• 10:30am - Aerobics, qualifying, mixed pairs and dance
• 2pm - Rhythmic, qualifying, hoop and ball
• 6pm - Aerobics (mixed pairs and dance) and rhythmic (hoop and ball) finals

13 July

• 10:30am - Aerobics, qualifying, groups and trios
• 2pm - Rhythmic, qualifying, clubs and ribbon
• 6pm - Aerobics (groups and trios) and rhythmic (club and ribbon) finals

15 July

• 3pm - Acrobatic, qualifying, women's and mixed pairs
• 4pm - Double-mini, men's qualifying
• 7pm - Acrobatic, women's and mixed pairs finals
• 8pm - Double-mini, men's final

16 July

• 3pm - Tumbling, women's qualifying
• 3:45pm - Acrobatic, qualifying, men's pair and women's group
• 7:30pm - Tumbling, women's final
• 8pm - Acrobatic, men's pair and women's group finals

17 July

• 9am - Double-mini, women's qualifying
• 9:45am - Acrobatic, qualifying, men's group
• 10:25am - Tumbling, men's qualifying
• 11:50am - Double-mini, women's final
• 12:25pm - Acrobatic, men's group final
• 1pm - Tumbling, men's final

Gymnastics at World Games 2022: Stars to watch

The rhythmic gymnastics competition features eight women who competed at Tokyo 2020, including Bulgaria's Boryana Kaleyn and Italy's Milena Baldassarri, who finished fifth and sixth, respectively. Other Olympians including Ukraine's Viktoria Onoprieenko, Team USA's Evita Griskenas and Lili Mizuno, Azerbaijan's Zohra Aghamirova, Hungary's Fanni Pigniczki and Uzbekistan's Ekaterina Fetisova.

Other athletes to watch include Daria Atamanov of Israel, who won last month's European all-around gold, and Italy's Sofia Raffaeli, a sixth-place finisher in the all-around at last year's World Championships.

In parkour, Sweden's Mrianda Tibbling, the top ranked woman in the speed discipline, and Elis Torhall, the top-ranked men's freestyle athlete, Ukrainian Bohdan Kolmakov, currently fourth in the men's speed standings, and the Czech Republic's Adela Merkova, fourth in the women's freestyle rankings, are ones to keep an eye on.

World double-mini trampoline medallist Ruben Padilla, USA, and Lina Sjoberg, SWE, are at the head of the pack. In tumbling, women's world champion Megan Kealy of Great Britain and men's bronze medallist Kaden Brown of the U.S. are ready to once again challenge for medals on the global stage.

Unlike at the world championships, acrobatic gymnastics competition at the World Games awards medals only for the combined routine and 2022 combined world champions Angel Felix and Braiden McDougall (men's pair, USA); Ana Teixeira and Rita Ferreira (women's pair, POR); Helena Heijens and Bram Rottger (mixed pair, BEL); Kim Bergmans, Lise de Meyst and Bo Hollebosch (women's group, BEL); and Archie Goonesekera, Andrew Morris-Hunt, Finlay Gray, and Bradley Gold (men's group, GBR) all entered in the competition.

When aerobics action gets underway, there will be several athletes who claimed gold at June's worlds, including the Hungarian trio of Daniel Bali, Fanni Mazacs and Balazs Farkas.

Gymnastics at the World Games 2022: How to watch

Olympic Channel will provide full coverage of the event on Olympics.com, including a 24/7 stream and individual sport feeds.

Olympics.com will also have feature interviews and news articles. Look out for more content on the @Olympics social media channels.

In addition, fans in the United States have several viewing options including one-hour highlight shows each day on CBS Sports Network and streaming coverage through Paramount+.

German TV channel Sport1 will also be broadcasting more than 100 hours of action to viewers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.