With the Gymnastics World Championships at Ahoy, Rotterdam has every reason to be proud of its position as a leading top sport city. It also makes the city more attractive to visitors, businesses, and residents alike. The World Championships is top sport at the highest level, and it gets Rotterdammers of all ages moving.
With 600 athletes, tens of thousands of visitors, and television broadcasts in 170 countries, the Gymnastics World Championships is one of the biggest top sport events Rotterdam has ever hosted. The world’s best gymnasts come to Rotterdam and compete for the titles at Ahoy. For nine days, you can enjoy breathtaking acrobatics, spectacular somersaults, and a buzzing international sporting atmosphere.
Rotterdam Topsport brings events like the Gymnastics World Championships to the city, while also supporting athletes and sports clubs. The Dutch gymnastics elite train in the top sport hall next to De Kuip. And an increasingly important goal for Rotterdam Topsport is getting Rotterdammers active around major sporting events.
We want it to be more than just the World Championships, and to bring it right to the people of Rotterdam.
Sporting impact
Gerda IJff is events manager at Rotterdam Topsport. She sees the opportunities the Gymnastics World Championships offers. ‘We want it to be more than just the World Championships, and to bring it right to the people of Rotterdam. All across the city, there are sporting activities through which we can make a real impact.’
In collaboration with the Royal Dutch Gymnastics Federation (KNGU) and sports event agency TIG Sports & Events, years of work have gone into making the World Championships a success. Not only inside Rotterdam Ahoy, but far beyond it.
Getting out and playing
SPEEL JE MEE? (Want to play along?) by the KNGU is one example. With new movement games in eight Rotterdam playgrounds, the initiative aims to give young children more space to move and play. This matters for children’s development: through play, they learn about their own bodies and the world around them.
Gerda: ‘There are neighbourhoods in Rotterdam where there are very few opportunities to play outside or do sport. Fewer and fewer children are playing outdoors as a result. With this initiative, we’re encouraging children to get moving and get active.’
Miffy World Championships exercise festival
‘For the very youngest, toddler festivals are being organised,’ says Gerda. Here, toddlers play, move, and meet other toddlers. ‘Toddlers can’t really join any sport yet. Clubs tend to start from around age five. But gymnastics, that’s different.’
The festive finale of the toddler festivals is just before the World Championships: the free-entry Miffy World Championships movement festival at Rotterdam Ahoy.
Seniors get moving
Older residents get their chance to join in too. The Senior Experience gives people aged 45 and over the chance to visit the World Championships. There, seniors receive an innovative movement analysis and can take part in movement workshops. The programme includes dance, freerunning (adapted for seniors), and fall prevention.
During a major event like this, the World Championships is impossible to miss in the city itself. A special World Championships tram runs through the streets of RET, countless flags featuring athletes flutter across the city, and at Central Station there’s a hang challenge during the championships: visitors can compete to see who can hang from a horizontal bar the longest.
Rotterdam olympic gymnasts
And you might just run into Rotterdam’s two gymnastics ambassadors: Bart Deurloo and Eythora Thorsdottir. These Olympic gymnasts conducted the World Championships draw at the World Port Days. And during the championships themselves, they’ll certainly be making appearances across the city.
Rotterdam is a city of bridges. Of bridge-building. Between people, generations, and cultures.
As a major international event, the Gymnastics World Championships has a theme: building bridges.Gerda thinks it’s a perfect fit. ‘The bridge is of course a gymnastics discipline. And Rotterdam is a city of bridges. Of bridge-building. Between people, generations, and cultures. Building bridges lets you tell a powerful story about connection.’
World Championships song
The theme comes with an official World Championships song. That bridge we build today was written by Evie van der Heijden, a student at Codarts in Rotterdam. The song is the soundtrack to the Dance Challenge, designed to get the whole of the Netherlands moving. Dance clubs or groups of friends can take to the spotlight during the World Championships with their own choreography.
College day and healthy ageing
During the World Championships, two events offer inspiration and knowledge. The first is a College Day at Hogeschool Rotterdam. There, Wilfried de Jong will speak with Olympic gymnastics champion Epke Zonderland about perseverance and how to deal with setbacks and success.
And an international expert meeting on healthy ageing focuses on people aged 60 and over. Can cities, for example through their public spaces, help encourage older residents to stay active? Because an active lifestyle is becoming increasingly important, and contributes to a happy and healthy city.
The Gymnastics World Championships takes place from 17 to 25 October 2026 at Rotterdam Ahoy. For information and tickets, visit rotterdam2026.nl.
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