Gymnasiade

The Gymnasiade, or World Gymnasiade, is a quadrennial international multi-sport event which is organised by the International School Sport Federation (ISF). It is the largest event that the ISF holds – boy and girl athletes represented 37 countries at the 2006 Gymnasiade. Only children between the ages of 13 and 18 are eligible to compete.

There are four sporting competitions at each Gymnasiade: athletics, artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, and swimming. There are 34 athletics events (17 for boys and 17 for girls), which are held in agreement with the IAAF rules. There are also 34 swimming events which are split equally between the sexes. Boys compete in eight different artistic gymnastics events, while girls contest six artistic, six rhythmic, and one all-round gymnastics event.

Demonstration sports will be displayed as part of the programme. These are Judo, Karate, Wrestling, Chess, Tennis, Archery.

The first edition of the Gymnasiade was held in 1974 in Wiesbaden, Germany and it featured solely gymnastics competitions and swimming. The athletics competition was added to the programme in the following edition in Orléans in 1976. The Gymnasiade continued as a biennial event until 1990, when it was altered to a quadrennial schedule. The next edition will be held in Trabzon, Turkey in 2016.