History
The Fédération Européenne de Gymnastique (FEG), founded in 1881, held its first international tournament in 1903. The forerunner of the modern world championships, the tournament was held every two years through 1913 and was brought to an end by the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
In 1921, the FEG was reorganized as the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which re-established the international tournament as a world championship meet in 1922. That meet was held every four years through 1938. Women began to compete in the all-around and team events in 1934 and women's apparatus competition was added in 1938.
Again, a world war interrupted. The world championships resumed in 1950 and were held at four-year intervals through 1978.
The FIG then decided to hold the competition every two years. To avoid conflicting with the Olympics, the first biennial championship meet was held in 1979 so the event would fall in odd-numbered years.
From 1992 through 1996 the FIG staged a world championships every year, but the scope of the competition varied. In Olympic years, only apparatus championship were awarded, and the team championship was staged only in the year before the Olympics. However, in 1994 the FIG held separate world championships for individual competition and team competition) and in 1993 only an all-around and event finals event was held.
The world championship began biennial once more from 1997 through 1999, and became an annual event again in 2001.