2026 World Gymnastics Championships: Schedule, U.S. Team, LA28 Spots

The 2026 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships run October 17–25 at Rotterdam Ahoy in the Netherlands. It is the first world championships with a team event since 2023, and the first qualifying event for the LA 2028 Olympics: the top three teams in each team final earn their country a place at the Games (World Gymnastics).

Contents

At a Glance
Schedule (Eastern Time)
The U.S. Gymnastics Team at Rotterdam Worlds
How the Competition Works
What’s at Stake: LA 2028 Olympic Spots
The U.S. Women’s Record
Common Questions
Main Sources

Here is the schedule in U.S. time, the U.S. gymnastics team at Rotterdam Worlds, how the finals work, and what is at stake.

At a Glance

Dates: October 17–19 qualifications, October 20–25 finals.
Where: Rotterdam Ahoy, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Women’s team final: Wednesday, October 21, 1:30 p.m. ET.
Women’s all-around final: Friday, October 23, 1:30 p.m. ET.
On TV: finals live on Peacock and NBCSN; the women’s team final again on NBC on Sunday, October 25, at noon ET (NBC Sports).
At stake: three LA 2028 Olympic team spots for women and three for men.

Schedule (Eastern Time)

Date	Session	Start (ET)
Sat., Oct. 17	Men’s qualifications	4 a.m.
Sun., Oct. 18	Men’s qualifications; women’s qualifications (U.S. women in subdivision 1)	4 a.m.; 10 a.m.
Mon., Oct. 19	Women’s qualifications	3:30 a.m.
Tue., Oct. 20	Men’s team final	1:30 p.m.
Wed., Oct. 21	Women’s team final	1:30 p.m.
Thu., Oct. 22	Men’s all-around final	1:30 p.m.
Fri., Oct. 23	Women’s all-around final	1:30 p.m.
Sat., Oct. 24	Apparatus finals day 1: women’s vault and uneven bars; men’s floor, pommel horse, rings	8 a.m.
Sun., Oct. 25	Apparatus finals day 2: women’s balance beam and floor; men’s vault, parallel bars, high bar	8 a.m.

Competition times from USA Gymnastics. NBC Sports’ coverage of the second day of apparatus finals starts at 9 a.m. ET.

How to watch: qualifications stream live on eurovisionsport.com, and the finals are expected on Peacock (USA Gymnastics). NBC Sports carries all the finals live on Peacock and NBCSN from October 20 to 25, and shows the women’s team final again on NBC on Sunday, October 25, at noon ET.

The U.S. Gymnastics Team at Rotterdam Worlds

Gymnast	Hometown / club	Background
Hezly Rivera	Oradell, N.J. / WOGA Gymnastics	2024 Olympic team gold medalist; U.S. all-around champion in 2025 and 2026; first world championships
Skye Blakely	Frisco, Texas / University of Florida	Four-time world championships team member and two-time world champion; the only member with Worlds experience
Claire Pease	Sunnyvale, Texas / WOGA Gymnastics	2026 U.S. all-around silver medalist; first world championships
Charleigh Bullock	Spotsylvania, Va. / Capital Gymnastics National Training Center	2026 U.S. all-around bronze medalist; first world championships
Reese Esponda	Helena, Mont. / World Champions Centre	2026 U.S. floor champion and U.S. Classic all-around champion; first world championships

From USA Gymnastics’ team announcement. Alternates: Dulcy Caylor (traveling) and Jade Carey (non-traveling).

Pease and Bullock earned their places as the top two all-arounders over the U.S. Championships and the selection event in Crossville, Tennessee; a selection committee chose Rivera, Blakely and Esponda (NBC Sports). Rivera and Blakely’s official heights are in our U.S. team heights guide.

The U.S. men’s team is Patrick Hoopes, Danila Leykin, Kameron Nelson, Frederick Richard and Shane Wiskus, with Yul Moldauer as alternate (USA Gymnastics).

How the Competition Works

Everything starts with qualifications. Up to 24 teams of three to five gymnasts compete, alongside individual gymnasts from countries without a team. The qualification scores decide who reaches each final; then every final starts from zero (World Gymnastics Technical Regulations 2026).

Final	Who gets in	Format
Team final	The 8 best teams from qualifications	Three gymnasts per event and all three scores count
All-around final	The 24 best all-around gymnasts, at most two per country	All four events
Apparatus finals	The 8 best on each event, at most two per country	One routine; on vault, two vaults

World Gymnastics Technical Regulations 2026, Section 2.

The “at most two per country” rule is why a third American can be left out of a final despite a higher score than many of the gymnasts in it. How team totals add up is explained in how gymnastics team scores are calculated, and each routine’s score in how FIG scoring works. Before qualifications, gymnasts get a practice session on the competition equipment: podium training.

What’s at Stake: LA 2028 Olympic Spots

Rotterdam is the first step toward the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Under World Gymnastics’ LA28 qualification system:

The three highest-ranked eligible countries in each team final earn an Olympic team place of five gymnasts, with no reserves.
Nine more teams per gender qualify from the team qualification results at the 2027 World Championships.
That makes 12 teams each for women and men at LA 2028, out of 96 women and 96 men in artistic gymnastics.
The LA 2028 event list also includes a mixed team competition, alongside the eight men’s and six women’s events.

A podium finish in Rotterdam settles a country’s Olympic team place two years early, which is why the team finals on October 20 and 21 matter more than usual.

The U.S. Women’s Record

The U.S. women won their seventh consecutive world team title at the last world championships with a team event, in Antwerp in 2023 (USA Gymnastics), and then the Olympic team final in Paris in 2024 with 171.296 points, ahead of Italy (165.494) and Brazil (164.497), with Great Britain fourth (official results). Four of the five Americans in Rotterdam are at their first world championships.

We will add the results here after the final day, October 25.

Common Questions

When are the 2026 World Gymnastics Championships?

October 17–25, 2026, in Rotterdam, Netherlands: qualifications on October 17–19, finals on October 20–25.

Who is on the U.S. women’s team for 2026 Worlds?

Skye Blakely, Charleigh Bullock, Reese Esponda, Claire Pease and Hezly Rivera, with Dulcy Caylor and Jade Carey as alternates (USA Gymnastics).

Do the 2026 Worlds qualify teams for the Olympics?

Yes. The top three eligible teams in each team final earn an LA 2028 team place of five gymnasts; nine more teams qualify at the 2027 World Championships (World Gymnastics).

How can I watch the World Gymnastics Championships in the U.S.?

The finals are live on Peacock and NBCSN from October 20 to 25, and NBC shows the women’s team final again on October 25 at noon ET (NBC Sports). Qualifications stream on eurovisionsport.com (USA Gymnastics).