To IRV Members and the International Wheel Gymnastics Community

As this year comes to a close, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the events of the year. There are also a few smaller announcements and updates in the second half of the message.

This year marked the 100th anniversary of the invention of the Rhönrad (gym wheel). There were several local initiatives celebrating this. Among them were shows at the German Gymnastics Festival in Leipzig, which is also where our highlight of the year, the Team World Championships, was held. The competition was hosted as part of the International German Gymnastics Festival and provided – not least thanks to the effort of the organisers and countless volunteers – a special energy and atmosphere. The two competitions – Juniors and Seniors – resulted in three teams earning gold medals, with Israel and Switzerland sharing first place in the Junior category and Germany winning gold in the Senior category. Congratulations to all the participating delegations for their fantastic performances. It was a great event, leaving us looking forward to the upcoming Individual World Championships in July 2026, which will also be hosted by Germany – in Göttingen to be precise. As I am writing this message, we are finalising the pre-registration and associated documents, so these will reach you soon. The ticket sales for spectators are already open.

In the past months, we have received several inquiries regarding participation of athletes from new countries that are not yet IRV members. This is excellent and I hope to see new countries represented at the Individual Wheel Gymnastics World Championships 2026. With this in mind, I would like to take this opportunity to remind you about our entry-level membership for such cases. Please reach out to us directly if you would like to represent a nation at the World Championships that is not yet a member of the IRV.

Of course, the year was not without its challenges, but all in all, the wheel gymnastics family has once again had a great year to look back upon with all its competitions, training activities, Cyr weekends, and various other encounters. New friendships have been made and existing friendships have been nurtured. I want to thank the whole wheel gymnastics community for continuing to be part of this and engaging, each in their own way, in the sport that connects us.

I also want to express my gratitude to the IRV team. The longer I serve in this role, the more I see the countless hours that they all donate and dedicate to keep the wheel gymnastics world rolling smoothly.

It’s a pleasure working with all of you.

Administrative Updates and Announcements

• One more new spiral element (D30c) was added to the difficulty catalogue in early December. This is an element that had been submitted within the deadline but had been unintentionally omitted in our previous release and announcement.
  The list of new elements and difficulty catalogue have already been updated accordingly and can be found here: https://wheelgymnastics.sport/gym-wheel-regulations/
• Next year, our upcoming events (https://wheelgymnastics.sport/events/) already include two IRV Certified Competitions: the new German Open on 28 February in Bielefeld and the well-established Belgian Open on 28 March in Eupen. We also hope that even more countries will apply to host IRV Certified Competitions and have updated and clarified the requirements: https://wheelgymnastics.sport/new-irv-certified-competitions/
• Two important dates for Gym Wheel judges have been added to the calendar for the first quarter of 2026:
  1. An Online Refresher Course focussing on the updated Code of Points 2026 will be held on 15 February 2026.
  2. An Online Judging Exam will be held on 15 March 2026.
  More details regarding times and registration formalities for these events will be added to our website as soon as they have been finalised.
• Please also remember that member countries are welcome to inform us about activities being held at national level that are open to the wider international community. We can include information in our newsletters to reach a wider audience.
  For example, the USA wheel gymnastics community will once again be cooperating with the local club in Taunusstein, Germany for their annual Easter training camp. For more information, see:
  https://thecirquesexperience.regfox.com/wheelfest-2026
  and https://thecirquesexperience.regfox.com/int-trainingscamp-2026-for-rhoenrad-and-cyrwheel

I wish you all a splendid start to 2026.

Kind regards

Matthias