Gymnastics: the technological revolution with AI and Live Judging on the stage in Rotterdam

Not just a world championship, but also a laboratory of technological innovation. The Rotterdam 2026 artistic gymnastics world championships introduce important innovations in the evaluation systems of the exercises, opening up perspectives that could significantly change the work of the juries and the methods of assigning scores.

An evolution that particularly affects men's artistic gymnastics, through increasingly sophisticated tools, designed to make technical judgment more precise, timely and verifiable.

Among the most significant innovations is the use of the system developed by Fujitsu, which uses artificial intelligence and three-dimensional reconstruction technologies to analyze the gymnasts' movements. Through four cameras dedicated to each tool, the device is able to digitally reconstruct the positions of the body, measure the joint angles and verify the technical characteristics of the elements performed. The responsibility for the evaluation remains entrusted to the judges, while technology intervenes as a support tool in cases of dispute or doubt regarding the recognition of the elements. After the trials, Rotterdam represents a further step towards the operational use of this technology in the examination of complaints.

A second innovation concerns the so-called Live Judging, the real-time execution evaluation system. During the apparatus finals - and in the even parallel bars qualifications - the judges will be able to use an electronic device through which to immediately record the penalties, associating them with the individual moments of the exercise.

The traditional manual annotation procedure is thus supported, and partly replaced, by a digital recording contextual to the performance. A method that imposes greater decision-making immediacy on judges, significantly reducing the margins for subsequent re-elaborations of the judgment. According to the illustrated technical indications, at the end of the exercise there will only be five seconds left to complete the insertion of the penalties.

In men's artistic gymnastics, Live Judging is expected in the finals of five of the six apparatus, with the exception of vault. The experimentation will also concern qualifications, through a parallel evaluation - called a shadow jury - entrusted to judges other than those involved in the official juries. A useful comparison to measure the reliability of the new procedure and verify its possible extension to the different phases of the competition.