VNR Alert: Calisthenics World Championship 2026
From 13th through 15th of August Calisthenics World Championship was held in Riga, Latvia.
This was not just an annual World Championship, but also a 15 year’s anniversary celebration of the World Street Workout and Calisthenics Federation (WSWCF).
It is worth noting that the WSWCF is originally established in Latvia as an association back in 2011 and the 1st Calisthenics World Championship was also held in Riga, Latvia, the same year. Hence, this was a pure celebration throughout 3 competition days for those who were among the founders of the WSWCF and for those who are now leading the way of the federation.
Competition gathered 214 athletes from 52 countries, including, Japan, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, France, Germany, Latvia, Spain, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, etc.
Late cancellation in April 2026 of the Calisthenics World Championship in Rome had a big impact to WSWCF and the global calisthenics community. Therefore, it was not easy to reorganize everything and transfer the event to Riga with such a short notice.
However, with the new team onboard since beginning of 2026 this was possible. Working day and night for 4 months together with Latvian Street Workout and Calisthenics Federation, governmental institutions, private sponsors and stakeholders, eventually WSWCF managed to deliver what is called the most successful calisthenics competition that has ever been there.
Its success lies not only in the happening itself, but in the professional organizing, which we never had before from perspective of technology, media, production, live scoring, athlete management, fan engagement, etc. WSWCF truly wanted to deliver an event which would now establish a footprint for the global calisthenics’ community and beyond. At the same time it was quite of a challenge for the whole team, which was managed successfully.
As the WSWCF is currently working towards Olympic recognition and inclusion of our sport in the Olympic programme, it was very important to engage different stakeholders from around the world in the preparations and exposure. Florida’s Sports Coast – a USA governmental agency from Pasco County, FL, was the golden sponsor of this competition, following our successful ranking series event – Florida Cup – this February 2026. WSWCF has also already signed MOUs with organizations like World Obstacle, World Breaking Classic (Stichting Rugged Solutions), Urban World Series (SevenMila Sports Agency) and New Horizons Alliance. Therefore, it was our obligation to prove that even within 4 months we can organize a high-level event and prove the above organizations that the calisthenics is a big sport on the world map.
Competition itself was held in 3 days. 1st day was freestyle qualification. 2nd day was power&endurance qualification. 3rd day was the Grand Final in freestyle, power and endurance.
In total, 48 medals were awarded to winners and 3 absolute champion cups.
18 medals in freestyle and 1 male absolute champion.
17 medals in power and 1 male absolute champion.
13 medals in endurance and 1 male absolute champion.
Leading gold medallist country is France with 4 gold medals, followed by Sweden, United Kingdom and Egypt with 2 gold medals each. Cyprus, Bulgaria, Greece, Ukraine, Israel, Armenia and Finland got 1 gold medal each.
In overall, France dominated the competition, winning 7 medals, followed by Egypt with 6 medals and Ukraine with 4 medals.
In female categories in total 39 female participants competed. As we are constantly growing the female sport, it is of high importance for the WSWCF to have female participants and include them in the competitive landscape of calisthenics, especially in power&endurance competitions.
Male absolute champions with additional absolute champion cup were Edgar Papoyan from Armenia in Freestyle, Dimitris Siderakis from Greece in Endurance and Stoyan Banov from Bulgaria in Power.
Female absolute cups were not presented as female categories are still growing in numbers and therefore there was no distribution in weight categories for female athletes.
WSWCF judging board consisted of 8 judges in Power&Endurance with Head judge from Jordan, field judges – 4 from France, 1 from Bulgaria, 1 from Jordan and 1 from Latvia. For Freestyle – Head judge from Hungary, field judges – 1 from each – Bulgaria, Germany, Slovakia and Latvia.
During the award ceremony Mr. Vadym Oliinyk was included in the WSWCF Hall of Fame and presented a special present from WSWCF.
This year’s calisthenics world championship was opened by the following persons:
1. Mr. Vladimirs Steinbergs, President and Chairman of the Latvian Sports Federations Council;
2. Ms. Consuelo Sanchez, Deputy Director of Tourism of Florida’s Sports Coast;
3. Mr. Rolands Kikors, President and Chairman of the World Street Workout and Calisthenics Federation.
A 15 year’s anniversary short movie was also premiered during the event, whereas history of calisthenics world championships was shown since 2011 until 2026.
Here is what Rolands Kikors had to say regarding the competition: “We are very happy that we held this event in Latvia. For us this was a pilot project for the long-awaited new structure of the federation and event organizing. In 2025 it was the last year where the event was organized by the local organizing committee in Bulgaria, Sofia. Since this year the WSWCF shall work as a platform to provide its own even management team and know-how, including technologies, platforms, equipment, etc. Hence, we are no longer relying, nor we are establishing any authority to LOCs. We took a risk this year when cancelling Rome, but at the same time not only we cancelled Rome, but we completely cancelled LOC approach. With the new and extended team and service providers we are now ready to do events all around the world no matter the location. We more than grateful to our main event Production and Technical Lead Mr. Aleksandrs Ivaško, who orchestrated the success of this event.”
Next Calisthenics World Championship will be held in Riga, Latvia, August 2026. Precise dates to be announced soon.