World Gymnaestrada comes to Lausanne
The 14th World Gymnaestrada, the world’s biggest gymnastics event, opened at Pontaise Stadium in Lausanne on Sunday.
Staged every four years, the 2011 event brings together some 19,000 gymnasts from 55 countries for a week of non-competition gymnastics demonstrations.
Draped with flags, the centre of Lausanne has been transformed to welcome the event, with some 800 stickers plastered around the city to form a “Magic Road” to help participants find their way to demonstrations.
Some 4,300 volunteers have also been recruited to assist staging the SFr24 million ($28.7 million) event.
It is the third time Switzerland has hosted World Gymnaestrada, after Basel in 1969 and Zurich in 1982.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.