The World Games sit just outside the Olympic family — same seriousness, weirder programme. Tug-of-war, wushu, billiards. And then there's Aerobic Gymnastics Trio, an event that asks three athletes to perform a high-intensity routine packed with bent-leg jumps, straddle jumps, explosive push-ups, and pike jumps, all welded together with dance, lifts, and more than a little theatrical flair. It's gymnastics, but with the volume turned all the way up.
At the most recent edition, held in the summer of 2025, China took gold in the trio event, and the winning performance by Fan Siwei, Zhang Qingzhou, and Wang Zhenhao has been winning fans online well beyond the gymnastics crowd. What sets them apart isn't just the technical difficulty — the synchronized jumps, the strength holds, the split-second timing between three people — but the sheer fun of it. The three perform like they're genuinely enjoying themselves, which, given the sport demands full-out effort from the first second to the last, is its own kind of achievement.
The 2025 World Games were staged in Chengdu, a detail that matters if you're the kind of traveller who plans trips around big events. The city, capital of Sichuan province, spent years building venues and transit for the Games, and the aerobic gymnastics competition ran in front of enthusiastic local crowds who treated it less like a niche discipline and more like a headline act. Videos of the Chinese trio's routine have since travelled far beyond the arena, drawing comments from people who had never heard of the sport and now want more.
That's the hook of Aerobic Gymnastics generally: it's accessible in a way that apparatus gymnastics isn't. No vault table, no uneven bars, no beam to fall off. Just three athletes, a floor, music, and roughly a minute and three-quarters of nonstop movement. Judges score difficulty, artistry, and execution, so the best routines balance athletic grunt with performance personality — exactly where the Chinese trio excelled.
Why should a traveller care? Two reasons. First, the next World Games are worth putting on your radar: they run every four years, they gather dozens of non-Olympic sports under one roof, and host cities tend to be fascinating places that suddenly have world-class venues and a global audience. Second, Chengdu itself has become one of China's most likeable city breaks — giant panda bases, a famous teahouse culture, and the hottest food scene in a country already obsessed with food. Pairing a future Games visit with a proper Sichuan hotpot pilgrimage is a genuinely good trip.
The World Games don't get Olympic-level attention, which is exactly why they're a nice thing to know about: you can often get tickets easily, crowds are friendly, and the sports themselves — aerobic gymnastics trio included — are closer to entertainment than endurance test. Watch the Chinese trio's gold routine once and you'll understand why it travelled so far online. Even the sternest judge would struggle to keep a straight face.
Full credit to Kuriositas for the original story.