VIRUS UPDATE

IPSF WORLD POLE AND AERIAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 2020 CANCELLATION

After considering the general climate around the Covid-19 pandemic, many discussions with our national federations and a vote by the IPSF Executive committee, it is with a heavy heart we have decided to suspend the 2020 IPSF Pole and Aerial competition season, along with the IPSF World Pole and Aerial Championships scheduled for October 2020 in Switzerland. We have discussed (at great length) a wide variety of different options in order to continue to host the current competition season and the ensuing World Championships (including postponing the World Championships, hosting video submissions etc.), and have exhausted all of our options. As you are aware, we have over 30 national competitions over a 5 month period which feed into the World Championships. Over half of these competitions have already had to be postponed, and with the uncertainty ahead of us, we cannot reschedule these competitions at this moment in time. We've also taken into account the uncertainty around when athletes would be able to start training again, as well as movement across borders in order to have judging panels in all countries. We as a sport strive to be Olympic and with the IOC’s decision to postpone the Olympic Games, we believe that suspending our season would be the safest option for everyone, and the option that is fairest towards our athletes. We also believe that our athletes require clarity and certainty in this current climate, and we believe this is the only way we as the IPSF can provide this.

As the IPSF competition is suspended for 2020, this means that all IPSF endorsed competitions are now cancelled for 2020, and the next IPSF World Championships will be in October 2021 in Switzerland.

However, all is not lost! In the spirit of pole and unity, we plan to bring our community together by still giving everyone the opportunity to perform and support our sport, its athletes and federations. Every IPSF federation can now join us in hosting a national Pole Unity Gala between September 2020 and March 2021. This event will be a celebration of all styles of IPSF pole disciplines from all ages, allowing our athletes, performers and enthusiasts the opportunity to perform without the element of competition, giving them time to re-train and begin afresh for the 2021 season. Details of Pole Unity will be discussed in the coming weeks with the national federations, and full details of how to take part will follow shortly.

We thank you for your understanding, and we hope that you can support your national federations, some of whom will have made a huge financial loss in this difficult and unprecedented time. We will be opening up a platform through which you can submit any questions you have about the suspension of our competition season, so be on the lookout for that in the near future. We would like to thank our sponsors Sun Pole, Dragonfly Brand, Flex Monkey, Pole Move Box and our vendors, and look forward to continually working with them over the next 18 months. We hope you can all continue to support and assist our community in whichever way you can, whether it is by supporting your local studios by joining their online classes and maintaining your memberships, or by submitting elements for the crack the code that will enable us to get our video bank filled and assist athletes in their preparations for the 2021 competition season.

WORLDS DATE 20-24 OCTOBER 2021 SWITZERLAND