Sanctioning a USAG Competition
Note: sanctions are required for all USA Gymnastics clinics, workshops, tours and exhibitions

1. USA Gymnastics, as the governing body for the sport in the United States, is responsible for granting of Sanctions for those events, as defined in the USA Gymnastics Sanctioning Policies and Procedures
2. USA Gymnastics Sanctions will be secured through the USA Gymnastics Member services department for all USA Gymnastics sponsored events / competitions
3. Sanctions for competitions may be requested by any USAG Women’s Professional Member, who is a certified Meet Director.
4. When requesting a Sanction for a competition, training days must be included, as well as competition days. Events that are being conducted in more than one location (two venues, for example) must have a separate sanction for each location.
5. Once a sanction is granted, the USA Gymnastics Women’s Rules and Policies must be followed.
6. A non-USA gymnastics sanctioned event may not be conducted concurrently with a USA Gymnastics sanctioned event.
7. Request for sanction forms are available at www.usa-gymnastics.org or can be requested from member services. Domestic sanction requests may also be done on line. (local, clinics, dual meets, tri-meets, invitationals, international)
8. Sanctions may be obtained for LOCAL meets with only one team participating
9. Blanket sanctions are no longer in effect

Meet Director Responsibility

1. Mail the “Request for Sanction Form” a minimum of thirty (30) days prior to the meet to the USA Gymnastics office, along with the sanction fee for all event requests (one form per event requested).
2. Be present during the entire warm-up and competition. It is permissible to indicate two meet directors on the Request for Sanction Form.
3. Follow all regulations found in the Women’s Program Rules & Policies and all technical regulations from Women’s Technical Committee minutes and the Jr. Olympic Code of Points.
4. Verify that all equipment specifications are correct and the equipment is properly installed
5. Secure judges, which may be acquired through the designated and approved contractor/assignor. Level 1,2,3 and 4 competitions may be judges by certified Skill evaluators or certified officials.
6. Verify that gymnasts and coaches have included their Athlete or Professional Membership number on the entry form. (It is the Coaches’ responsibility to indicate the correct age division, level and citizenship.)
7. Consider all reasonable safety measures when setting up the competition floor. Examples: each competitive area should not overlap with another competitive area, there cannot be any obstructions on the Floor Exercise area, there must be sufficient room for mounting, dismounting and vaulting areas
8. Report results according to procedures as stated in USA Gymnastics Women’s Rules and Policies for Reporting Results. Signed sanction forms must be sent to the appropriate USAG Chairs (state, regional and national office). Scores for all local, invitational and state competitions go to the State Committee Chair, for level 8,9,10 State Championships an additional set of scores is sent to the Regional Score Tracker (J.Hicks) and our Regional Committee Chair.
9. The Meet Director must be thoroughly versed in the organization and regulations of gymnastics competitions. Any meet director who violates any regulation of the Rules and Policies may be subject to disciplinary action.
10. Upon receipt of the “Request for Sanction Form” and appropriate fee, the USA Gymnastics Member services department will forward a sanction packet which includes: Certificate of Sanction, granting approval. This certificate must be posted during the competition, Sanction Report Form, Coaches’ sign-in sheet, Application for a Certificate of Insurance (for events conducted in an outside facility which requires proof of insurance.) The Meet Director must forward this application directly to the insurance company, Incident and Injury report form, which must be completed in the event that an athlete is injured. The Meet Director must sign the form; the attending medical personnel must complete the form and give it to the coach or parent of the injured athlete, who then submits it to the insurance company.
11. Request for changes to original Request for Sanction: The Meet Director must submit the request to change the sanction in writing to Member Services, Request must be made at least ten (10) days prior to the event, If a Certificate of Sanction is received prior to the change, the Meet Director must make the changes on the certificate. A new certificate will not be issued.
12. After the Officials have signed the Sanction Report Form, the person named on the form as Meet Director must sign and return it to the USAG Membership Services department and appropriate Regional/State Administrative Chairman within 24 hours. The Coaches’ sign-in sheet must also be attached.
13. If a sanctioned event is cancelled, the Meet Director must write the word CANCELLED on the Meet Report form, sign it and return it yo USA Gymnastics Member services.

Sanction Fees

$50.00 for events with 72 or less gymnasts and $100.00 for events with 73 or more gymnasts: local, invitationals, sectional, state and regional championships for all JO and Elite Competitions. Sanction fees for National Championship meets will be paid by the National USA Gymnastics Office; however, the meet host must submit a “Request for Sanction” form, including the signature of the designated Meet Director. For sectional and State Championships the State will refund the host clubs the sanction fee.
For events in which foreign athletes and coaches participate, a foreign sanction fee of $300.00 is paid in lieu of the regular sanction fee. Read Pg. 60 “Sanctioning Requirements for Foreign Exchanges”
Late Fees: Late sanction request: A fine of $25.00 per sanctioned event will be charged to members whose request is postmarked less than 30 days prior to the event, Very late sanction request (received less than 7 days prior to the date of the first day of the event): a charge of $100.00 per sanctioned event will be assessed plus the appropriate sanction fee. Sanction fees (and any late fees) are not refundable, regardless of the reason for canceling.

Violations of Sanctions
When a Meet Director and/or other Professional member(s) participating in the event fails to follow the USA gymnastics Women’s Rules and Policies, actions may be taken against the Meet Director and/or the individual offenders by the USA Gymnastics Office, through the State/Regional Administrative Committee Chair, in conjunction with the State/.Regional Administrative Committee.

1. The Meet Director may be fined $20.00-$500.00 for infractions of the rules. He/she may lose the right to host sanctioned meets for a period of one (1) season or longer. He/she may lose his/her Women’s Professional membership
2. If an individual gymnast is in violation of the regulations, she will be disqualified and all awards returned (example: wrong level, wrong age division)
3. If an individual who does not have a current Professional Membership or who falsifies a Professional Membership number attempts to act as a coach on the floor of a USA Gymnastics sanctioned competition, that individual will be removed from the meet (field of play) by the Meet Director. If the club represented by that individual has no ther coaches present who are Professional Members, then their athletes will not be allowed to compete in that meet, entry fees for that competition will not be refunded under these circumstances, the individual, as well as the club he/she represented, will be sent a letter of warning from the Meet Director. A copy of the letter will be sent to the State Administrative Chairman of the state in which the individual lives, as well as USA Gymnastics Senior Director of Women’s Program.
4. Sanctions may be revoked
5. When a sanction is revoked, no score from the competition is valid
6. Sanction violations may include but are not limited to: athlete in the gym to long (over 5 hours), starting the warm-up before 8am, poor scheduling, resulting in the meet finishing after 10pm

Assignment of USAG Officials

1. Contracting Officials: officials maybe contracted through a designated and approve contractor. State Administrative Committees will determine their official’s contractor that are conducted under the organizational jurisdiction of the State Administrative Committee sectional and state championships).
2. Meet Directors must complete a “Request for Judges” form and send it to the Contractor, with a payment of $3.00 per official contracted. “Request for Judges Forms” are on the USAG website:
   www.usa-gymnastics.org/forms/2001/w-requestjudgesform.pdf
3. The USA Gymnastics Judges’ Compensation Package will be used at all sanctioned competitions
4. Meet hosts of Invitational Competitions or any meets (locals) that are not under the organizational jurisdiction of the State Administrative Committee may use the state approved contractor or may contract the officials directly using a USAG contract DIRECTLY. The Meet Director may also request specific judges when they submit a “request for Judges” form to the state approved contractor.

Affiliation of Judges These regulations are not meant to prevent officials from judging.
1. Affiliation of an official at a specific meet refers to: a person on the payroll of a competing club, a team member or parent of a Women’s Artistic team member of a competing club, (a parent of a Men’s or Rhythmic Team member of a competing club is not considered affiliated nor is a parent of any child enrolled in a recreational class of a competing club), a coach of a club that has gymnast(s) competing in the meet, a club owner whose club has a gymnast who is competing in the meet, any sport science professional that is paid for ongoing services for a competing gymnast.
2. Judges affiliated with a club, gymnast or coach participating in the competition MAY be assigned, with the following stipulations: an affiliated judge may be assigned as a panel judge or meet referee, no more than one judge with the same affiliation may be assigned per panel, an affiliated judge may not be assigned as chief judge, regardless of certification
3. Non-qualifying Open Invitationals: affiliated judges may be assigned as chiel or panel judges, meet director must list the judges and their affiliations on the pre-meet information
4. One judge panel meets: an official may only be assigned when there are not enough of non-affiliated judges available and only with the approval of the RTCC, if the RTCC is affiliated and must be assigned, approval must come from the State Administrative Committee Chair.
5. If the club with which a judge is affiliated is not participating in the meet to which the judge has been assigned, she/he is not considered affiliated at that meet