[1] Beginning in the 2017-2020 quadrennium, the All-Around and Individual Apparatus World Cup series are used to qualify a maximum of seven spots to the Olympic Games.

[2] The Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) hosted the first artistic gymnastics on an international scale in 1975.

The different stages, sometimes referred to as World Cup qualifiers, mostly served the purpose of awarding points to individual gymnasts and groups according to their placements.

These points would be added up over the two-year period to qualify a limited number of athletes to the biennial World Cup Final event.

At the World Cup Final, gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded to individual athletes in each apparatus.

In each of the stages, the top three gymnasts in each apparatus or the all-around, depending on the type of competition, are awarded medals and prize money.

For the All-Around World Cup series, gymnasts' standing counts toward their countries' final placement.

FIG later released a video explaining the specifics of the new qualification process, including the role of the various World Cup series.

The winning countries are announced in the spring, and they are required to give the spot to a gymnast by the deadline shortly before the Olympics that summer.

The Individual Apparatus World Cup series allows four additional gymnasts to qualify Olympic spots.

However, if the overall winners of the two apparatus series are both from a country which has not qualified a full team at the World Championships, both advance to the Olympics.

Despite this option, in 2018 several gymnasts decided to try to win a nominative spot through the Individual Apparatus World Cup series over the next two years.

In anticipation of their countries' qualifying a full team to the Olympics at the 2018 World Championships, several gymnasts, most notably uneven bars specialist Fan Yilin of China, vault and floor exercise specialist Jade Carey of the United States, and vault specialist Maria Paseka of Russia announced that they would not try to qualify for the World Championships so that they would not be prevented from qualifying a nominative spot through the Individual Apparatus World Cup series.