The IAAF received around $45 million (£28 million/€33 million) from the total of $520 million (£321 million/€384 million) in revenues shared among the Federations from the London 2012 Games. That figure now looks likely to dip in order to accommodate the new arrivals at the top table.

Such a turn of events represents a huge vote of confidence from the IOC for a sport which has been eager, to the point of restlessness, to renew and re-shape itself in pursuit of a wider and younger audience.

Tickets have sold out for the Glasgow World Cup. Part of the home draw is the presence in the competition of two of Britain's bronze medallists from the London 2012 Games, Daniel Purvis and Sam Oldham. Among Oldham's rivals will be the Belarus athlete who finished fourth behind him on high bar in this year's European Championships, Andre Likhovitskiy, while Ukraine's all-around European bronze medallist Oleg Verniaiev is in the main field.

The young British talent of Ruby Harrold, a world finalist this year, will be making her all-around World Cup debut against a field that includes the 2012 World Cup champion Elizabeth Price of the United States, Italian former all-around world champion Vanessa Ferrari and Romania's 17-year-old prodigy Larisa Iordache.

Elizabeth Price of the United States competing at last year's Glasgow World Cup event ©Getty Images


The competition, in the recently built Emirates Arena, follows the new, compact format which offers spectators non-stop action throughout a single mixed session, which on this occasion will run from 13.00 to 16.30 GMT.

As an addition to the last World Cup at the venue, Saturday's event will be complemented by action from British junior talent, with the British men's Under 12 and Under 14 Championships and the girls' Espoir Championships being held before, during and after the main competition day. Marketing-wise, the World Cup tickets offer access to all junior competition as well.

"I'm sure the majority of the young gymnasts would be very happy to the opportunity of watching some of the great masters of the sport who will be performing in Glasgow," Vera Atkinson of British Gymnastics told insidethegames.

Just a year after the British men earned their breakthrough team bronze at London 2012, following Louis Smith's breakthrough individual bronze at the Beijing 2008 Games, the sport within Britain is clearly flourishing.

"It's going to be a great atmosphere like last year I'm sure," said Purvis. "It's also great to have the event ahead of the Commonwealth Games next year; hopefully it will get everybody in the spirit."

Daniel Purvis, one of Britain's London 2012 bronze medallists, seen here at this year's World Championships, will be among the UK hopes performing at the 2013 Glasgow World Cup ©Getty Images

In May 2011 it was the spirit of world gymnastics that was directly addressed by Bruno Grandi, President of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), in a letter to the gymnastics community, made an emotional plea for a fundamental revision of the sport and how it presented itself to the wider world.

Referencing the judging scandals that damaged the sport at the Athens 2004 Olympics, and indeed referencing Roman law, Grandi called for "the technicians, judges and leaders in sport, to gather round a single table and revisit the Code; to re-equip our discipline with the structure and spirit originally inherent to it".

Since the code of judging became open-ended in 2005, following the judging marks which had baffled and appalled general observers during the Athens Games, debate has continued within the sport over the ideal format, with many voicing sympathy for the old possibility of a perfect 10.

But the swing away from subjectivity has, many believe, gone too far for the good of gymnastics. There has been feeling in the sport that the massively technical requirements asked too much of gymnasts, male gymnasts in particular, with the demands of floor exercises - where athletes have been obliged to pack moves of extreme difficulty into a short time period - being particularly stringent, and potentially dangerous.

In January this year, the FIG duly reformed its code for the next Olympic cycle to Rio, with the emphasis swinging back to the artistic, rather than the gymnastic, element of artistic gymnastics.

The shift had been foreshadowed by Grandi's 2011 letter, in which he referenced the original 12-page Code established for the sport in 1949, which mapped out judging in the three categories of difficulty, combination and execution.

"Today," Grandi added, "the Code reaches out to cover all FIG disciplines; it governs everything, infiltrating gymnastics like a metastasis that spreads and traps the sport in its deadly net. Originally created to serve the development of our sport, the Code has mutated into a time bomb that we are wholly unable to contain. Worse, it is a pitfall to judges and gymnasts alike, and creates situations that are often impossible to navigate. Remember Athens!

"The time has come for us, the technicians, judges and leaders in sport, to gather round a single table and revisit the Code; to re-equip our discipline with the structure and spirit originally inherent to it...

"...Simplify the Codes; we all agree on this point. Keep in mind the essence of Roman law, the first legal system in the history of Man and which is still active today. According to our predecessors, excessive detail is what dilutes and suffocates justice. Too many laws annihilate law itself!

Bruno Grandi, President of the FIG, has directed the sport towards greater simplification and attractiveness to spectators ©Bongarts/Getty Images

"Starting in 2005, we took successful steps toward standardising our Codes; a commendable action, to be sure, but a far cry from being enough. What we need is complete and unequivocal reform if we hope to have a Code that serves to further develop our sport. We must simplify, not complicate.

"What is the essential reason for the Code? What is it made to do? What is the meaning of its existence? The answer is found in history, whose most basic message is that in order to move forward into the future, one often needs to take a brief look into the past.

"At the 1948 Olympic Games in London, judging in gymnastics was scandalous! Judges were using criteria to evaluate exercises specific only to their own countries. It was a free for all. Such chaos! A Code was then created to clarify and classify criteria to maintain a standardised approach to judging. Unity was finally re-established.

"A mere twelve pages in 1949 compared to hundreds today, not counting the thousands of symbols that go with them! How can a judge effectively react, evaluate and decide in mere seconds and under the pressure that goes hand in hand with, say, an Olympic Final? Impossible; it is beyond human capacity."

US gymnasts compete at the London 1948 Olympics where, according to Bruno Grandi, judging in the sport was "scandalous" ©Getty Images


A week after the London 2012 Games, in another Letter to the sport, Grandi returned to his theme:

"From the very first Olympic exercises I was able to observe to what point our sport has evolved, and how much remains to be done.

"And while I am excited about the public's enthusiasm, about the impressive number of journalists, photographers and television networks present, I would invite my colleagues to support initiatives toward essential reform in order that gymnastics may be better understood, more attractive and open, and that it would respond to the demands of our very young and vivacious public.

"I will not settle for the status quo, but rather commit myself to the enormous tasks that face FIG in the 2013-2016 Cycle: synchronisation and simplification of the Codes of Points, transparency in judging and its corollary sport justice, the revamping of World Championship presentation, in progress, with the excellent partnership of Cirque du Soleil.

"The FIG intends to work with the Continental Unions, and subsequently with both small and large national federations. The FIG is a single sport - gymnastics - around which orbit its seven disciplines.

"These projects are a challenge and a joy for those who aspire to progress and development."

Another of the factors which has caused gymnastics to be increasingly warmly regarded by the IOC is the broadening spread of medals being won around the world.

In this regard, gymnastics, once the enclave of eastern bloc nations, and more recently China, has begun to resemble the worldwide spread that has already taken place in the sport of athletics.

In the course of the last four Olympics, the number of countries with medals in artistic, rhythmic and trampoline gymnastics has risen. At the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Games, a total of 15 countries earned medals. At the Beijing 2008 Games that figure rose to 17, and at the London 2012 Games it was 18, with Olympic titles being spread around 10 nations.

John Geddert, coach to the US women's gymnasts, enjoys the atmosphere with athletes at London 2012 during the last rotation in the team final. The number of nations winning medals in gymnastics events at London 2012 rose to 18 ©Getty Images


One of the most influential elements in this spread has been the FIG's Coaches Academy Programme, a worldwide education for coaches in all disciplines based on extensive scientific research into how best to develop young talent in each of them.

In statistics updated on November 20 by Harvey Fink, director of the FIG Academies, a total of 158 Academies were hosted throughout 2013, involving 4,245 attending gymnasts.

Of these, 38 were in Africa, 50 in the Americas and 23 in Asia.

The January revision effectively renews what has become a traditional re-evaluation between Olympic cycles since the Seoul 1988 Games. In the lead-up to Barcelona 1992, the perfect 10 system remained - with 10 being the figure elite routines began with, and with the challenge being to ensure no flaw diminished its perfection. The emphasis, therefore, was on making routines look flawless - something of a defensive position for the sport and its practitioners.

For the Olympic era leading to Atlanta 1996 there was a shift which encouraged greater innovation, with routines starting at a base of 9.4 for women and 9.0 for men, encouraging gymnasts to earn bonus points by performing difficult combinations.

Heading into the Sydney 2000 Games, however, the FIG got rid of compulsory routines, lowered the base start value for men and women and devalued certain well-worn combinations. This led to a greater variety in presentation.

The code for the period leading to the contentious Athens Games, however, obliged gymnasts to produce more difficult combinations in order to attain greater bonuses. Thus a new batch of gymnasts, freed from compulsories, created more variety than ever before.

But the scandal of the marks given at Athens in the men's all-around, rings, parallel bars and high bar created a controversy which effectively tipped the sport over, and when it righted itself, the "perfect 10" approach had gone in favour of an open-ended code that appeared to reward execution as much as difficulty.

Gymnasts were required to do 10 elements in each routine, with bonuses being given for particularly difficult combinations, but coaches and gymnasts soon began to emphasise elements which carried most reward within the new scheme of things.

Such was broadly the approach leading to Beijing, although there the number of elements in women's gymnastics was reduced from 10 to eight.

Gymnastics, fittingly, has proved extremely supple in terms of its presentation and values over the years. "There was a swing away from the 'I like this, I don't like this' approach in judging," said Atkinson. "But then gymnastics became very technical, and dry.

"Generally speaking the new Code gives bigger value to execution and artistry in competition rather than some of the extremely difficult technical elements the sport has seen in recent times.

"So there has been another reaction - 'Let's get back to the beauty of gymnastics'."

For the sport, both in Britain and around the world, life is certainly looking beautiful right now.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £12.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.