Following a number of problems, International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) changed the apparatus. They did it for both safety reasons and for better acrobatics. The 2001 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were the first international competition to make use of the "vaulting table". This was an apparatus made by Dutch gymnastics equipment company Janssen-Fritsen since the mid-1990s. It features a flat, larger, and more cushioned surface almost parallel to the floor. It slopes downward at the end closest to the springboard. Gymnasts nicknamed it the "tongue".