European Championships (multi-sport event)

European Championships

Area served	Europe
Membership	7 sports federations
Website	europeanchampionships.com

The European Championships is a new multi-sport event which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 will be staged by the host cities of Glasgow, Scotland and Berlin, Germany between 2 and 12 August. European Championships in these sports held outside this quadrennial framework (annually in the cases of Gymnastics, Rowing, Triathlon and Cycling, biennially in the case of Athletics and Aquatics) are unaffected.

Overview

In 2018, the European Athletics Championships will be held in Berlin, while Glasgow will host the Aquatics, Cycling, Gymnastics, Rowing and Triathlon along with a new Golf European Team Championships.

The championships are being staged under one new brand with the 'Mark of a Champion', a star-like logo.^[1][2][3]

The European Broadcasting Union is a key partner in the event and it will be broadcast across Europe's free to air channels via its Eurovision Network, reaching an estimated audience of 1.03 billion. It will also be broadcast across radio and multiple digital platforms.^[4]

The athletics will be staged at the Olympiastadion in Berlin between 7 and 12 August. Competition will start in Glasgow on 3 August with the swimming taking place at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre and synchronised swimming at the Scotstoun Sports Campus, the diving at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh, and the open water swimming taking place at Loch Lomond.

Cycling will bring its four Olympic disciplines of track, road, mountain bike and BMX together for the first time and they will be staged at Glasgow's Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, on the streets of Glasgow, the Cathkin Braes Mountain Bike Trails and a new Olympic standard BMX track to be built in the city.^[5]

Gymnastics will take place at the SSE Hydro,^[6][7][8] the venue for the 2015 FIG World Gymnastics Championships, and the new Golf Team Championships will be staged at Gleneagles, the venue for the 2014 Ryder Cup.^[9][10][11]

Both rowing and triathlon will take place at the Strathclyde Country Park.^[12][13]

This competition is not related to the European Games which are organised in the Olympic tradition by the European Olympic Committees.

First edition (2018)

The European governing bodies for athletics, aquatics, cycling, golf, gymnastics, rowing and triathlon, will co-ordinate their individual continental championships as part of the first edition^[14][15][16] between 2 and 12 August 2018, hosted by the cities of Berlin (already chosen as the host for the 2018 European Athletics Championships^[17]) and Glasgow (already chosen as the host for the 2018 European Aquatics Championships,^[18] and which will now also host the events of the other sports).^[19][20]

The initial participating continental governing bodies, and championships, are:

• European Athletics organizing the 2018 European Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany
• Ligue Européenne de Natation organizing the 2018 European Aquatics Championships,
• Union Européenne de Cyclisme organizing the 2018 European Cycling Championships, bringing together the individual Road, Track, BMX and Mountain Biking championships of the continent,
• European Rowing organizing the 2018 European Rowing Championships,
• European Triathlon Union organizing the 2018 European Triathlon Championships, and
• European Union of Gymnastics organizing the 2018 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships, all in Glasgow, Scotland
• PGA European Tour and Ladies European Tour organizing the inaugural European Team Golf Championships, in Gleneagles, Scotland.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU),^[21] the umbrella body for the continent’s free-to-air channels, will be the broadcast partner for the combined championships, which are expected to generate more than 2700 hours of programming. Athletics alone, expects a 20% rise in television viewing figures compared to a traditional single-sport European Athletics Championships.^[22]

All of Europe’s major free-to-air broadcasters will televise the European Championships in 2018.^[23][24] The European Broadcasting Union, which holds the broadcast rights on all platforms, has confirmed coverage across the top five markets, BBC in the United Kingdom, ARD/ZDF in Germany, France Televisions in France, RAI in Italy and TVE in Spain. Other EBU members already signed up include VRT (Belgium), HRT (Croatia), DT (Denmark), YLE (Finland), RTÉ (Ireland), NOS (Netherlands), NRK (Norway), TVP (Poland), SRG SSR (Switzerland) and SVT/TV4 (Sweden). The level of coverage is also enhanced by a deal with Eurosport. In total, 35 EBU members have signed agreements as of November 2016.^[25]

To be staged between 2 and 12 August 2018, around 1,500 athletes will compete at the European Athletics Championships in Berlin, whilst at the same time 3,000 will take part in the other championships in Glasgow. Each European Championship will be organised by the respective federation and host city.

Second edition (2022)

The second edition of the European Championships is planned for summer of 2022 with the host venue selection process currently underway.^[26]

The first step in the bidding process for 2022 is the distribution of the official Bid Information Document to interested parties, with a preliminary questionnaire to be submitted by the end of 2016. The participating European Sports Federations will announce the 2022 hosts in November 2017.

History

European Athletics, Ligue Européenne de Natation, Union Européenne de Cyclisme, European Rowing and the European Triathlon Union agreed in 2015 to organise their individual championships as part of the European Championships.^[27][28] The individual federations and the host cities will organise the individual championships with a co-ordinated timetable and a unifying common brand. The championships that will be included are the European Athletics Championships, the LEN European Aquatics Championships, the European Cycling Championships, the European Rowing Championships, and the European Triathlon Championships as well as the European Gymnastics Championships and the new European Golf Team Championships. Both gymnastics and golf formally joined the new event on 23 October 2015.^[29][30]

Host cities

See also

• European Championship

References