The European Games in Kraków are more important than ever. In Poland it is about Olympic qualifications and European championships in many sports.
Ten months after the European Championships in Munich, Poland will host the European Games with Kraków from Wednesday to July 2nd.
The multi-sport event is particularly attractive from a sporting point of view, with opportunities to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris in numerous sports and twelve European title fights this year. The German Olympic Sports Confederation has nominated 287 athletes.
What are the European Games?
In 2012, the European Olympic Committees decided to establish a major continental sporting event, analogous to the Asian Games or Pan-American Games. The first venues were Baku in Azerbaijan in 2015 and Minsk in Belarus in 2019. They compete with the European Championships, which were only held in Munich in August 2022. They are organized by the European Championships Management in cooperation with the European television association EBU.
Where are the competitions held?
The heart of the European Games with twelve days of competition is Kraków, where the winners are determined in eleven sports alone. The Polish cities of Chorzow, Krzeszowice, Tarnow, Krynica-Zdroj, Zakopane, Nowy Tark, Rzeszow, Wroclaw, Nowy Sacz, Oswiecim, Bielsko-Biala and Myslenice are other locations.
How important are the European Games?
The European Games are an important stage on the way to next year’s Olympic Games in Paris. 18 Olympic sports with 19 disciplines offer the chance to fight for quota or ranking list points. In addition, European championship titles are awarded simultaneously in eleven sports: namely in badminton, fencing, judo, canoeing (slalom, sprint), athletics, modern pentathlon, cycling (BMX/MTB), swimming (synchronized swimming, diving), taekwondo, table tennis and triathlon.
How big is the German team?
The German Olympic Sports Confederation has nominated 287 athletes. More than the first editions. Team D competes in 27 of a total of 29 sports and disciplines: 3×3 basketball, 7-a-side rugby, badminton, beach handball, BMX freestyle, archery, boxing, breaking, fencing, judo, canoe racing, canoe slalom, karate, kickboxing, Modern Pentathlon, Mountain Bike, Muay Thai, Padel, Shooting, Ski Jumping, Sport Climbing, Synchronized Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Teqball, Triathlon and Diving. A total of around 7000 athletes from 48 countries are at the start in Poland.
Are athletes from Russia and Belarus allowed to start?
The athletes from Russia and Belarus are excluded from the European Games because of the invasion of Ukraine. This was decided by the European Olympic Committees, although the International Olympic Committee had recommended that athletes from both countries return to international competitions.
Will non-Olympic sports also be given a stage?
New trend sports outside of the Olympic program are also represented at the European Games. These include Muay Thai (a martial art from Thailand) or Teqball, which is played with a normal soccer ball on a kind of table tennis table, or Padel, a tennis-derived game. Beach handball can also be seen. The German women are European and world champions as well as World Games winners. In the “Side Events” category, hill climbs, amputee football, mountain and orienteering, chess and sumo will be presented.
Which competitions are particularly important?
In the first week, the track and field athletes deserve the attention. They are holding their European Team Championships in Chorzow near Kattowitz. For the first time at a major sporting event in summer, some of the world’s best ski jumpers will slide off the ski jump on mats in Zakopane. The three-time world champion Katharina Schmid (formerly Althaus) from Oberstdorf will also be there. Poland is one of the leading ski jumping nations in the world. The modern pentathlon will be under observation. After the scandal at the Olympics in Tokyo 2021, the German athlete Annika Zillekens (formerly Schleu) is also registered. In Tokyo, her horse had refused to jump, whereupon she wanted to bring it back to the course with crop and spurs. As a result, riding as a discipline will be held for the last time at the Summer Games in Paris.
Source: Stern
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