New Year is the traditional time to look back on the 12 months that have just gone by and the year still to come, and I can say that, as I reflect on what has happened in 2022 and look forward to 2023, I feel very happy in so many respects.
After the challenges of the previous two years, 2022 was perhaps the best year in the history of European Athletics.
The Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships were an outstanding success with terrific performances from the continent’s top stars, including 11 championships records and 28 national records, a full Olympic Stadium most evenings and outstanding TV audiences around the world.
The successes of Munich were replicated to one degree or another with all our other principal events staged across Europe during the last 12 months and so I would like to say a big thank you to the organisers and hosts of the following:
- Leiria 2022 European Throwing Cup
- Pace 2022 European 10,000m Cup
- El Paso 2022 European Athletics Off-Road Running Championships
- Jerusalem 2022 European Athletics U18 Championships
- Piemonte-La Mandria Park SPAR European Cross Country Championships
I am very proud of what European Athletics and our extended family in our Member Federations has been able to achieve in 2022.
One of the key missions of European Athletics is to deliver events that provide a focal point for our sport in Europe and reach into the hearts of the communities where they take place, and I believe that last year we did exactly that.
Keeping that frame of mind, it is worth noting that at our European Running Business Conference in September we were able to announce that there will be an inaugural European Running Championships in 2025 which will have an important mass participation element, and which will engage thousands of runners of all abilities.
2022 also saw many important initiatives extended – such as our work with sustainability and safeguarding to name just a few – and these will hopefully have a long-lasting impact on our sport, especially with regards to how it will grow and how it is perceived in an ever-changing world.
Commercially, 2022 saw European Athletics continue its association with all our existing partners and we were able to welcome several new ones to our fold.
Sadly, the defining global event of the year was the war in Ukraine.
However, European Athletics responded admirable to its tragic consequences by giving all the support possible to Ukraine athletes and its federation, and I salute all those other Member Federations who responded with unstinting and selfless generosity with their own support for Ukraine in this appalling situation.
Finally, looking back, I would like to congratulate our European Athletes of the Year Armand Duplantis, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Femke Bol who were crowned at the Golden Tracks award night in October.
They were worthy winners in a year replete with many other outstanding contenders for such an honour and it gratifies me to be able to say that all three are not only outstanding exponents of our sport on the track but role models for the next generation off it.
Looking ahead to 2023, the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Istanbul, Türkiye on 2-5 March are barely two months away and they will raise the curtain on an important year of events.
In the summer, European athletes will once again aim to succeed on a global stage with the World Athletics Championships returning to our continent and taking place in Budapest during August.
Before then we have the European Athletics Team Championships in Silesia, Poland between 20-25 June with a new format as part of the European Games which will see all the divisions contested at the same venue during the same week.
This summer we also have the European Athletics U23 Championships in Espoo, Finland on 13-16 July then the following month we return to Jerusalem for the European Athletics U20 Championships on 7-10 August.
In addition, I believe in 2023 we will see many of our development initiatives having ever more tangible results which can only be good for our sport and enhance our core value of athletics being Your Sport For Life.
For contributing to all of our events and off-the-track programmes, which are too numerous to list in detail here but collectively show the vast scope of European Athletics activities, I would like to say a big thank you to all the officials and volunteers in so many local and local and national organisations, most of whom give their time freely and without much individual recognition, but without whom our wonderful sport simply couldn’t happen in any meaningful way, European Athletics and Member Federations’ staff and partners and, of course, the athletes themselves for making our sport so special.
Let me conclude by wishing all of you a healthy, enjoyable, and successful 2023. Happy New Year!
Dobromir Karamarinov
European Athletics President