European Athletics Championships

SPAR European Cross Country Championships

ECCC Cross Country

European Athletics Indoor Championships

European Throwing Cup

Less than 30 days to go to the biggest sporting event to take place in Munich since the Olympic Games 50 years ago

Skrzyszowska smashes long-standing European U23 100m hurdles record in Silesia

Hosts Germany to send 112 athletes to Munich 2022

Mayer and Martinot-Lagarde spearhead France’s team for Munich 2022

Munich Magic | Korzeniowski is at the height of his powers in Munich 2002

Jacobs and Tamberi among 101 Italians selected for Munich 2022

Munich Magic | Peters clinches Olympic pentathlon gold from Rosendahl in dramatic finale

Bol poised to target a 400m/400m hurdles double in Munich 2022

Olympic champions Ingebrigtsen and Warholm to defend European titles in Munich

By the time Polish race walker Robert Korzenioski arrived at the 2002 European Athletics Championships in Munich for the defence of his 50km race walk title he had pretty much done all there was to do in his sport &ndash; but he still hadn&rsquo;t set a world record.&nbsp;
But that would change in the space of just over three-and-a-half hours on the perimeter of the Olympic Park in the Bavarian capital.&nbsp;
As the respected newsletter Athletics International&nbsp;edited by Mel Watman and Peter Matthews wrote: "This latest exploit has ended all argument: Korzeniowski is the greatest walker ever to put heel in front of toe. Already the only man to have won the Olympic 20k/50k double and successfully defended his 50k laurels, plus two world titles, the 34 year-old Pole not only retained the European championship but set a fabulous world best into the bargain."
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Having discovered race walking at the age of 15, thanks to his sports teacher, the young man from Lubaczow moved to northern France in the early 1990s in order to access better training conditions.&nbsp;
But the route to the top was not a straightforward one.&nbsp;
A chequered debut to his Olympic career
At his first Olympic Games in Barcelona 1992, Korzeniowski dropped out of the 20km race walk before he was disqualified from the 50km race walk a little over a week later while in second place for lifting.
Now there was a challenge to onward progress. But the diminutive &ndash; 1.68m (5ft 6in) - talent pushed on.&nbsp;
Four years later, the Polish walker earned his first Olympic title in the damp humidity of Atlanta in 1996, finishing 16 seconds clear of his opposition in the men&rsquo;s 50km race walk - an event which he would dominate for the next eight years.
The 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney witnessed an unprecedented performance from this Polish walking phenomenon. In the space of seven days, Korzeniowski became the first athlete - and remains the only athlete - to win the 20km and 50km race walking events at the same Olympics.&nbsp;
Korzeniowski would bow out with a third successive Olympic 50km race walk title in Athens but two years before that final flourish in Athens, Munich offered Korzeniowski the opportunity to make another indelible mark upon the event.&nbsp;
The world record - or the world best as it was still formally known in 2002 - for the 50km race walk had been set two years before the European Athletics Championships by Russia&rsquo;s Valeriy Spitsyn, who had recorded 3:37:26 while the championship record of 3:40:55 had stood to East Germany&rsquo;s Hartwig Gauder since the 1986 European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart.&nbsp;
At the height of his powers in Munich
Both marks would be expunged from the record books as Korzeniowski marched his way to victory on a two-kilometre looped circuit of the Olympic Park which finished inside the Olympic Stadium in 3:36:39.
"The public welcomed with enchantment the first world best performance of these 18th European championships," reported World Athletics on Korzeniowski&rsquo;s latest triumph.&nbsp;&nbsp;
"The spectators in the Munich stadium should have guessed something great would happen today, as one of the world&rsquo;s all-time great athletes across all disciplines, Poland's Robert Kozeniowski was performing in the men&rsquo;s 50km walk.&nbsp; &nbsp;
"For the first time in two days, the sun was out and a strong contingent of Polish fans were seated, furiously waving their flags, and singing &lsquo;the red and white are invincible&rsquo; as early as 9 am.&nbsp;
"They expected their national hero Korzeniowski to win and he didn't disappoint them as he arrived in the stadium 3:36.39 hours later to set a new world best and championship record, as well as lowering his personal best by more than five minutes."&nbsp;
After the race, Korzeniowski said: "I felt I could break this world record after 20km in the race. I knew the pace was fast and it is then I decided to focus on this world record."
<img src="https://directus.european-athletics.com/assets/cc0d9ad6-e5a1-4705-b4fa-dde470ac428b?width=1654&amp;height=1214" alt="Robert Korzeniowski of Poland" />
Korzeniowski finished clear of Spitsyn&rsquo;s Russian compatriot Aleksey Voyevodin (3:40:16) with bronze going in 3:44:33 to Spain&rsquo;s Jesus Angel Garcia who would go on to compete in eight Olympics, his most recent appearance being at the Tokyo 2020 Games aged 51.&nbsp;
And Poland&rsquo;s prospects in the race walking events in Munich look healthy some twenty years after Korzeniowski&rsquo;s heroics.&nbsp;
Katarzyna Zdzieblo, a qualified doctor, emulated Korzeniowski by coming away with two medals at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon.&nbsp;
Zdzieblo won silver on the first day of the championships in the 20km race walk behind Peru&rsquo;s Kimberly Garcia Leon before picking up her second silver medal in Oregon in the inaugural staging of the 35km race walk, once again behind Garcia Leon.
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The 1972 Olympic Games began and ended in triumph for home athlete Heide Rosendahl as she earned long jump gold on day one of the Games and anchored the 4x100m relay team to a final-day victory in a world record of 42.81 ahead of a mighty East German team anchored by Renate Stecher.
Had it not been for the indefatigable competitiveness of Great Britain&rsquo;s Mary Peters, the West German would have made it a historic hat-trick of gold medals in a dramatic pentathlon competition.&nbsp;
Peters was 33 at the time of Munich and competing in her third and final Olympic Games while Rosendahl was eight years her junior and coming off the back of a gold medal at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki 1971.&nbsp;
Both had earned their first international medals in 1966, with the former earning shot put silver for Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica and the latter claiming silver at the European Championships in Budapest where she was competing in the pentathlon.&nbsp;
A year before the Olympics, Rosendahl had won pentathlon gold and long jump bronze at the European Championships in Helsinki, while Peters &ndash; a qualified teacher who held down a full-time job and had to take her shot and starting blocks through a two-bus journey to her local athletics track &ndash; had won two Commonwealth titles in 1970.
The Belfast-based athlete, who had moved to Northern Ireland aged eight following a work transfer for her father, had also competed in two previous Olympic pentathlons &ndash; at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo she missed a medal by one place, and four years later in Mexico City she finished ninth.&nbsp;
Rosendahl came to the pentathlon event in Munich with a spring in her step having won the long jump title by a centimetre with a first-round effort of 6.78m &ndash; just six centimetres shy of the world record she had set two years earlier at the World University Games in Turin.&nbsp;
One of the greatest clashes in Olympic history begins&nbsp;
But in front of 80,000 fans - including a large contingent of travelling British fans which included Mary&rsquo;s father who had travelled from Australia - who packed eagerly into the Olympic Stadium in Munich, Peters made the ideal start. She equalled her personal best in the opening 100m hurdles with a time of 13.29, the second best in the event, before winning the shot put with a mammoth 16.20m.&nbsp;
After two events she led the overall standings with 1920 points and she would never be overtaken &ndash; although it would be an extremely close-run thing in the end.&nbsp;
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Peters was to further extend her lead in the high jump, raising her lifetime best all the way up 1.82m. Having not got to grips with the Fosbury Flop technique which had revolutionised the event, Rosendahl was limited to a 1.65m clearance with the increasingly out-of-favour straddle-technique in the high jump and ceded a 301-point deficit to Rosendahl overnight.&nbsp;
Peters&rsquo; prospects of victory looked exceedingly healthy but she knew that the concluding long jump and 200m were Rosendahl&rsquo;s specialities and her own weakest events.&nbsp;
The West German made up huge ground by winning the long jump with 6.83m, just a centimetre shy of her own world record although admittedly wind-assisted, while Peters underperformed to the extent that she failed even to register a six-metre jump, having to settle for 5.98m, which meant her lead going into the final event had been reduced to 122 points and an anxious wait before the concluding 200m later in the day.&nbsp;
"I went back to my room, I couldn&rsquo;t even eat. Tears again, nerves, apprehension. As I lay there some of the girls came in and they were saying what are you worrying about, you&rsquo;ve got a gold medal. I said 'I know, but I want the gold. I wanted it so much,'" said Peters in an in-depth interview with Athletics Weekly after the 1972 Olympic Games.
Peters holds on for gold...but only just
Both rivals competed in the fourth and final heat, which was won by Rosendahl in 22.96, the fastest time of the day.&nbsp;
As she crossed the line the West German finished with 4791 points, surpassing by 16 points the world record held by East Germany&rsquo;s Burglinde Pollak who would come away with bronze - one of many silver and bronze medals in her career.
It was a record Rosendahl held for all of 1.12 seconds before Peters, straining every sinew, came home fourth in the heat, and sixth overall, in 24.08.&nbsp;
There was an agonising wait until the totals were confirmed &ndash; but it ended in triumph for Peters, who had earned gold by just 10 points and one-tenth of a second, setting a world record of 4801.&nbsp;
Rosendahl moved on to another golden compensation in the women&rsquo;s sprint relay, where she brought her team home ahead of an East German quartet boasting the mighty individual 100 and 200m champion Renate Stecher.&nbsp;
Further accolades awaited the pair later in the year as Rosendahl was chosen for the second time as German Sportswoman of the Year and Peters &ndash; who had to stay away from her Belfast flat for three months upon her return after receiving death threats from republican terrorists - was named as BBC Sports Personality of the Year award after securing Britain&rsquo;s only athletics gold of the Games.
Peters&rsquo; gold medal in the pentathlon was just one of a slew of British successes in the combined events beginning with Mary Rand&rsquo;s silver medal at the 1964 Olympic Games and continuing through until the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha where Katarina Johnson-Thompson won gold, surpassing Jessica Ennis-Hills&rsquo;s British record in the process.
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Wladyslaw Komar was many things in a tumultuous life cut short by a car crash &ndash; a refugee, an orphan, a boxer, a wrestler, a high-profile film actor and a shot putter who won gold for Poland at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich with an Olympic record.
Born in 1940 into an aristocratic Polish family of landowners, Komar inherited sports genes from his father, who had competed as Vladas Komaras for Lithuania in the high jump and 110m hurdles at the inaugural 1934 European Athletics Championships, and his mother, who had set a Polish record in the shot put in the early 1930s.
During the war his father helped the Polish Resistance against German occupation, and was murdered in 1944 by German Security Police. When the Red Army arrived in 1945 Komar&rsquo;s mother feared they might be deported to Siberia as other landowners had been, so she fled with her young son to Warsaw before placing him in an orphanage near Poznan.
In 1953 he rejoined his mother in the Polish capital and soon took up amateur boxing, competing as a heavyweight and progressing to the point where he was representing his country at U20 level.
A first-round knockout by an Italian opponent convinced him that he might have a better sporting future in athletics, where he was a talented shot putter who also excelled in the high jump and decathlon, setting a Polish record in the latter event in 1963.
A long road to Olympic success
At the 1962 European Athletics Championships in Belgrade he missed a shot put medal by one place. Two years later he went to the Tokyo Olympics with high hopes, having improved the Polish record to 19.50m, just six centimeters shy of the European record, but he finished ninth with 18.20m.
Four years later he finished sixth in the 1968 Olympic final in Mexico City, won by Randy Matson of the United States, who had thrown an Olympic record of 20.68m in qualifying. By the time Komar was preparing for Munich he had added another European bronze to his collection at the 1971 European Athletics Championships in Helsinki.
Before the event there was much attention on the prospects of the throwers from East Germany, the rapidly rising athletics force of that era, although the silver medallist from Mexico, George Woods, was also favoured to maintain a United States winning tradition in this Olympic event that went back to before the Second World War.
But Komar, now a three-time Olympian and operating under a nickname of King Kong that had been traced to an article in Sports Illustrated, was far from being disregarded.
Matson&rsquo;s Olympic record was beaten by the first round effort of 20.97m by East Germany&rsquo;s Hartmut Briesenick, who was the sixth thrower in the order. That in turn was beaten by the tenth of the first-round throwers, Briesenick&rsquo;s compatriot Hans-Peter Gies, who recorded 21.14m.
Komar's first round KO in Munich
Komar was the fourteenth thrower to go &ndash; and with his opening effort he extended the Olympic record to 21.18m, a distance none of his rival could match. 
That said, they came close. Briesenick matched Gies&rsquo; 21.14m effort, and ultimately displacing him from the podium through having a better second-best effort, and with Woods making a huge final effort to turn silver into gold but having to settle for silver again with 21.17m.
Komar&rsquo;s victory was achieved by dint of one extra centimetre. As such it was the narrowest margin in an Olympic men&rsquo;s shot put final. That is, once the gold medal won in the Ancient Stadium of Olympia by Ukraine&rsquo;s Yuriy Bilonoh during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens had been stripped following a positive finding when his sample was re-tested in 2012.
Komar continued to compete at the highest level for several years, earning his last big medal, a bronze, in 1977 at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, where he had previously earned three silvers and a bronze.
Even before retiring he had become an actor and in the space of more than two decades, his IMDb listing had grown as lengthy as his list of athletics medals. Komar appeared in more than 10 films, starting with Kazimierz Wiekli, released in 1975, in which he played Wladzio and including Roman Polanski&rsquo;s 1986 comedy film Pirates, in which he played Jesus.
He was also part of a wrestling show organised by Poland&rsquo;s former Olympian Andrzej Supron which toured the Soviet Union in 1989 and 1990.
Komar died on August 17 1998 after a car crash when he was returning from an athletics meeting in Miedzyzdroje together with another famous Polish Olympian, pole vaulter Tadeusz Slusarski, who won gold at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal and silver four years later in Moscow.
Slusarski was also killed, and the two men are buried together. By a morbid coincidence, the other car involved in the collision was driven by another athlete, former sprinter Jaroslaw Marzec, who died a few days later.
A memorial athletics meeting in honour of all three victims is held annually in Miedzyzdroje.
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Munich Magic | The incredible life of Wladyslaw Komar

Host nation Germany will be represented by 112 athletes at the Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships from 15-21 August which forms part of the wider multisport European Championships from 11-21 August.
The team is spearheaded by reigning long jump champion Malaika Mihambo who has won every major outdoor championship since striking gold in Berlin 2018.&nbsp;
Fellow Berlin 2018 gold medallists Mateusz Przybylko (high jump), Thomas Rohler (javelin) and Arthur Abele (decathlon) have also been selected although reigning women&rsquo;s javelin champion Christin Hussong and two-time European 3000m steeplechase champion Gesa Felicitas Krause have been ruled out.
Germany finished third on the medal table at the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships although the home contingent did accrue the most number of medals, accruing 19 medals across the programme.
The full German team can be found <a title="" href="https://www.leichtathletik.de/news/news/detail/76918-dlv-nominiert-112-athletinnen-und-athleten-fuer-die-heim-em-in-muenchen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.&nbsp;
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France will be sending a team of 101 athletes to the Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships from 15-21 August which forms part of the multisport European Championships from 11-21 August.
Pascal Martinot-Lagarde will defend his European title in the 110m hurdles although fellow Berlin 2018 champions Morhad Amdouni (10,000m) and Mahiedine Mekhissi (3000m steeplechase) have been ruled out due to injury.
Reigning world champion Kevin Mayer will be looking for his second major title in less than three weeks in the decathlon while Sasha Zhoya will be targeting his first senior medal after winning U20 titles in the 110m hurdles at the European and World Athletics U20 Championships last summer.
The team also features former three-time European pole vault champion Renaud Lavillenie who will be making his 43rd major appearance in a French vest as well as 43-year-old Melina Robert-Michon who was part of the French team when Munich held the 2002 European Athletics Championships.
The full team can be found <a title="" href="https://www.athle.fr/asp.net/main.html/html.aspx?htmlid=6386" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
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Poland&rsquo;s Pia Skrzyszowska broke the longest standing record on the books on home soil at the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in Silesia on Saturday (6).&nbsp;
Skrzyszowska finished fourth in 12.51 to smash the European U23 record of 12.59 which was set by East Germany&rsquo;s Anneliese Ehrhardt when she won gold all the way back at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.
The Munich Olympic Stadium plays host to the Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships from 15-21 August and Skrzyszowska is now the second fastest European based on season&rsquo;s best performances behind Cindy Sember with 12.50.
&ldquo;I&acute;m happy that after being stuck for a while at 12.6, I finally reached the 12.5 level. At the warmup today I didn't feel like I was very motivated at first, but I persuaded myself I have to go for it&hellip;I have high expectations for the European Championships and I want to fight for medals there, but I try not to place too much pressure on myself,&rdquo; said Skrzyszowska.&nbsp;
Femke Bol also broke new ground as the reigning European indoor champion broke the 50 second-barrier in the 400m flat for the first time, setting a European lead of 49.75 to reclaim the Dutch record which she ceded to Lieke Klaver at the World Athletics Championships
&ldquo;It feels a bit strange now to run without the hurdles on the way, but it is amazing to break 50 seconds. I knew I had it in my legs, but it is great to finally do it,&rdquo; said Bol.
Bol was pushed all the way to the line by Natalia Kaczmarek who was also rewarded with her first ever sub-50 second clocking with 49.86 to become just the second Pole after Irena Szewinska to break this barrier.
Armand Duplantis cleared 6.00m on his first attempt in the pole vault - his 12th competition at six metres or higher in 2022 - before opting to raise the bar to 6.10m which he cleared on his third attempt to add further lustre to his afternoon&rsquo;s work.
"The 6.10m just sounds nice. There was no special reason for this height. The poles I was jumping today, I knew I could do the 6.00m on it. But I was even surprised to jump 6.10m and I did not know how much higher I could go," said Duplantis.
Full results <a title="" href="https://silesia.diamondleague.com/programme-results/programme-2022/#baseFrame#__athSchedule#ScheduleInit#Silesia2022_SCHEDULE_JSON" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Germany&rsquo;s Carina Post started her journey in the European Athletics Youth Team shortly after the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships.
She joined the Young Leaders Forum as a local organisational volunteer and she liked it so much that she then applied to be part of the group of young leaders that help European Athletics in developing the Forum.
Post is among the main organisers of this years Forum which will be held from 17-21 August during the European Athletics Championships.
European Athletics: What is your role in athletics?
Carina Post: Within athletics, I&rsquo;m part of the German Youth Council. I&rsquo;m responsible for the volunteers and society-related issues. I&rsquo;m still in the German Youth Team where we do small programmes and I&rsquo;m part of the Senior Team of European Athletics. I&rsquo;m also working at the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences as an assistant professor in sport management.
EA: Why did you join the volunteer team for the Berlin 2018 Young Leaders Forum and why did you join the European Athletics Youth Team?
CP: A friend of mine was working for the Berlin 2018 Local Organising Committee and she was responsible for the Young Leaders Forum during those European Athletics Championships. European Athletics wanted two volunteers there and she asked me if I wanted to be involved. I knew that the Young Leaders Forum in Amsterdam in 2016 was really good so I said yes. I really enjoyed the sessions at the Forum and after that I applied to be part of the European Athletics Youth Team.
<img src="https://directus.european-athletics.com/assets/b921334d-3a1f-480d-adaf-84e3c32daaba?width=6000&amp;height=4000" alt="Engagement" />
EA: Which was the best part of the Young Leaders Forum?
CP: I clearly remember one night in the stadium; it was raining and we couldn&rsquo;t leave the stadium so they turned up the music and everyone was dancing. I love the energy of people that don&rsquo;t know each other but love the same sport and do the same things.
EA: Why you think that the Young Leaders Forum is important?
CP: For me, it&rsquo;s good to know that there are a lot of people that love the same sport, do the same thing and work within the same sport. I think that is really important to have a good network; you can ask people to help you and see how they work. It&rsquo;s amazing to know people in different roles. I know that if I have a question I can just go to one of them and ask. This is really needed for youth involvement. It&rsquo;s easier to talk with someone who is part of the same generation, a &lsquo;digital native&rsquo;.
EA: Do you think that the Young Leaders Forum and and being part of the Youth Team has helped you in some way?
CP: Yes, I got elected to the German Youth Council and I think that I got that position because of my background in athletics.
EA: Do you have many young people involved in athletics outside of competition in Germany?
CP: In Germany the situation is pretty good. The Youth Council changed everything last year. They created a position for people under the age of 27 so they are trying to represent these young people. I think that is pretty good. The Council is elected and then we have different groups related to different topics so for athletes in this age group it is easier to raise their voice.
EA: Where do you see yourself in five years&rsquo;time?
CP: Certainly In athletics. I would like to do something for the German federation, maybe in the development area. We have a age limit in the Youth Team and we&rsquo;re trying to understand what to do with the people that move on. We want to create a network with them and focus groups that work on various topics. I really see myself there.

European Athletics Youth Team's Carina Post goes from volunteer to leader

Andreja Jost, from Slovenia, is one of the moderators of the Gender Leadership Programme and a mentor on the Mentoring Project, two of the key components of the European Athletics Leadership Programme. In this Q&amp;A, Jost describes the path she has travelled to reach her current positions and what she is doing in those roles.
European Athletics: What&rsquo;s your involvement in athletics?
Andreja Jost: I currently have several roles in athletics: as a referee, technical delegate, a lecturer educating new judges, women&rsquo;s leadership, and until some months ago I was also the head of technical officials in my country but now I&rsquo;m now focusing on gender leadership and mentoring programmes
EA: How you become a moderator for the Women Leadership Programme?
AJ: I first joined the Women In World Athletics programme in 2014 and stayed active within it until 2017. I started learning and then become passionate about the idea of women in sport because I saw the problems that women have in this area.
I had the chance to speak up for women in sport in Slovenia and, I think, we need to step up and show what we know and what we are capable to do. When European Athletics involved women, I was asked to continue to the next level and with a few other women that were part of WIWA we collectively joined the European Athletics Women&rsquo;s Leadership programme.
<img src="https://directus.european-athletics.com/assets/d74cc68b-aa6d-45a3-b1ad-f64a42a19e26?width=2026&amp;height=1164" alt="20689506 10213516760343117 9059046068562093101 O Edit" />
EA: What about the Slovenian Women Leadership course you helped create?
AJ: We have already had one course and we&rsquo;ll start the second shortly. During the first course we had 10 women and nine of them finished it. In the second course, we know there will be more people. The course started as on online project one due to the pandemic and it is still online but maybe we&rsquo;ll be able to finish the course in person with a guest speaker.
EA: Have you planned some special activities during your course?
AJ: For the second course, I&rsquo;m planning to have a couple of guests. One is a TV journalist, and the other is a coach for handball who is also a professor in our sports university and involved in National Olympic Committee in Slovenia. In the case of the latter, we met at a conference, and she was really interested in the course and said that this is something that every sport should have.
EA: How does this programme help keep the participants involved in athletics?
AJ: We had federation elections and we never had so many women apply for the roles available. They are raising their voices and fighting for the [elected] places. We have one of the participants that is now member of the Slovenian federation board, and this is really important because we never had a woman in that position in the past.
EA: Has this course helped you?
AJ: Of course. I was always asking myself if I was good enough, I was always asking myself if I should ask for something or propose something. It helped my self- confidence. I believe in myself much more now than I did in the past. I&rsquo;m not afraid to speak up anymore, I have more strength in my beliefs and that has been applied in my personal life too. I&rsquo;m acting differently to the way I did before although I still have some negative thoughts sometimes, just like everybody.
EA: Why do you think that we need programmes like this?
AJ: Women know a lot of things; we have knowledge and experience but are often not brave enough because the business world around us is still led by men and we have to prove to ourselves that we are on the same level. We have to learn and work together, men with women and women with men. We need to cooperate with each other to know how to listen, help and encourage each other.
We have been workers [in athletics organisations] but never had the chance to participate when decisions were made. This situation is now changing a lot. In the judges&rsquo; regional commissions, we now have a lot of women. I was not the only one loud and brave, there were fortunately a lot more. I&rsquo;m glad to be part of that change in culture. I know that to a certain degree and to some percent I&rsquo;ve helped with that.

Andrea Jost: "We have knowledge and experience but are often not brave enough."

Bulgaria&rsquo;s Ivan Zlatev is part of the European Athletics Youth Team that will be involved in the Young Leaders Forum that will be held during the European Championships Munich 2022.
He was a participant at the 2016 European Athletics Young Leaders Forum in Amsterdam and afterwards he decided to join the Youth Team to try to help others develop their skills and knowledge.
This year, and for the first time, the Forum will be open also for Young Leaders of other sports; a representative of rising young leaders from the other eight sport will join the workshops and seminar during the third and fourth days.
European Athletics is the only sport that has a Young Leaders network and events such as Young Leaders Forum and is a trailblazer for other sports organisations which want to create a community of youngsters.
From 17-21 August, Forum participants &ndash; aged between 20 and 30 &ndash; will discuss about the athletics&rsquo; situation in their countries, will share ideas and try to find solutions, will learn from other countries and from other sports. 
European Athletics: When did you start athletics?
Ivan Zlatev: My first involvement in athletics was when I was nine years old. I competed in a school competition but, at the same time, I was also involved in ice hockey. At that competition I got a good result, so I decided to try athletics and I competed for the next 13 years, I started doing sprints and hurdles, and I&rsquo;ve also run the 800m.
When I was 14 or 15, I decided to be an official so that I could participate in competitions with different age ranges and standards. Once I got to 17, I got involved in the organisation of important meetings purely by coincidence. After being an official, people in the federation were aware that I was able to do certain things and they offered me a chance to join their organisational teams, mainly like an intern.
In 2016, I was chosen by my federation to attend the Young Leaders Forum in Amsterdam and that&rsquo;s when I decided to join the facilitators in Berlin in 2018 and, in 2020, I joined the team for the online event.
EA; What&rsquo;s your involvement in athletics now?
IZ: I&rsquo;m not an employee of the Bulgarian federation, I have a job outside of athletics, but I&rsquo;m helping them during the events and I&rsquo;m also a part of the I Run Clean project as one of the ambassadors.
EA: Why did you decide to be part of the European Athletics Youth Team?
IZ: One of the most life-changing things that happened was my participation at the 2016 Young Leaders Forum. After the Forum, I thought: &ldquo;I can help other people to realise that they can be good leaders too.&rdquo; Many people have good ideas and I want to help them in developing them.
I also really enjoyed the full experience of the Forum. It wasn&rsquo;t just the conferences and the workshops; it was the contact with other people and the friendships that started there, even though we were together for just one week.
EA: Why you think athletics off-the-track need more youth involvement?
IZ: No matter how old you are, there is no age barrier for good ideas and young people are the ones that are the ones developing and establishing new and popular trends. Look at social media, at big events such as the European Athletics Championships, the teams with young people are the ones working better on social media and they are helping athletics&rsquo; popularity grow.
I&rsquo;d really love to see the federations to hear more the voice of the young people. Also, we have a lot of young athletes but it&rsquo;s disappointing that they don&rsquo;t really want to join &lsquo;the other side&rsquo; and cease their involvement with the sport when they finish their careers.
EA: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
IZ: One big dream of mine is of having an innovative meeting in my country. I want to implement a more popular way of showing athletics. I&rsquo;d like to put athletics in the centre of the city, having different disciplines there so that it can be a part of the cultural life in my country.
I&rsquo;ll continue helping my federation as I&rsquo;m doing now but I definitely see myself as an organiser of a huge event that is a little bit extraordinary.

European Athletics Youth Team's Ivan Zlatev dreams big

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SPAR has been the principal sponsor of European Athletics since 1996, becoming synonymous with the sport during this period. Athletics is a sport where personal endeavour is combined with team participation to achieve success, and SPAR identifies with this principle through its national partners by ensuring that consumers enjoy shopping at SPAR. SPAR retailers continue to develop the brand through sponsorship awareness and through the critical link with individual athletes who are also customers of independent retailers. SPAR is proud to be involved with European Athletics, an organisation which strives to bring passion and enthusiasm for their sport to viewers, spectators and participants.

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Le Gruyère AOP Switzerland began its partnership with European Athletics in 2008 as a top-tier sponsor of all Major Events and the European Athletics U23 and U20  Championships. Le Gruyère is a very high quality natural cheese that has been produced for many centuries in an artisanal method without any additives. VIP guests, athletes and fans have the opportunity to taste this magnificent cheese at European Athletics events sponsored by Le Gruyère AOP Switzerland.

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Toyo Tires is one of the world's largest tire manufacturers. Toyo Tire Corporation was founded in 1945 in Osaka, Japan. In 1975, the manufacturer opened its European headquarters in Germany. The product range includes winter, summer and all-season tyres for motor vehicles as well as van tyres and special off-road products. The philosophy of Toyo Tires is to combine driving pleasure with top performance. This is reflected in each of the products, as well as in its close partnership with European Athletics.

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The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has been the Official Broadcast Partner of European Athletics since 1981. During this 40-year partnership, the outstanding collaboration between both organisations has always been focused on developing European Athletics into a more attractive product for television, spectators and athletes. Through its operational department Eurovision Services, the EBU is continuously working to promote athletics by offering the most comprehensive coverage of European Athletics events all over Europe.

Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with 110,000 employees and an annual revenue of approximately €12 billion. It is the European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high performance computing, and the group provides tailored end-to-end solutions for all industries in 73 countries. A pioneer in decarbonisation services and products, Atos is committed to a secure and decarbonised digital environment for its clients. Atos is a SE (Societas Europaea), and listed on the CAC40 Paris stock index.

Atos is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic and  Paralympic Games. It is also the Timing-Scoring, Results and Operations provider of European Athletics events since 2017, and European Athletics Official Digital Partner for their new digital platform (web and mobile).


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Mondo has designed and produced prefabricated athletics tracks since 1948 and has been a European Athletics partner since 1988. They have combined their skills in the pursuit of a shared goal: to support the growth of athletics with passion and innovation. Mondo’s athletics surfaces offer uniform dynamic response and complete control over stride, rhythm, and balance for every athlete. The advantages of Mondo’s prefabricated track surfaces include optimal performance for athletes regardless of climate and environmental conditions. Mondo operates a careful selection of its raw materials for its track surfaces and constant production as we care about athletes’ health. Mondo products have passed UL Environment Tests for more than 10,000 volatile chemical agents and have attained GREENGUARD Gold certification.

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Opened in 1909 and magnificently restored, the Hotel Royal Savoy Lausanne combines Art Nouveau and modernity with genuine panache. Featuring tailor-made service and unbeatable comfort, this legendary venue is located a short walk from the shores of Lac Leman and offers every guest the absolute luxury of feeling truly at home. The Hotel Royal Savoy is proud to be the Preferred Hotel Partner of European Athletics in Lausanne since 2016, offering valuable support and accommodation services to European Athletics business activities throughout the year.

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The first companies of Würth MODYF Group were founded in Künzelsau, Germany, and Neumarkt, Italy, in 1997 as an independent subsidiary of the Würth Group and can thus look back on more than 25 years of experience in the field of workwear and safety footwear.

Würth MODYF Group currently operates companies in seven countries and has more than 400 employees in Germany, France, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. Smaller sales units support Würth MODYF’s customers in Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium. Würth MODYF Group is continuing to expand internationally, opening new branches all over Europe.

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