Today (9) marks the 150 days to go countdown to the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships which takes place in the iconic Stadio Olimpico from 7-12 June.
Roma 2024 will be the biggest outdoor athletics event in the build-up to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in early August with multiple reigning world and Olympic champions due to compete for European honours in the Italian capital.
Tickets are on sale here and until 31 January, fans are able to buy a third ticket for free when they purchase two individual evening session tickets.
The Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships coincide with a significant milestone, marking 50 years since Italy last staged the biennial championships when the event also took place in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome in 1974.
One of the highlights of those championships was Italian legend Pietro Mennea - who still holds the European 200m record at 19.72 - sprinting to gold from lane two in the 200m in front of 60,000 spectators for Italy’s only gold medal of the championships, emulating Livio Berrutti who won gold in the same event at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.
In total, Italy has won 44 gold medals in European Athletics Championships history and the host nation enjoyed their best campaign since 1990 at the Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships where they came away with three gold medals - Marcell Jacobs (100m), Yemaneberhan Crippa (10,000m) and Gianmarco Tamberi (high jump) - and 11 medals in total.
If any was needed, further proof of the current strength of Italian athletics was on display at the Silesia 2023 European Athletics Team Championships where a team captained by reigning Olympic and European high jump champion Gianmarco Tamberi - who has been vocal in expressing his intentions to compete in Roma 2024 en route to his Olympic title defence - landed their first ever team title as a collective.
Italy won five Olympic gold medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and with race walking events added to the programme for the first time in an Olympic-year edition of the European Athletics Championships, it seems highly probable all of Italy’s reigning Olympic champions will be competing at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships this June.
Massimo Stano and Antonella Palmisano won double gold in the 20km race walk at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and both race walkers are motivated and excited by the prospect of a home European Athletics Championships.
“I can't imagine what it means to be the first to enter the Stadio Olimpico: it would be fantastic, because the European Championship is the only title I'm missing,” said Stano, who also won the 35km race walk title at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Palmisano said: “The finish of the race will be inside the stadium and it will be so beautiful. This hasn't happened since the 2015 World Championships, and I have goosebumps when I think about it.”
Stay tuned for more exciting announcements related to Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships including the course reveal for the half marathon which will be announced across our social media channels in the weeks to come.