The European Athletics Championships are coming to Amsterdam! Not since the Olympic Games in 1928 has the Dutch capital staged a major athletics event but that will all change from 6-10 July 2016, when some 1,300 athletes from 50 countries will be competing for medals in 44 athletics disciplines.
The historical Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam will be the venue for this unique sport event which will be held in the Netherlands for the first time.
One of the great aspects of the event will be that it is going to be held at the venue which hosted those Games, bringing the past and the present together.
And it will also be a European Athletics Championships with a difference because qualification for two of the events, the discus and javelin, will be at the Museumplein, the huge public area in the south of the city which will be transformed into a sporting arena for the occasion.
It is a format which is exciting one of the Netherlands’ greatest athletes, Ellen van Langen, their Olympic 800m champion in 1992 who said:
The idea to hold a number of events elsewhere in the city is a real innovation. People are already talking about this in wonder. With the Olympic Stadium we already have an iconic venue for the European Championships, but the javelin and discus throw at the Museumplein will be a great success.
Named after the city of Amsterdam, Adam the lion is the mascot and face of the championships will be there when the javelins fly across the Museumplein, greet you when you enter the Olympic Stadium and support the athletes on their way to eternal fame.
A biennial European Athletics Championships provides athletes with a more regular stage of which to become top-level champions. The Olympic-year European Athletics Championships ensures that athletes on the continent compete more often in a flagship event during the peak of their careers. The two-year format creates more European champions, more stars, more inspirational moments and more smiling faces.
And the Dutch athletes are looking forward to competing at such a big event in front of their home fans.
It would be cool to be cheered on in such a special city as Amsterdam. And the European Championships in 2016 will be my first big tournament in my home country. That makes it extra special to me.