The annual European Athletics Convention got underway this year in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia on Friday (25) with more than 300 delegates from 48 Member Federations gathering for an insightful day of inspiration and exploration across the sport’s most pertinent topics.
Both the morning and afternoon sessions in the Macedonian capital consisted of three workshops apiece.
The latter opened with the workshop ‘Health and Wellbeing - Reaching new audience to grow your sport’, European Athletics Development Commission Chair Karin Grute Movin opened the session which offered case studies from across Europe demonstrating how the sport can harness this area for development.
30% increase in U16 participation in host nation
Among the presenters was Ana Krstevska-Kajcevski of the North Macedonia Federation who shared a national programme through health and wellbeing that has resulted in a 30% increase in U16 participation in the country.
Also on stage was Sara Sánchez Muñiz of the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation, a city planner by profession, she is leading on Madrid becoming the first European Capital of Running, to deliver and active and healthy legacy the Spanish capital hosting the 2025 European Athletics Team Championships First Division next June.
Emmanuelle Jaeger of the French Athletics Federation shared the Diagnoform tool which is being deployed by the federation to assess the fitness of different demographics and recommending solutions to support health and wellbeing. For example, one metric is how walking at 85% of maximum speed can “considerably improve your health and fitness.”
Good Governance
Meanwhile, goverance expert David Grevemberg CBE of the Centre for Sport and Human Rights presented 'Beyond the finish line: a relevant governance for a safe future'.
He stressed that: “Governance is how we make decisions and ultimately how we behave.” and outlines four principles of good governance: accountability, transparency, responsibility and fairness."
Sportz Interactive also delivered the presentation “From a Digital Transformation to a Digital Monetisation,” which looked at the importance of digital platforms from a perspective of design, usability, functionality and offerings to support the experience of consuming the sport.
"It's not about the tech or other buzzwords, it's always about the sports fan. Athletics has many different audiences so it's a question of how you build those audiences. Digital transformation will drive fan engagement… and then meaningful monetisation,” said Arvind Iyengar, Chair Sportz Interactive & Sportz Solutions Global CEO.
"Ruthlessly entertaining"
Earlier in the morning session, on 'Reimagining Competition', Jakob Larsen and Florian Weber of World Athletics presented insights from recent major championships from both the athletics community and casual fans of the sport, citing data that demonstrated a stronger appetite for innovation from the sport's audience beyond the hardcore athletics aficionado.
In addition, they gave a taster of what to expect at the 2026 World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest, promising it to be “ruthlessly entertaining.”
Luca Verrascina of World Athletics, one of the world's leading techical experts in athletics, presented the benefits of wearable technology and how it will be used in road events at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 to deliver data that will provide audiences with richer, deeper experience of the sport.
Breakout workshops allowed delegates to explore ideas in areas of national championships, combined events, European Athletics Team Championships, cross country and authenticity.
European Athletics’ partner and preferred supplier CONICA presented 'Athletics Tracks – the needs of tomorrow' which explored product innovation, performance, sustainability and durability that will best support the athletics community into the future.
“Force generation of athletes in different events vary substantially," explained Professor Steffen Willwacher from CONICA. “Tracks need to consider this diversity to allow for optimal performance and low injury risk."
There was also a workshop to “Create value for stakeholders – partners, spectators, and athletes,” an exploration into how social wellbeing can trigger the delivery of new value for host cities of major events.
The topics covered included a focus on sustainability, where Stuart Campbell, Director of the World Indoor Championships Glasgow 24 cited the importance of this issue among competitors. “75% of our sport’s athletes perceive a direct negative impact on their health and performance due to climate change,” he revealed.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics