European athletes won twelve gold medals in the male disciplines at the Tokyo Olympic Games and no less than eleven of them will return to Paris 2024 to attempt to retain their Olympic titles in the coming days.
Olympic champions and world leaders
Four of the eleven Tokyo gold medallists will also arrive in Paris as world leaders. Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the men’s 1500m, Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi in the men’s high jump, Sweden’s Armand Duplantis in the men’s pole vault and Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou.
Ingebrigtsen will also take on the 5000m, a distance where he is current world and European champion. But it is the 1500m which is one of the most hotly anticipated events of the Olympic Games, where he faces British rival Josh Kerr, who got the better of Ingebrigtsen at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, winning 1500m gold.
Tamberi. Duplantis and Tentoglou have all landed gold already this summer at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships and will be favoured for more glory in France.
Top step beckons
The other Tokyo gold medallists aiming to retain their titles are Italian winners Marcell Jacobs (100m), the Azzurri men’s 4x100m team, Massimo Stano (20km race walk) and Norway’s Karsten Warholm (400m hurdles), Portugal's Pedro Pichardo (triple jump), Sweden's Daniel Ståhl (discus) and Poland's Wojciech Nowicki (hammer).
Also pushing for the top step on the Olympic podium are world leaders Matthew Hudson-Smith of Great Britain (400m), Jordan Alejandro Díaz Fortun of Spain (triple jump), Lithuania’s Mykolas Alekna (discus), Germany’s Max Dehning (javelin) and Germany’s Leo Neugebauer (decathlon).
Fascinating clashes
The men’s triple jump looks set to be another fascinating rematch of the Iberian clash between Diaz Fortun and Pichardo that took place at Roma 2024, which Diaz Fortun won with a world lead 18.18m to Pichardo’s 18.04m, only the second competition ever in which two men went beyond 18 metres.
Dehning hasn’t been able to replicate his world-leading winter throw of 90.20m during the summer months and Czechia's Jakub Vadlejch, winner in Roma 2024 with the second best throw of the year when he reached 88.65m, is more favoured from among the European contingent of javelin throwers.
As ever, the men’s discus is sure to have a strong European flavour with Alekna, Stahl and Slovenia’s European gold medallist Krisjan Ceh all likely to be in the mix. Similarly, the decathlon will see European athletes having a big say in where the medals go.
World record holder Kevin Mayer has been France’s big hope for gold in the years leading up to Paris but he faces a race against time to be fit after picking up an injury at the Paris Diamond League after placing fifth at Roma 2024 to secure the qualification standard.
Estonia’s Johannes Erm won gold at Roma 2024 and is sure to put in another formidable challenge in Paris.
The only Tokyo winner from Europe that will be missing in Paris is Poland’s Dawid Tomola, winner of the men’s 50km race walk in Japan, as his event has been removed from the Olympic programme although he is a reserve for the marathon race walk mixed relay.
The athletics action gets underway in Paris with the men’s 20km race walk at 06:30 CET.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics