The European Athletics Rising Star awards have marked the starter point for the continent’s most successful athletes in their subsequent senior careers.
This Saturday (26) at the Golden Tracks award ceremony in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia Rising Stars finalists Tomas Jarvinen, Iosif Kesidis and Niels Laros will be hoping to follow in some esteemed footsteps in the men’s category. Here’s a quick look back over the ten previous winners of the men’s Rising Star award.
This year's Golden Tracks award night starts at 2000 local time (CEST) and will be streamed live of the European Athletics YouTube channel when the winners will be announced and presented with their trophies!
• 2023 - Mattia Furlani (ITA)
In adding the European U20 title to the European U18 title he won a year earlier in the same Givat Ram Stadium in Jerusalem, the long jumper confirmed his status as another great Italian hope with a brilliant 8.23m leap.
He has moved seamlessly to the senior ranks, winning Olympic bronze, world Indoor silver and silver at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships, where he leapt to a world U20 record of 8.38m.
• 2022 - Mykolas Alekna (LTU)
Still aged 19 and in a discipline were athletes typically make a gradual transition to the senior ranks, Mykolas Alekna threw convention to one side and his discus to European Athletics Championships gold in Munich and world silver in Eugene, USA in a sensational season.
The Lithuanian has continued with this steep trajectory. This year he won Olympic silver and European bronze medals, and also set a new world record of 74.35m in Oklahoma, USA to break a long-standing mark that had stood for nearly 38 years.
• 2021 - Sasha Zhoya (FRA)
In a brilliant season, 110m hurdler Sasha Zhoya cleaned up both major U20 titles, winning gold at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tallinn, Estonia before going on win gold at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya in a still-standing world U20 record of 12.72 over the U20 99.0cm barriers.
Since then, he has added the European U23 title in Espoo, Finland last year and although he was disappointed to miss out on the final at the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, he took a significant step forward in 2024 with three Diamond League wins in Paris, Rome and Brussels.
• 2020 - not held
• 2019 - Niklas Kaul (GER)
Aged 21, the German decathlete won gold at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Gavle, Sweden before going on to sensationally triumph at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar to become the youngest ever world champion in the discipline.
He went on to win another gold at the Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships and remains a tough competitor at the top level, placing fourth at Roma 2024 and eighth at the Olympics Games Paris 2024.
• 2018 - Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR) and Armand Duplantis (SWE)
The Nordic duo were outstanding winners at the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships and were joint winners.
Norway's Ingebrigtsen won an incredible 1500m/5000m double and Swedish pole vaulter Duplantis cleared six metres for the first time, with 6.05m to win gold.
In the German capital, the 17-year-old Ingebrigtsen achieved this feat at the premier continental championship for the first time before repeating this feat in 2022 and 2024 while Duplantis vaulted over a world U20 record and championship record of 6.05m aged just 18.
They have continued their parallel brilliance in intervening years. Mondo is a twice Olympic, twice world and three-time European champion and has – of course – taken the world record to ever greater heights with 10 improvements up to 6.26m this year.
Ingebrigtsen has plundered two Olympic gold medals, two world gold medals and now has six European outdoor golds. This year he broke the long standing men’s 3000m record with a superb 7:17:55 in Silesia, the same meeting where Mondo produced his latest world record.
Like in 2022 and 2023, both men are finalists for this year's men’s European Athlete of the Year.
• 2017 - Karsten Warholm (NOR)
A year on from making his Olympic debut, the Norwegian set about revolutionising the 400m hurdles with his trademark all-out attacking style, winning gold at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland and then at the World Athletics Championships in London, aged 21.
He went on to win gold at the Olympic games in Tokyo in a world record 45.94 and remains a formidable presence on the international circuit. He is a three-times world gold medallist and won Olympic silver this year, as well as his third successive European title at Roma 2024.
• 2016 - Max Heß (GER)
While still only 19, the German triple jumper won silver at the World Indoor Championships in Portland, USA and then took gold at the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam.
He is a four-time bronze medallist at the European Athletics Indoor Championships and was seventh at this year's Olympic Games in Paris.
• 2015 - Konrad Bukowiecki (POL)
Still only 17, the giant Polish shot putter placed sixth at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague, Czechia. Turning 18, he then scooped the gold medal at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Eskilstuna, Sweden.
He has since gone on to win European indoor title in 2017 and Wolrd University Games gold medals in 2019 and 2023. This year, he represented Poland at both the Olympic Games and European Athletics Championships.
• 2014 - Adam Gemili (GBR)
Aged 20, the British sprinter ran a blistering 19.98 to win 200m gold at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich, Switzerland and later added 4x100m gold with his British teammates.
He went on to place fourth over 200m at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. He twice retained European 4x100m gold and remains a part of the British relay squad.
• 2013 - Emir Bekric (SRB)
After a highly impressive victory at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Tampere, Finland, the 22-year-old Serbian 400m hurdler won bronze at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow, Russia. Bekric retired from the sport at the end of the 2019 season.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics