The 2018 European Championships was a new concept of holding multiple, individual-sport championships together at the same time. Six sports – aquatics, cycling, golf, gymnastics, rowing and triathlon – were held in Glasgow (GBR) and athletics was held in Berlin (GER) all inside tthe 2-12 August timeframe.
The overall organizing committee announced that “The inaugural multi-sport 2018 European Championships saw 4,500 athletes from 52 nations compete, with new European Champions crowned in a total of 187 medal events representing 33 countries.
“The event was broadcast across Europe with more than 3,500 hours of free-to-air programming across 43 territories in Europe, estimated to reach an audience of approximately 1.03 billion viewers.”
The spectator attendance in Berlin was excellent (more on this below) and there were significant audiences for many of the other events. Bringing swimming, gymnastics and track & field together in the same program was clearly a winner and adding cycling – enormously popular in Europe – was also a winner. There are “talks” about hosts for 2022 and 2026 already, but having split venues does not make much sense for the future.
The only loser in this program was the fledgling European Games, which will take place in Minsk (BLR) next year and will have to go some to replicate the performances – or the excitement – generated in Glasgow and Berlin.
