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The European Games is a continental multi-sport event in the Olympic tradition contested by athletes from countries served by national Olympic committees within the European Olympic Committees (EOC), the regional association for such committees. The EOC represents European nations and several transcontinental countries. An EOC Refugee team is also included. The Games were envisioned and are governed by the EOC which announced their launch at its 41st General Assembly in Rome, on 8 December 2012. [1]
The European Games are the 5th continental Games in the Olympic tradition to be initiated, after the Asian Games, Pan American Games, Pacific Games and African Games. Therefore, as of 2015, every sporting continent [2] has continental games in the Olympic tradition. [3]
The European Games are not related to the European Championships, a separate multi-sport event organised by individual European sports federations, bringing together the individual European Championships of sports such as athletics, swimming, artistic gymnastics, cycling, rowing, golf, and triathlon under a single 'brand' on a four-year cycle beginning in 2018, and broadcast by agreement with the EBU. [4]
The European Games are also the third event created and organised by the EOC. The European Youth Olympic Festivals, both winter and summer, and broadly mirroring the Youth Olympic Games are organised biennially, while the quadrennial Games of the Small State of Europe (not to be confused with the separate Island Games) provide competition opportunities for the handful of microstates in the European continent. As of 2024 there are no EOC endorsed European Winter Games.
The 2015 European Games, the first edition of the event, took place in Baku, Azerbaijan in June 2015, and further editions were planned to be held every four years thereafter. The 2019 edition was held in Minsk, Belarus from 21 to 30 June on a reduced scale when the original host, the Netherlands, withdrew. The 2023 edition was held in Kraków, Poland from 21 June to 2 July. The 2027 edition will be held in Istanbul, Turkey.
Edition | Year | Host City | Host Nation | Opened by | Start Date | End Date | Nations | Competitors | Sports | Events | Top Placed Team | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
I | 2015 | Baku | Azerbaijan | President Ilham Aliyev | 12 June | 28 June | 50 | 5,898 | 21 | 253 | Russia (RUS) | [5] |
II | 2019 | Minsk | Belarus | President Alexander Lukashenko | 21 June | 30 June | 4,082 | 15 | 200 | Russia (RUS) | [6] | |
III | 2023 | Kraków-Małopolska | Poland | President Andrzej Duda | 21 June | 2 July | 48 | 6,857 | 29 | 254 | Italy (ITA) | [7] |
IV | 2027 | Istanbul | Turkey | President of Turkey (expected) | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | [8] |
As of the 2023 edition, 50 nations whose National Olympic Committee is recognized by the European Olympic Committee have competed at the European Games. As of 2023, two of these, Russia and Belarus, are suspended. In addition, a Refugee EOC team has been created to take part. [9]
The 2019 Minsk European Games Sports Programme included 15 sports, 23 disciplines, 10 qualifying sports to Tokyo 2020, 4 Sports European Championship, for a total of 4082 competitors in 201 medal events.
The figures in each cell indicate the number of events for each sport contested at the respective Games.
Rank | NOC | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Russia (RUS) | 123 | 64 | 86 | 273 |
2 | Italy (ITA) | 58 | 67 | 63 | 188 |
3 | Ukraine (UKR) | 45 | 43 | 51 | 139 |
4 | Germany (GER) | 43 | 39 | 73 | 155 |
5 | Great Britain (GBR) | 36 | 30 | 53 | 119 |
6 | France (FRA) | 35 | 41 | 57 | 133 |
7 | Spain (ESP) | 34 | 30 | 36 | 100 |
8 | Belarus (BLR) | 33 | 27 | 51 | 111 |
9 | Azerbaijan (AZE) | 29 | 27 | 39 | 95 |
10 | Netherlands (NED) | 25 | 31 | 21 | 77 |
11–46 | Remaining | 246 | 307 | 425 | 978 |
Totals (46 entries) | 707 | 706 | 955 | 2,368 |
A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games. They may nominate cities within their respective areas as candidates for future Olympic Games. NOCs also promote the development of athletes and the training of coaches and officials at a national level within their geographies.
Finswimming is an underwater sport consisting of four techniques involving swimming with the use of fins either on the water's surface using a snorkel with either monofins or bifins or underwater with monofin either by holding one's breath or using open circuit scuba diving equipment. Events exist over distances similar to swimming competitions for both swimming pool and open water venues. Competition at world and continental level is organised by the Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques. The sport's first world championship was held in 1976. It also has been featured at the World Games as a trend sport since 1981 and was demonstrated at the 2015 European Games in June 2015.
The International University Sports Federation is responsible for the organization and governance of worldwide sports competitions for student-athletes between the ages of 17 and 25. It was founded in 1949 as the world governing body of national university sports organizations and currently has 165 member associations from five continents. Between 1949 and 2011, it was based in Brussels (Belgium); it was relocated to Lausanne (Switzerland) since 2011.
The Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE) is a biennial multi-sport event, launched by the Republic of San Marino, organized by and featuring the National Olympic Committees of nine European small states since 1985. The Games are held at the end of May or beginning of June and feature competition in nine Summer Olympic sports.
The European Olympic Committees is an organisation based in Rome, Italy, consisting of 50 National Olympic Committees from the continent of Europe. Among other duties, the EOC organizes three major multi-sport events. These are the European Youth Olympic Festival, the Games of the Small States of Europe and the European Games.
The European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) is a biennial multi-sport event for youth athletes from the 50 member countries of the association of European Olympic Committees. The festival has a summer edition, held for the first time in Brussels in 1991, and a winter edition, which began two years later in Aosta. It was known as the European Youth Olympic Days from 1991 to 1999.
The 1st European Games, also known as the 2015 European Games or Baku 2015, were the inaugural edition of the European Games, an international multi-sport event for athletes representing the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of the European Olympic Committees. It took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 12 to 28 June 2015, and featured almost 6,000 athletes from 50 countries competing in 30 sports, including 15 summer Olympic and 2 non-Olympic sports.
Canoeing was contested at the 2015 European Games between 14 and 16 June 2015.
The 2nd European Games 2019, also known as the 2019 European Games or Minsk 2019, were held in Minsk, Belarus, from 21 June to 30 June 2019. The games featured 200 events in 15 sports. Around 4,000 athletes from 50 countries participated. Ten of the sports offered qualification opportunities for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. The opening ceremony at the Dinamo Stadium was held on 21 June, and the closing ceremony at the same venue was held on 30 June.
The 2015 European Judo Championships were organised by the European Judo Union. Initially it was planned that championships will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, from 9 to 12 April 2015. On 21 February 2015, it was announced that competition would be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, during the 2015 European Games. The individual contests took place on 25–27 June 2015.
Gymnastics at the European Games refers to instances where events in the field of gymnastics were held as part of the European Games.
An all-time medal table for all European Games from 2015, is tabulated below. The EOC itself does not publish all-time tables, and publishes unofficial tables only per single Games.
The 3rd European Games, also known as the 2023 European Games or Kraków-Małopolska 2023, was an international multi-sport event held from 21 June to 2 July 2023 in Kraków and Małopolska, Poland. It was the first time that Poland hosted the European Games. All Olympic sports held at the European Games provided qualification opportunities for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.
Belarus participated at the inaugural edition of the European Games in 2015. The European Olympic Committees (EOC) banned Russia and Belarus from competing at the 2023 European Games after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Beach Soccer has been part of each edition of the European Games (EG) – a quadrennial, multi-sport event – since the inaugural edition in 2015 as a men's sport, and since the third edition in 2023 as a women's sport. The competition is under the direction of the European Olympic Committees (EOCs); beach soccer's governing bodies are represented by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) at the Games.
Jonathan Horne is a German karateka. At the 2018 World Karate Championships in Madrid, Spain, he won the gold medal in the men's +84 kg event. He represented Germany at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
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Badminton is a core sport of the European Games. It has been a European Games sport since the inaugural edition.
The 4th European Games, also known as the 2027 European Games or Istanbul 2027, is an upcoming fourth edition of the European Games planned to be held in 2027 in Istanbul, Turkey.