Sport in Albania revolves mostly around team sports, such as football, basketball, volleyball and handball. Other sports includes boxing, weightlifting, tennis, swimming, judo, karate, athletics, table tennis, badminton, rugby, cricket, and chess. Football in particular has seen a rapid transformation, with the Albania national football team making its debut at the 1964 UEFA European Football Championship. The national football team also qualified for the 2016 UEFA European Football Championship. Many Albanian athletes have also achieved significant success and have won European and Mediterranean titles in numerous sports during the years, such as wrestling, football, athletics and weightlifting. Albanian athletes have won a total 49 medals for Albania in 8 different Mediterranean sports.
Tereza Moncheva Marinova is a Bulgarian athlete who specialised in the triple jump. She was the gold medallist in that event at the 2000 Summer Olympics and a bronze medallist at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics and 1998 European Athletics Championships. She won triple jump titles at the 2001 IAAF World Indoor Championships and 2002 European Athletics Indoor Championships. She made her international debut in 1994 and retired in 2008.
Tia Hellebaut is a retired Belgian track and field athlete, as well as a chemist, who started out in her sports career in the heptathlon, and afterwards specialized in the high jump event. She has cleared 2.05 metres both indoors and outdoors.
Carlo Thränhardt is a retired German high jumper. He excelled at indoor competitions, setting the world indoor record on three occasions between 1984 and 1988. His best mark of 2.42 metres ranks him second on the indoor all-time list one-centimetre behind world record holder Javier Sotomayor of Cuba. The only superior outdoor performances are Sotomayor's world record of 2.45 m, and Mutaz Essa Barshim's clearance of 2.43 m in 2014. Like all modern high jumpers, Thränhardt used the Fosbury Flop style, but of the 16 men in history to have cleared 2.40 m or higher, he was only the second to do so jumping off his right leg. The first was Igor Paklin. At the European Indoor Championships, he won a gold medal in 1983 and four silver medals. Outdoors, his best championship result was winning a bronze medal at the 1986 European Championships. He also reached the Olympic finals in 1984 and 1988.
Jennifer Brenda "Jenny" Meadows is a retired British athlete. Her main event was the 800 metres, although she previously competed also over the 400 metres. She won the bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships, and a silver at the 2010 World Indoor Championships. At the European Athletics Championships, Meadows took silver outdoors in 2010 and gold indoors in 2011. She also had some international success as part of the Great Britain women's 4 x 400 metres relay squad.
Ivana Španović is a Serbian long jumper, the 2023 World champion, a two-time World indoor champion, a two-time European champion, a three-time European indoor champion and a five-time Diamond League Trophy Winner. Considering her achievements and longevity, Ivana Španović is regarded as one of the greatest female long jumpers of all time, with her indoor 7.24m jump ranked 3rd in all-time records.
Renaud Lavillenie is a French pole vaulter. Lavillenie won the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London and the silver medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. In addition to his Olympic success, he has won three World Indoor Championships gold medals (record), three European Championships gold medals and four European Indoor Championships gold medals. He has also won one silver medal and four bronze medals at the World Championships. As of 25 August 2016, he holds the French national records for the highest pole vault clearance both outdoors and indoors. The 6.16 was the absolute world record for the pole vault for over six years, 2014–2020. He was the pole vault overall winner of the IAAF Diamond League in seven consecutive years, from 2010 to 2016.
Fabrizio Donato is an Italian former athlete who competed in the triple jump and occasionally in the long jump. He is known for winning gold medals at the 2001 Mediterranean Games and the 2009 European Indoor Championships, the latter in a new championship record of 17.59 metres. He is the Italian record holder with 17.60 metres outdoor and 17.73 indoor.
Holly Bethan Bradshaw is an English track and field athlete who specialises in the pole vault. She used to be the British record holder in the event indoors and outdoors, with clearances of 4.87 metres and 4.90 metres. Bradshaw won a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She also won bronze at the 2012 World Indoor Championships, gold at the 2013 European Indoor Championships, bronze at the 2018 European Championships, and silver at the 2019 European Indoor Championships. She also won at the 2018 Athletics World Cup. Coached by Scott Simpson, she has been consistently ranked among the world's best and has been ranked in the world top ten on the Track and Field News merit rankings four times.
Luiza Gega is an Albanian middle- and long-distance runner who specialises in the 3000 metres steeplechase since 2016.
Selina Rutz-Büchel is a Swiss middle-distance runner who competes in the 800 metres. She holds a personal best of 1:57.95 minutes for the event, which she set in 2015 in Paris.
Piotr Lisek is a Polish athlete specialising in the pole vault. He won bronze medals at the 2015 and 2019 World Championships and the silver medal at the 2017 World Championships. He is the first Polish vaulter to jump over 6 meters.
Lorraine Ugen is an English long jumper and occasional 100 m sprinter with respective personal bests of 7.05 m and 11.32 s. Ugen competed for Great Britain at the 2016 Olympics in Rio in the long jump, finishing in eleventh place.
Gao Xinglong is a Chinese male track and field athlete who competes in the long jump. He has a personal best of 8.18 m and is the 2015 Asian champion for the event.
Tudorița Chidu is a Romanian former middle-distance runner who competed in both 800 metres and 1500 metres events. Her personal bests were 1:57.64 minutes and 4:05.69 minutes, respectively. Her greatest honour was a bronze medal in the 1500 m at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in 1991.
Ilona Bruzsenyák is a Hungarian former track and field athlete who competed in the women's pentathlon, long jump and 100 metres hurdles. She was the gold medallist in the long jump at the 1974 European Athletics Championships. Bruzsenyák represented her nation at the Summer Olympics in 1972 and 1976, competing in both long jump and pentathlon. She was a ten-time national champion at the Hungarian Athletics Championships.
Mirosława Kazimiera Sarna is a Polish former track and field athlete who competed in the long jump, short sprints and the women's pentathlon. She was the gold medallist in the long jump at the 1969 European Athletics Championships and was twice a bronze medallist in that discipline at the European Athletics Indoor Championships.
The 2017 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held between 3 and 5 March 2017 at the Kombank Arena in Belgrade, Serbia. This was the second time this event was held in the city after the 1969 edition then known as the European Indoor Games, and the first time in more than 30 years that the competition was held in Eastern Europe. The three-day competition featured 13 men's and 13 women's athletics events and took place over two morning and three afternoon sessions.
Tomasz Jaszczuk is a Polish athlete specialising in the long jump. He finished fourth at the 2017 European Indoor Championships. He also won the silver medal at the 2011 European Junior Championships.
Holly Mills is an English long jumper and heptathlete. She finished fourth both in the pentathlon at the 2022 World Indoor Championships and in the heptathlon at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Mills won bronze medals for the heptathlon at the 2021 European Under-23 Championships and for the long jump at the 2019 European U20 Championships.
