Joint press release regarding the European Championships 2022 issued by the City of Munich, the Free State of Bavaria and the Federal Government.
Now it is official: The City of Munich will host the European Championships 2022. The umbrella organisation European Championships Management (ECM) has announced today that it will award the multi-sports event with seven European Championships to Munich. Exactly 50 years after the 1972 Olympic Games, the Olympic Park will thus be once more the venue for an internationally significant sports events.
Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter stated: “The European Championships are an exciting new format with some of the most spectacular sports of the Olympic Program. Exactly 50 years after the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, I could not imagine a better anniversary event. Munich is a sports city where two thirds of the citizens are actively involved in sports, many of them in the dedicated Munich sports clubs. And this sports enthusiasm of the Munich residents, together with the enthusiasm of the surely numerous sports fans from Germany and abroad, will contribute to a thrilling atmosphere at the European Championships.”
Bavaria’s Interior and Sports Minister Joachim Herrmann called the awarding to Munich “a great opportunity for sports and a highlight for the population in Bavaria, enthusiastic about sports. I hope that the European Championships will not only be a great impetus for the popular and competitive sports. Such a large international celebration of sports also inspires in particular the voluntary commitment to and in the sports that are usually not that much in the limelight as compared to football. Munich deserves to host a major sports event again on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Olympics, the Olympic Park still enjoying, even decades after its establishment, the highest reputation in the world of sports.”
The Federal Minister of the Interior, Building and Community Horst Seehofer stated: “The European Championships 2022 are an extraordinary major sports event. The decision for Munich is a great success for German sports. Also with regard to its history, the Olympic Park in Munich is a most suitable venue for the event. We have thus once again the opportunity to present Germany as a country that is enthusiastic about sports and welcoming. Together with the spectators, I am already looking forward to this great sports event: exciting competitions against a local backdrop.”
Hosting the event in Munich is possible thanks to the joint support by the City of Munich, the Free State of Bavaria and the federal government. The financing requirements for this major sports event, amounting to 100 Million Euros, are borne together.
The European Championships are a new format for major sports events having been implemented for the first time in 2018 in Berlin and Glasgow. In so doing, the European Championships of several summer sports are centrally combined at the same time.
On eleven days, European Championships in seven sports will take place in Munich. Around 150 medal decisions are scheduled, more than 4,000 athletes are expected. Six of the seven sports are already certain: athletics, gymnastics, rowing, cycling, triathlon and golf. Among the more than 14,000 events having been held at the Olympic Park until now, this will be the biggest event since the 1972 Olympic Games.