Beach Volleyball, Canoe Sprint, Sport Climbing and Table Tennis have been added to the now-finalized sports programme of nine sports for the multi-sport 2022 European Championships in Munich.
The respective European Championships in the four sports join those in Athletics, Cycling, Gymnastics, Rowing and Triathlon for the event that will take place Thursday 11th to Sunday 21st August 2022.
Aleksandar Boričić, President of the Confédération Européenne de Volleyball (CEV) said, “It is truly great news for our Beach Volleyball family that we have reached an agreement for Beach Volleyball to feature at the next edition of the multi-sport European Championships in Munich. Germany has been a major Beach Volleyball force for many years, making history through their top teams by securing Europe’s very first Olympic and World Championships gold medals in the sport. The event in such an iconic, vibrant and cosmopolite city as Munich will provide the ideal stage for many more people to enjoy our fresh, highly entertaining and dynamic sport, inspiring the next generation of players and rising the popularity of Beach Volleyball to unprecedented heights. It is an amazing opportunity that all of our stakeholders can look forward to. We feel privileged to be able to share this exciting journey with colleagues and friends from many other sports, especially further to the enormous success achieved by the inaugural European Championships held in 2018 in Glasgow and Berlin.”
Albert Woods OBE, President of the European Canoe Association (ECA), said, ‘’I am delighted that the Sport of Canoe Sprint is included in the European Championships 2022 in Munich. It will be a great European Championships for us and also represents 50 years since the Munich Olympic Games 1972. I am sure it will prove to be a well organised multi-sport European Championships, and on behalf of the whole sport of canoeing I find this a great honour to be a part of it.’’
Ronald Kramer, President of the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU), said, “From the first time we heard of the initiative and later, during and after the first European Championships in Glasgow and Berlin in 2018, we were captured by the philosophy and objectives of this undertaking. It perfectly matches ETTU’s ambition to put more focus and attention on our sport in Europe, the historic birthplace and most active continent in the table tennis world. Being part of the EC2022 gives table tennis a great platform to organise our European Championships in a multi-sports event, leading to better opportunities for promoting our sport in Europe. We are not just very excited about our participation, but also honoured to be part of this select group of sports, holding their 2022 European Championships in Munich, in a country with a great record in table tennis, in top level competitions, with large numbers of athletes and spectators. Germany's vast experience in organising world-level table tennis events will certainly contribute to the success of the event. There is still a lot to be done, but I am more than confident that ETTU will be able to live up to the high expectations. We are very much looking forward to actively taking part in the preparatory work and to show the best of our European sport at Munich in August 2022.”
Marco Maria Scolaris, President of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC), said, “In these difficult times, we are proud to be welcome in a great event like the European Championships 2022. Looking forward to our event in Munich is a sign of recognition of the IFSC and of the work we have done over the years. This achievement encourages the IFSC to continue on its project of reorganization of its Councils, for the development of the sport. After the inclusion in the Asian Games in 2018, now also in Europe we are moving to another level. Finally, I have to thank European Championships Management and the city of Munich for their confidence. On our side, I want to congratulate (IFSC European Council) President (Wolfgang) Wabel for his commitment, and the DAV (German Alpine Club) for their support.”
The LEN European Aquatics Championships and European Golf Team Championships, participating sports in 2018, will not be part of the 2022 European Championships.
Across the nine sports, about 4,400 athletes from 50 countries are set to compete in a total of 158 medal events. The Munich Olympic Park will be an important symbol of sustainability on the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Summer Games with the iconic location set to be the heart of the second edition of the European Championships. The majority of events and activities will take place in and around the park in order to create an extraordinary festival atmosphere that allows athletes from different sports to experience the event together and visitors to embrace multiple events.
The multi-sport European Championships is an 11-day celebration of world-class sport that brings together existing individual continental championships into one coordinated event staged every four years. The Championships has a central timetable, uniform branding on-site, on-air and across digital and print media, with an overall country ranking table.
Munich 2022 is the second edition following the outstanding success of the inaugural European Championships in 2018, with Glasgow and Berlin successfully staging seven European Championships with 13 disciplines, providing a unique platform to elevate the Champions of Europe. A television audience of more than 1.4 billion watched this memorable first edition on free-to-air channels via EBU Member broadcasters and partners in 44 territories across Europe and worldwide.
