That is Stuart Weir’s evaluation of the ROMA 2024 Championships and its impact on Paris 2024. The European Champs befell in Rome on the Stadio Olimpico from June 7-12, 2024.
European Championships – an evaluation
The 2024 European Championships ended with a bang and 32,000 within the stadium. Questions will proceed to be requested concerning the knowledge of holding the occasion in a stadium you can not fill. There’s additionally the query of the place a European Championship matches in an Olympic yr. The argument is that holding the Europeans after the Olympics can be an anti-climax. But in 2022, the Europeans in Munich after the Worlds in Eugene (and for British athletes after a Commonwealth Video games, too) was a roaring success. If, like this yr, it’s held earlier than the Olympics, many prime athletes will skip it to focus on coaching for the large one.
In 2024, British athletes’ participation within the Europeans was non-obligatory – keep in mind that many British athletes are successfully employed by the federation. One British athlete advised me that he had come to Rome for the apply of the championship format – races on consecutive days, no pacemakers, and many others. He stated you may get one-off races any time, however practising for a championship is completely different. One other advised me she understood the mindset which led athletes to skip Rome “for me I used to be wholesome, I’m in fine condition, I didn’t actually see any negatives about coming to Rome, so I assumed ‘why not?’”.
Take into account the highest names in European athletics
Karsten Warholm right here
Femke Bol right here
Jakob Ingebrigtsen right here and competing in two particular person occasions
Keely Hodgkinson right here
Matt Hudson-Smith absent
Josh Kerr absent
Jake Wightman absent
Zharnel Hughes absent
Ben Pattison absent
Laura Muir absent
In the end, we’ll by no means know who made the suitable or fallacious determination. We’re within the sphere of “what ifs.”
What will we be taught from the medal desk?
Golds
11 Italy
4 Britain, France
3 Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland
Whole
24 Italy
16 France
13 Britain
12 Netherlands
11 Germany
28 international locations gained a medal.
Italy did brilliantly. They exploited the house championship, persuaded all their athletes to attend, and the group performed its half. Britain made it non-obligatory for athletes to compete or not. Twenty + medals for GB would have been simply achievable with “the primary staff” current. France obtained just one medal on the 2023 World Championships, so 16 for the Olympic hosts can be very welcome.
Germany once more underachieved for such a giant nation—11 medals, 7 bronze, and a solitary gold. Let’s not learn an excessive amount of into the numbers. Three gold medals for a small nation like Norway is spectacular, but when Warholm and Ingebrigtsen had determined to go coaching as an alternative this week, it could have been zero!
The European Champions in Rome had been nice, however they weren’t a giant pointer to what would occur in Paris.
