With 8 South Tyroleans: Why the European Games are important

10 months after the European Championships in Munich, Poland will host the European Games from today until July 2nd. The multi-sport event is attractive because it is the European Championship in 12 sports at the same time and because it already offers the opportunity to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in numerous sports. What are the European Games? The European Olympic Committees decided in 2012 to establish a major continental sporting event - analogous to the Asian Games or Pan American Games. The first venues were Baku in Azerbaijan in 2015 and Minsk in Belarus in 2019. They compete with the European Championships, which were held in Munich in August 2022. Where are the competitions held? The heart of the European Games with 12 days of competition is Krakow, where the winners are determined in 11 sports alone. The Polish cities of Chorzow, Krzeszowice, Tarnow, Krynica-Zdroj, Zakopane, Nowy Tark, Rzeszow, Wroclaw, Nowy Sacz, Oswiecim, Bielsko-Biala and Myslenice are additional locations. What significance do the European Games have? The European Games are an important intermediate stage on the way to the Olympic Games in Paris next year. 18 Olympic sports with 19 disciplines offer the chance to fight for quota or ranking points. In addition, European championship titles are awarded simultaneously in 11 sports: badminton, fencing, judo, canoeing (slalom, sprint), athletics, modern pentathlon, cycling (BMX/MTB), water sports (synchronized swimming, diving), taekwondo, table tennis and triathlon. Are there also South Tyroleans there? Yes, there will be 6 women and 2 men from South Tyrol at the European Games. Badminton is most strongly represented with a trio consisting of Yasmine Hamza, Judith Mair and David Salutt, plus the two table tennis players Giorgia Piccolin and Debora Vivarelli, Barbara Gambaro and Simon Weithaler in shooting and Verena Steinhauser in triathlon. Table tennis starts on Friday. Are there also competitions in non-Olympic sports? New trend sports outside of the Olympic program are also represented at the European Games. These include Muay Thai (martial arts from Thailand) or Teqball, which is played with a normal football on a kind of table tennis table, or Padel, a game derived from tennis. Beach handball and beach soccer can also be seen. The “Side Events” category presents mountain racing, amputee football, mountain running and orienteering, chess and sumo. Which competitions are particularly in focus? In the first week the attention belongs to the track and field athletes. They are holding their European team championships in Chorzow near Katowice. For the first time at a major sporting event in the summer, some of the world's best ski jumpers will slide off the jump on mats in Zakopane.

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With 8 South Tyroleans: Why the European Games are important

The European Games begin in Poland on Wednesday. 27 sports are represented and 8 South Tyroleans are also there. S+ provides information about the multi-sport event.

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