European Athletics Championships to take place in Great Britain for the first time ever

It’s not been long since the Commonwealth Games were in Birmingham but it looks like some of the world’s best athletes will be returning once again to the city in four years time.

This is because Birmingham, according to The Guardian, is set to be awarded the 2026 European Athletics Championships.

The withdrawal of the bid from Budapest, the host of the 2023 World Athletics Championships, means that Birmingham will have a chance to build on its legacy from the Commonwealth Games in a similar, albeit scaled down, fashion to London hosting the World Athletics Championships five years after the 2012 Olympics.

Since the turn of the century Great Britain has hosted the Olympics (2012), World Athletics Championships (2017), three Commonwealth Games (2002, 2014, 2022), two World Indoors (2003 and 2018) – about to be three in 2024 – and two European Indoors (2007 and 2019).

However, it has never hosted a European Athletics Championships. It will be the 27th edition in 2026.

British athletes enjoyed huge success at the most recent event in Munich and Great Britain finished second to Germany in the final athletics table with six golds, six silvers and eight bronzes.

Golds came from Keely Hodgkinson, Laura Muir, Matthew Hudson-Smith, Zharnel Hughes and the men’s 4x100m and 4x400m teams.

According to The Guardian, Birmingham is to be awarded the hosting rights on November 11 and it will likely be a standalone event, unlike the multi-sport bonanzas we saw at Glasgow 2014, Berlin 2018 at Munich 2022.

Given Birmingham’s success in hosting a multi-sports Commonwealth Games this past summer, there will no doubt be calls for the city to host a wider championships and not one exclusive to athletics.

Back in May, European Championship Management – responsible for deciding the compilation of the event – told insidethegames that seven to ten sports would likely make up a multi-sport championships.

Whether athletics will be a part of that is a question for the future.