European Athletics Championships
The European Athletics Championships is a biennial athletics event organised by the European Athletic Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe.
Editions
First held, for men only, in 1934 in Turin, and separately for women for the first time in Vienna in 1938, the Championships took place every four years following the end of the World War II, with the exception of the 1969 and 1971 editions, becoming a joint men's and women's competition from the third edition in 1946 in Oslo. Since 2010, they have been organised every two years, and when they coincide with the Summer Olympics, the marathon and racewalking events are not contested. From 2016, a half-marathon event has been held in those Olympic years, and both the marathon and half-marathon events held as part of the Championships also function as the principle European elite team events at those distances.The championships were long dominated by Eastern Bloc countries, especially the Soviet Union and East Germany. About 30 years after the dissolution of both countries, with the 2022 edition, Great Britain & Northern Ireland finally took the lead in the all-time medal table, although that is the case only when predecessor and successor states are not combined. German athletes, who have historically competed for various national teams, have won most gold medals and most medals in total.
In 2018 and 2022, the European Athletics Championships formed part of the quadrennial multi-sport European Championships, a new event designed and held by individual European sports federations. In 2022, European Athletics announced its intention to withdraw from the multi-sport event for 2026.
The 2020 edition set for Charlety Stadium in Paris was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making this the first cancellation of the event since the 1942 championship was abandoned due to World War II. The event was not moved to an alternative date, with Munich continuing as the scheduled host in 2022.
An indoor equivalent, the European Athletics Indoor Championships, is organised by the European Athletic Association in odd numbered years.
While the European Games of 2015 featured athletics, as did the Games in 2023, these events are not editions of the European Athletics Championships. Instead, from 2023, the European Games athletics program consists of alternating editions of the biennial European Athletics Team Championships, a national team championships also arranged by European Athletics which includes European Games medals for individuals.
Notes: ♂ – men, ♀ – women
All-time medal table
Updated after the 2024 European Athletics Championships.Former countries are pointed in italic. Team medals in half marathon and marathon are not included into this table.
- was the name, under which Russian athletes competed in the 2016 and 2018 Championships. Their medals were not included in the official medal table.
Championship records
Multiple winners
Boldface denotes active athletes and highest medal count among all athletes per type.Discus thrower Sandra Elkasević of Croatia holds the record for most gold medals at seven.