2018 is meant to be a historic year for sport on the European continent. For the first time, the European Championships in seven different disciplines are grouped together in a single event. The first edition of the European multisport championships will take place from August 2 to 12 in Berlin and Glasgow. Over 4 athletes, 500 titles at stake, 188 nations, 52 sports and an audience of over half a million spectators.

Athletics will take possession of the Olympic stadium in Berlin. At the same time, Glasgow will host the European meeting place for rowing, cycling, golf, gymnastics, swimming and triathlon.

With this innovation, European sport is shaking up its habits and setting a date for the future. The European multisport championship does not only offer a geographical grouping of disciplines. He defies the arithmetic rules by certifying that 7 times 1 can be significantly more than 7. He invents a new concept of sporting event where the sum of the assets benefits each discipline.

Mediatically, the impact promises to be spectacular. Svein Arne Hansen, president of the European Athletics Association, revealed that “The Berlin and Glasgow meeting would total at least 3 hours of broadcasting. In Zurich, in 300, the European athletics championships had counted 2014 hours ”. Jean-Christophe Rolland, the president of the International Rowing Federation, confided that "The Glasgow Continental Regattas would benefit from more coverage than ever before".

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is the audiovisual partner of the event. More than 40 channels have acquired the rights, including France Télévisions, the BBC for the United Kingdom, ARD / ZDF in Germany, RAI in Italy and TVE in Spain.

The respective program of each of the seven sports has been redesigned to fit into a vast array of events, where the audiovisual media can switch from one highlight to another without having to sacrifice one or the other of the disciplines. The same design was created for the medals awarded in Berlin and Glasgow. A single logo will dress the sites of the seven sports. The cities of Glasgow and Berlin have joined forces to organize, on the sidelines of the competitions, a cultural festival and offer a choice of sports events.

The following ? Even before the opening of the first edition, several European cities have already expressed their interest in succeeding Berlin and Glasgow. The second European Multisport Championship is scheduled for the year 2022. The European federations have scheduled discussions immediately after the 2018 edition and should unveil the name of the host city in the first part of 2019. The next one will take place in 2026.

Did you know?

For golf, this will be a first, an unprecedented European team championship, organized on the prestigious Gleneagles course. The other disciplines have long inscribed the event in their history. Rowing, in particular, saw a first edition in 1893. Swimming and athletics followed, respectively in 1926 and 1934.