Dear Colleagues,
As we approach the conclusion of yet another year marked by significant achievements for the European Olympic Movement, let us consider the progress we have made as a European family, while anticipating the excitement that the Olympic Games Paris 2024 are sure to bring.
I extend my heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you for the invaluable contributions you have made and for the huge commitment you have demonstrated throughout 2023. This year has been one of the busiest in the European Olympic Movement’s history. We have come together to deliver no fewer than four multisport Games, two major gatherings of Europe’s National Olympic Committees and many other meetings, including those of our Commissions. All this has been focused on further developing our continent’s sporting life and providing opportunities for our athletes.
We were welcomed with open arms in Poland in June for Krakow Malopolska 2023, the 3rd European Games. The organisers in Poland overcame significant challenges surrounding time and resources in making sure the Games were ready and ran smoothly. Our Coordination Commission, chaired by Hasan Arat, was able to effectively deliver the benefits of our experience. And the result was a Games with a good level of service, a great experience for the athletes and many useful innovations, all delivered in a cost-effective and efficient way.
A total of 7,000 of the best European athletes – including the first refugee team at a continental Games – competed in 26 sports across 12 days of competition. These Games also brought new sports, appealing to new audiences. Some 118 direct qualification and National Olympic Committee quota places for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 were earned across more sports than any previous edition.
We are immensely proud of the innovations we brought to a multisport Games for the first time, and in this regard the EOC is leading the way in the Olympic Movement. We provided athletes with footage of their competition just two hours after competition ended, giving athletes, National Olympic Committees and European Federations the opportunity to promote themselves and their sports directly through social media channels.
The sports programme featured eight new sports, giving them a platform to showcase their potential. This included padel and teqball being played in Krakow’s stunning main square. We also introduced esports to a continental Games for the first time, partnering with the Global Esports Federation. Finally, our partnership with the European Broadcasting Union ensured that more than 1,000 hours of competition were broadcast in 41 countries across Europe, and even in South America!
Once again, I would like to thank our friends, past Polish Olympic Committee President Andrzej Kraśnicki and his successor Radosław Piesiewicz, together with Organising Committee President Marcin Novak and the whole team in Poland for their efforts and hard work. The sustainable nature of these Games meant no new permanent venues were built. Instead, many venues were renovated and brought up to international standards. The renovations ensure there is a long-term legacy for both grassroots use and also the staging of major sports events. Meanwhile, the successful experience of hosting has also given Poland the confidence to express their interest in hosting the Olympic Games in 2036 and I wish them every success.
The European Games, however, formed only one of our sporting events this year. The Games of the Small States of Europe saw nine of our smallest nations enjoy the opportunity to take centre stage. We also had the privilege of watching our rising stars getting Ready to Shine at the winter and summer European Youth Olympic Festivals (EYOF). We know the impact the EYOF events have on our young athletes. They offer a fantastic opportunity to experience a multisport event, competing against the best athletes in their age group across Europe. But more than this, the educational element, led by our own European Young Olympic Ambassador Programme, offers vital learning and understanding about competing on the international stage and the meaning of Olympism.
This year two incredibly successful EYOFs were held, in Italy and in Slovenia. Friuli Venezia Giulia got the year off with a wonderful start with Italy hosting the event for the second time, 30 years after hosting the 1st edition. It was fantastic to see 22 of the 47 countries represented having medal success.
In Maribor, Slovenia, EYOF records were broken 25 times, with 21 new festival records in total. As with the European Games, innovations continued and all the competitive action was streamed live on EOC TV, with more than one million viewers making this edition the most watched EYOF ever!
There is no doubt the future of European Olympic teams is bright! We have incredible rising stars, supported by nurturing NOCs working to help them achieve their dreams.
Throughout all this delivery of events, the EOC has also shown that we are prepared to listen to our members, to their concerns and their positive ideas. The EOC Seminar and EOC General Assembly (GA) are key moments for us to come together to collaborate and share thoughts and ideas, and the format of the GA in Istanbul showed this very effectively.
In my third year as EOC President I remain fully committed to ensuring that the EOC is serving you, our members. Strategic Agenda 2030 is coming to the end of its first full year of implementation. We are making strong progress towards the goals we set. The impending appointment of a Chief Executive Officer is an important move to becoming a more professional organisation while our updated accounting practices and other initiatives, such as the creation of the Ethics Commission, also serve this purpose. We have updated our statutes, including Executive Committee members being limited to serving a maximum of three terms.
My dear friends, after this incredibly busy year, I hope you are able to take some time over the festive period to reflect on a wonderful sporting year and recharge your batteries for the run-up to the highlight of 2024, the Olympic Games Paris 2024. We should all be proud that the Olympic Games are returning to our continent and look forward to coming together in Paris in 2024
With EurOlympic regards for a prosperous new year,
Spyros Capralos
EOC President
