From Glasgow/Berlin 2018 to Tokyo 2020 … next stop Munich 2022?
With less than one year to go until the multi-sport European Championships Munich 2022, we look back on the star athletes who won gold medals both at the inaugural edition of the European Championships in Glasgow and Berlin in 2018 and at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. How many of them will continue their rich vein of form into 2022 and the second edition of the European Championships?
ATHLETICS
Jakob Ingebrigsten (Norway) – 1500m
Ingebrigtsen made history at Berlin 2018 when he became the youngest ever winner of a European athletics title, taking both the 1500m and 5000m titles in the German capital. In Tokyo, the Norwegian focussed on the shorter distance and set an Olympic and European record when winning in 3:28.32. Will the abundantly talented Ingebrigtsen go for a double again in Munich?
Karsten Warholm (Norway) – 400m hurdles
How fast will Warholm go in Munch next summer? The amazing Norwegian won the Olympic title in Tokyo in a stunning world record of 45.94, more than three-quarters of a second faster than his previous world record set earlier in the summer. Warholm has also won 400m hurdles gold medals at the 2017 and 2019 World Athletics Championships and at the 2018 European Athletics Championships.
Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis (Sweden) – pole vault
Duplantis made his big-time breakthrough at the Berlin 2018 European Championships, with the then 18-year-old setting a championship record of 6.05m. Since then, the Swede has gone on to greater heights, setting world records and took the gold medal in Tokyo. Everyone is wondering whether his mark from Berlin could be revised in Munich, perhaps even with a world record if the conditions are right.
Miltiadis Tentóglou (Greece) – long jump
The Greek long jumper has repeatedly proven he is the man for the big occasion ever since he won the 2018 European indoor title as a 19-year-old. He followed up that success by winning his specialist event at the multi-sport European Championships later that summer and struck gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in dramatic fashion, moving from fourth to first with his last round effort of 8.41m.
Wojciech Nowicki (Poland) – hammer
Nowicki came to everyone’s attention when winning the gold medal at the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships, his first major international championship title. After four consecutive third place finishes on the global stage, the Pole then made it to the top of the podium at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with three throws better than anyone else could manage.
Sifan Hassan (The Netherlands) – 5000m
Is Sifan Hassan the world’s greatest ever female long distance runner? After her stunning feat of taking the 10,000m and then 5000m gold medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, as well as the 1500m bronze – the first person to take medals in all three events at a single Games – anticipation is high to see what combination of events she will take on at Munich 2022. She also won the 5000m at the multi-sport Berlin 2018 European Championships and then a 1500m/10,000 double at the 2019 World Athletics Championships.
Mariya Lasitskene (Russia/Authorised Neutral Athlete) – high jump
The Russian has been unbeaten in major international competitions since 2015 and in that time has taken three world titles outdoors, a brace apiece of wins at the European and world indoor championships as well as gold medals at the 2018 European Athletics Championships and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. However, her rivalry with the prodigious Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh could push the pair to new heights in Munich.
Malaika Mihambo (Germany) – long jump
The charismatic German became one of just three athletes – joining Karsten Warholm and Mariya Lasitskene – to currently be in possession of the full set of European, world and Olympic titles from an individual event when she took the Tokyo 2020 gold medal with a dramatic last round effort of 7.00m to move up from the bronze medal position. She will certainly be one of the darlings of the home crowd at Munich 2022 and that could spur her on to new feats.
Anita Włodarczyk (Poland) – hammer
The phenomenal Polish world record holder further cemented her place in athletics history in Tokyo when she became the first woman to win three Olympic titles in the sport in the same event. At the multi-sport European Championships in Munich, she will be looking for her fifth consecutive continental title, a feat only ever achieved by one other woman.
Nafi Thiam (Belgium) – heptathlon
In Tokyo, the Belgium defended her Olympic title from five years before in Rio and sandwiched in between those two triumphs, Thiam won the 2018 European title in the seven-event discipline. However, Munich 2022 offers up the intriguing possibility of a fantastic battle between Thiam, the Dutch pair of Anouk Vetter and Emma Oosterwegel as well as her own rapidly improving compatriot Noor Vidts. The trio all set personal bests when finishing in the three places behind Thiam in Tokyo. Add into the mix a hopefully fully fit 2019 world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson, from Great Britain, and the heptathlon could be one of the most exciting events in any sport at the multi-sport European Championships Munich 2022.
CYCLING
Italy – men’s team pursuit
Filippo Ganna and Francesco Lamon were half of the Italian teams that won the team pursuit title at the multi-sport Glasgow 2018 European Championships and also at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. In the Olympic final the Italians set a world record of 3:42.032 to take the gold but they had to go into new territory to claim their title as they were pushed all the way by an inspired Denmark, who finished less than two-tenths behind, and a re-match between the two teams is eagerly awaited at Munich 2022.
Netherlands – men’s team sprint
Jeffrey Hoogland, Harrie Lavreysen and Roy van den Berg took the gold medals at both the multi-sport European Championships in 2018 and 2020 Olympic Games. In the latter, the trio set Olympic records in all three rounds and they will start as favourites in Munich 2022 although the European Championships will have a flavour of the Olympics as Europe provided six of the eight competing nations in this event.
Jolanda Neff (Switzerland) – mountain bike
Neff has been considered one of the top female mountain bikers since she took the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in 2014 and defended her title the following year. In 2018, she won her first elite European title at the multi-sport Glasgow 2018 European Championships and retained her continental crown the following year in Czech Republic. Bouncing back after injuries during 2019 and 2020, at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Neff had a 19-second lead at the end of the first of five laps and was never headed, eventually winning by more than a minute.
GYMNASTICS
Lilia Akhaimova & Angelina Melnikova (Russia) – women’s team
Akhaimova and Melnikova were two of the five-women Russian team that won the gold medal at the multi-sport Glasgow 2018 European Championships they also stood on top of the podium again at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. At the multi-sport Munich 2022 European Championships, Akhaimova could well challenge for individual vault medals while Melnikova is the 2021 European uneven bars champion and took three other medals at those championships in Basle, Switzerland in April of this year.
Nina Derwael (Belgium) – uneven bars
Derwael became the first Belgian female gymnast to win an Olympic medal of any description when she won the uneven bars title in Tokyo but it was far from a surprise to anyone who had been tracking her career over the previous four years, having won world titles on this apparatus in 2018 and 2019 and, preceding those two global triumphs, the 2017 and 2018 European titles, the latter at the multi-sport Glasgow 2018 European Championships.
ROWING
Martin & Valent Sinkovic (Croatia) – coxless pairs
The brothers are widely considered to be among the most talented rowers in the world. Having won the Rio 2016 Olympic Games double sculls gold medal, they switched to the coxless pairs in 2017 and have continued to add to Croatia’s gold reserves ever since. Victory at the multi-sport Glasgow 2018 European Championships, their first major triumph as a coxless pair, was followed by European Championships wins in 2019 and 2021, world titles in 2018 and 2019 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games gold medal.
Matthieu Androdias & Hugo Boucheron (France) – double sculls
With the Sinkovic brothers having switched to the coxless pairs event, Androdias and Boucheron took advantage of their departure to take the European double sculls title at the multi-sport Glasgow 2018 European Championships and showed it was no fluke with a win at world championships later that year. The pair struggled in the defence of their world title in 2019 and didn’t even make the main final but bounced back with aplomb and upset the odds to take gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games.