Analysis: How the 9 European Championships Munich 2022 sports fared at Tokyo 2020?
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We look at how the 9 sports that make up the multi-sport European Championships Munich 2022 fared at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. From a glut of golds in athletics to a hugely impactful debut for sport climbing, the Summer Games proved a positive harbinger from a for next year’s sporing extravaganza in Germany.
ATHLETICS
48 events in Tokyo.
European medals: 20 gold – 16 silver – 15 bronze.
35.4% of the overall total of medals & 40.8% of the total number of golds (note: 2 golds awarded in the men’s high jump).
10 European nations won gold medals and another 7 won medals of other colours.
One to Watch – The Netherlands’ 21-year-old Femke Bol has taken the athletics world by storm in the last 12 months and in Tokyo she set a European 400m hurdles record of 52.03 – which would have been a world record less than two months before – when she became the youngest ever Olympic medallist in her event.
Memorable Moment – Karsten Warholm was one of the stars of the Berlin 2018 European Championships and the Norwegian has continued to accumulate accolades ever since. In Tokyo, he destroyed his own 400m hurdles world record of 46.70 set in July when he flew to gold in 45.94.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
2 events in Tokyo.
European medals: 1 gold – 1 silver – 1 bronze.
50% of the overall total of medals & 50% of the total number of golds.
One to Watch – In a sport where many of the stars are in their late 20s and early 30s, Latvia’s 23-year-old Tina Graudina has been ahead of the curve for several years. She and partner Anastasija Kravcenoka won the 2019 European title and although they just missed out on a medal in Tokyo, Graudina was the leading scorer and topped the Olympic ‘Player Ranking by Skill’ charts.
Memorable Moment – After taking the bronze medal at the 2019 world championships, Norway’s three-time European champions Ander Mol and Christian Sorum have become the undisputed number one men’s pair in the world and they consolidated their status with Olympic gold, beating 2019 world champions Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy, from the Russian Olympic Committee, in straight sets in the final.
CANOE SPRINT
12 events in Tokyo.
European medals: 4 gold – 9 silver – 11 bronze.
66.6% of the overall total of medals & 33.3% of the total number of golds.
One to Watch – Balint Kopasz took the gold in the men’s K1 1000m but the Hungarian had to be at his very best to beat his young rival and compatriot Adam Varga in canoe sprint’s blue riband event. Varga, just 21, delivered a tremendous effort over the final third of the race in Tokyo to take the silver medal and whet the appetite for a rematch in Munich.
Memorable Moment – The European Championships Munich 2022 could see a replay of the thrilling men’s K4 500m battle at the Olympics which saw Germany upset the odds and take the gold medal from favourites Spain. The Spaniards – with four-time Olympic medallist Saul Craviotto in their kayak – had set an Olympic record in their heats but in the final had to concede supremacy to Germany, with Slovakia getting the bronze.
CYCLING
20 events in Tokyo (in total, across the Munich 2022 disciplines – track cycling, BMX freestyle, mountain bike cross country and road cycling).
European medals: 15 gold – 14 silver – 14 bronze.
71.7% of the overall total of medals & 75% of the total number of golds
One to Watch – Great Britain’s 23-year-old Matthew Walls, gold medallist at the Glasgow 2018 European Championships, bounced back after being off his bike for three weeks in March due to COVID to take the Olympic omnium gold medal in Tokyo, and silver in the madison. Walls was always seen as an omnium medal contender after he got a bronze at the 2020 world championships, but few predicted he would be as dominant in Tokyo.
Memorable Moment – Anna Kiesenhofer was the totally unexpected winner of the women’s road race, bringing Austria its first Summer Olympics gold since 2004 and its first cycling gold since 1896! Kiesenhofer, a mathematician without a professional team or coach, broke away by herself on a climb 41km from the finish and many in the peloton finished the race unaware that Kiesenhofer was still in front of them. Many members of the media called it one of the biggest shocks in Olympic history.
ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS
14 events in Tokyo.
European medals: 5 gold – 6 silver – 8 bronze.
45.2% of the overall total of medals & 35.7% of the total number of golds.
Ones to Watch – The British team of twins of Jennifer and Jessica Gadirova, just 16, 18-year-old Amelie Morgan and 20-year-old Alice Kinsella, took the team all-around bronze in Tokyo and this young quartet will be bidding to move up the podium even further in Munich and also get among the medals in the individual disciplines.
Memorable Moment – Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat, the reigning European champion in the floor exercise, won his country’s first Olympic medal in gymnastics, and just their second gold medal in any sport, when he came out on top of his specialist discipline in Tokyo.
ROWING
14 events in Tokyo.
European medals: 7 gold – 12 silver – 9 bronze.
66.6% of the overall total of medals & 50% of the total number of golds.
Also worth noting: 7 different European countries won golds and another 7 won other medals.
One to Watch – Greece’s 24-year-old Stefanos Ntouskos won gold in the men's single sculls in Tokyo. As a teenager, he was part of his country’s lightweight coxless four in Rio 2016. With Norway’s Kjetil Borch and Croatia’s Damir Martin taking silver and bronze to complete an all- European podium in the men’s single sculls, the multi-sport European Championships Munich 2022 could see a thrilling re-match between this trio.
Memorable Moment – The Netherlands quartet of of Lucas Theodoor Dirk Uittenbogaard, Abe Wiersma, Tone Wieten and Koen Metsemakers won the men’s quadruple sculls gold medal in Tokyo in a world best time of 5:32.03, taking the lead in the final 500 metres and fending off the challenge of a highly-rated Great Britain crew.
SPORT CLIMBING
2 events in Tokyo.
European medals: 2 gold – 0 silver – 1 bronze.
50% of the overall total of medals & 100% of the total number of golds.
One to Watch – Spain’s Alberto Gines Lopez is just 18 but made a huge impact on the sport by taking the men’s gold medal in Tokyo. The teenager earned a silver medal at the 2019 Lead Climbing European Championship when just 16 and finished second at the 2019 Lead Climbing World Cup but in Tokyo became his country’s youngest ever male Olympic gold medallist.
Memorable Moment – Sport climbing made its Olympic debut in Tokyo and will be one of four new sports at the multi-sport European Championships Munich 2022. It made an immediate impact with sports fans who were captivated by the two competitions, with resulting high TV ratings. Six-time world champion Janja Garnbret, from Slovenia, widely considered to be the best female climber in the world, fulfilled her role of favourite to take the women’s gold medal and will now set her sights on European honours next summer.
TABLE TENNIS
5 events in Tokyo.
European medals: 0 gold – 1 silver – 1 bronze.
13.3% of the overall total of medals & 0% of the total number of golds.
One to Watch – Slovenia’s 23-year-old Darko Jorgic was one of only two Europeans to make it through to the Olympic men’s singles quarterfinals in Tokyo. Seeded 18, he exceeded expectations and marked many people’s cards as a man to watch at the multi-sport European Championships Munich 2022, not least when he knocked out Japan’s local favourite, the third-seeded Tomokazu Harimoto, in the fourth round.
Memorable Moment – The German team of Patrick Franziska, Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Timo Boll fought their way through to the men’s team final before losing to China and taking the silver medal. Tokyo was the fourth consecutive Olympics that the 40-year-old Boll, a former world number one, had stood on the medal podium. Boll, and his teammates, notably men’s singles bronze medallist Ovtcharov, will have the home crowd behind them in Munich.
TRIATHLON
3 events in Tokyo.
European medals: 2 gold – 2 silver – 2 bronze.
66% of the overall total of medals & 66% of the total number of golds.
One to Watch – With Olympic gold in the mixed relay and silver in the individual men’s event, Great Britain’s 23-year-old Alex Yee could be said to already be something of an established name, but he will be looking to win his first major individual championship title at the multi-sport European Championships Munich 2022.
Memorable Moment – The mixed relay saw its debut as an international medal event at the multi-sport European Championships Glasgow 2018 and it also proved to be a hugely popular addition to the Olympic programme. Great Britain won gold in a thrilling duel with the USA, and France took the bronze medal. No less than 10 of the 16 teams in Tokyo were from European nations.