Triathlon chief says multi-sport Championships has ‘exceeded every expectation’
Triathlon chief Renato Betrandi has given his full support to the multi-sport strategy underpinning the European Championships Munich 2022.
The European Triathlon Union president believes the event has “exceeded every expectation” across the board, delivering the best crowd and atmosphere he has experienced since the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
He maintains that the multi-sport nature of the Championships is what is underpinning its success compared with each of the sports staging their events alone.
He said: “Well, for us, the multi-sport concept is impossible to match with a standard European Championships. And this is the reason why since the beginning, 10 years ago, we have been the first sport to sign up to the multi-sport European Championships’ vision and idea.”
The people of Munich turned out in force to support the triathletes across the sport’s three elite events – men’s, women’s and mixed relay. The pathways around the Olympic Park were packed with fans cheering on the sport’s top stars, including individual gold medallists Non Stanford of Great Britain and France’s Léo Bergere.
“The multi-sport European Championships this summer have exceeded really every expectation.”
“I know that the German population are very enthusiastic about triathlons but something like that is absolutely amazing,” said Betrandi.
“The multi-sport European Championships this summer have exceeded really every expectation. The only similar crowd to Munich I have ever seen was during the 2012 Olympic Games in London.”
Triathlon has appeared in both editions of the European Championships so far, being one of the pioneering sports at the inaugural Glasgow and Berlin event in 2018.
Betrandi added: “Triathlon is a fantastic sport and the people that watch it are automatically engaged with this because it's the best sport in the world.
“The number of viewers we want to reach are very, very difficult to achieve without events like this.”