by Larry Eder
RunBlogRun provided six lessons from the 2022 European Athletics Championships, held in Munich, Germany, held from August 15-21, 2022.
These are the six lessons that we learned from the 2022 European Athletics Championships:
- To reach young fans, streaming video, well done, makes a huge difference. The team of Hannah England, Phil Minshull, and Alex Seftle did an excellent job on the broadcast. They keep the conversation going, relaxed and informative, for 10-12 hours a day. Tim Hutchings and Hannah England provided some of the walk coverage with, I believe, Tim Hutchings and Mara Yamauchi on the marathon day. The LIVE Blog, Twitter, FB, and Instagram (did not observe Snapchat ) were important parts of the media success.
- Strong attendance on many days of the European Athletics Champs. The first two days and final days were pretty darn good crowds. The German fans were all over the marathons, and days 1-2 plus the final days, although day six was light. Stuart Weir thought it was the rain and only 35 minutes of running events.
- Local stars make a huge difference. German fans had athletes to enjoy each day. Richard Ringer on day 1 in the marathon, Niklaus Kaul in the decathlon, Gina Luckenkemper in the 100m, Malaika Mihambo in the long jump, Koko Klosterhalfen in the 10,000m and 5,000m, all made huge impacts on attendance and on the TV ratings.
- European Broadcasting knows how to cover track & field. European Broadcasting provided live streaming video, wonderfully timely audio quotes, and a continental feed. European countries like Germany and Norway went crazy over the European Championships. On the night of Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s win in the 5,000m, 55.2 percent of TVs in Norway were glued to the EAC!
- Should European Athletics go by itself or stay involved with European Championships? Good question. Undeniably, the European Champs were a huge success. The EAC was as well, but there seems to be some heated discussion on the schedule, which was managed by European Championships. EAC seems to be considering going back on its own. For European Broadcasting, this could be a huge issue as athletics is one of the biggest draws of the championships.
- In the end, the athletes and officials did their jobs and drew fans to the exceptional event. The volunteers and officials made the event work, but the athletes were and should be, the stars of the show for seven days and seven nights.
