The Ligue Européenne de Natation (LEN) Bureau met on Saturday, October 11th in Ostia, Italy at the Italian Swimming Federation Aquatic Center. Along with the decisions on an Athletes’ Commission and smaller nation monetary allocation, which we’ve already reported, the organization announced that the search for a host city of the 2022 European Championships has officially begun.
The European Championships combines the existing, separated European Sporting Championships of athletics, aquatics, cycling, gymnastics, rowing and triathlon, while also introducing golf team championships.
2018 marks the first version where the individual sports’ championships, typically held independently, are combined in one multi-national, multi-sport event. The hope is that by combining the individual sports’ championships together, more interest will be generated in each sport than if they were held by themselves.
As such, the 2022 edition of the event also hopes to include the 7 sports, ideally being held in one geographical location. Over 4,500 competitors contesting over 170 gold medals would accompany the extravaganza with the hopes of attracting over 700,000 spectators.
The Swedish nations of Gothenburg and Malmö have expressed an interest in hosting the 2022 event, however, the participating European Sports Federations won’t announce the winning hosts until November 2017.
The LEN Bureau’s next Congress is scheduled for Saturday, May 13, 2017 in Marseille France, hosted by the French federation.