Read our guide to this month's European Athletics Championships ahead of seven days of world-class track and field competition.
A total of 1,645 athletes from 49 competing nations will descend on Birmingham for what promises to be an absorbing week of action and includes a variety of Olympic and world champions, including Sweden's pole vault star Mondo Duplantis, Norway's middle-distance king Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Dutch sensation Femke Bol, who is set to challenge Keely Hodgkinson in a stacked 800m field.
Find out everything you need to know about the 2026 European Athletics Championships.
Dates
The 2026 European Athletics Championships will begin on Monday 10th August and conclude on Sunday 16th August.
Host & Venue
The biennial competition is being held in Birmingham, England.
It's the first time a British city will have staged the European Athletics Championships.
Birmingham is accustomed to hosting major sporting events, including the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The championships will take place at the Alexander Stadium, which with a permanent capacity of 18,000, is the largest athletics stadium in the UK.
The Alexander Stadium underwent a major £72 million redevelopment ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games and earlier this year, the North Stand of the venue was renamed the Matthew Hudson-Smith Stand in honour of the Wolverhampton-born Olympic medallist.
Key Event Schedule
There are 50 gold medals up for grabs over seven days in Birmingham across a variety of disciplines in track and field.
Below are some of the key events to look out for, including when the heats and finals are expected to take place.
Men's Event Schedule
Men's 100m | Heats: Tuesday 11th August |
Men's 4x100m Relay | Heats: Saturday 15th August |
Men's 200m | Heats: Thursday 13th August |
Men's 1500m | Heats: Friday 14th August |
Men's 5000m |
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Men's Pole Vault | Qualification: Friday 14th August |
Men's High Jump | Qualification: Tuesday 11th August |
Women's Event Schedule
Women's 100m | Heats: Monday 10th August |
Women's 4x100m Relay | Heats: Saturday 15th August |
Women's 200m | Heats: Wednesday 12th August |
Women's 800m | Heats: Tuesday 11th & Thursday 13th August |
Women's Pole Vault | Qualification: Tuesday 11th August |
Women's Heptathlon | Final: Friday 14th August to Saturday 15th August |
Mixed Event Schedule
4x100m Relay | Final: Sunday 16th August |
4x400m Relay | Final: Monday 10th August |
Competing Athletes
The 2026 European Athletics Championships will feature 10 reigning world champions from Tokyo 2025.
In the men's events, Isaac Nader (1500m), Jimmy Gressier (5000/10,000m), Armand Duplantis (pole vault), Mattia Furlani (long jump), Pedro Pichardo (triple jump), Daniel Ståhl (discus) and Leo Neugebauer (decathlon) will all take centre stage.
As for the women, there's Femke Bol (400m hurdles but contesting the 800m), Ditaji Kambundji (100m hurdles) and Maria Perez (half marathon race walk).
Duplantis will arrive in Birmingham with the aim of improving upon his own world record, although the Swedish star heads into the European Championships nursing an injury which forced him to miss the London Diamond League meeting.
Italy's rising star Furlani will compete in the long jump, while 5000m Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen returns to action after missing all of 2026 so far due to an Achilles injury.
Duplantis, Ingebrigsten and long jump supremo Miltiadis Tentoglou are all targeting their fourth successive European titles in their respective events.
Keely Hodgkinson will be targeting a hat-trick of titles in the women's 800m, but the British star faces stern competition from Dutch ace Bol and Switzerland's Audrey Werro, who became the first woman with two career times under 1:54.
