BERLIN: The city of Munich will host the second edition of the multi-sport European Championships in 2022, exactly 50 years after hosting the Olympic Games, it was announced on Tuesday.

The Bavarian capital was unanimously approved by participating European federations, meaning the championships will return to Germany after previously being held in Berlin and Glasgow.

“I speak for all the participating sports when I say how delighted we are to be going to Munich,” said the championships’ chairman and European Athletics president Svein Arne Hansen in a statement.

Launched in 2018, the event groups together the European Championships of a number of different sports.

Athletics, cycling, golf, rowing, gymnastics and triathlon have all confirmed their involvement in 2022, though swimming may not return to the programme.

Having been a major part of the inaugural event last year, the European swimming federation LEN is now reportedly concerned over the facilities in Munich.

“The existing infrastructure does not fulfil all the conditions in the eyes of the European swimming league,” the championships’ co-founder Marc Joerg told AFP, but added that swimming could yet return to the fold.

“They are not excluded and we will see how it develops in the coming months. When you have several sports, it can happen that something doesn’t fit, but the door is not closed.”

Joerg defended Munich as a host, saying that the city “suited the philosophy that we have put in place”.

“There was not a traditional candidacy process. We worked with the cities who were interested, and obviously the existing infrastructure in Munich and the project of 50 years since the Munich Olympics matched what we wanted,” he said.

The 1972 Olympics in Munich are most remembered for the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September.

The 2022 European Championships will be primarily hosted around Mun­ich’s Olympic park, which was built for the 1972 Games.

The city had planned to mark the 50th anniversary by hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, but the bid was shelved when the citizens of Munich rejected it in a referendum in November 2013.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2019