European Games 2023

[phelps 7,670]

1 hour ago, Federer91 said:

 

This is still one of the most bonkers things in the sporting world for me. I don't have a logical explanation. 

 

These should be the European Olympics. The continent with the biggest sporting depth by far, having it's own mini-Olympics. In times when you need to make something big to grab the headlines, the EG haven't been embraced neither from the NOCs, the sports governing bodies, nor the regular people.  

 

On the contrary even, these Governing bodies, who's sports are on life support from one OG to the next, have been actively sabotaging the EG. The only times they get attention is during the OG and instead of trying to grab another big opportunity to promote and elevate their sport, they discredit them and prefer to have their own backwater events somewhere somewhere. 

 

You can exclude team sports and tennis from the list, but there is no reason for the other ones to not have this as one of the most important events in the calendar, especially when it occurs every 4 years. 

 

Only in 2015, the lead up and the Games themselves felt like a big deal. Every year after that has been downhill, downhill, downhill... Heck, the nonsense Commonwealth Games get 5 times more attention and interest for competing against Samoa and Antigua & Barbuda.

as I explained in the past, it's all about politics.

 

there are 2 pathways to follow: first, these Games have always been felt like the Russian garden, their way to show their sport muscles to the Continent they would like to be part of, but never wanted them.

 

second, all the officials of the various European sports Federations have always seen these Games like a huge threat to their power and to their "regular" Continental Champs.

therefore they choose to boycott in every possible way the EGs development, especially in the Western Countries (that have been heavily joked by the organizers in the past, including only sports where the Eastern block could easily dominate the Western rivals with fair but also with unfair judges left and right).

they even came up with the idea of an opposing event like the unified Europeans, which almost immediately show all of their limits however.

 

imho, there's no place in Europe for a big event like this.

too many expenses (especially in these very difficult years, thanks to the crazy, idiotic politics of the EU) and too little income because of the lack of interest for all the socalled "minor disciplines" in most of the "supposed" rich Western Countries, where all the attention and all the money go to the mainstream sports like Football, Tennis, Motorsports, maybe Basketball (but only in a few Nations).

there's no way to earn a single penny focusing on things like Fencing, Canoeing and so on.

[ChandlerMne 1,037]

2 minutes ago, phelps said:

as I explained in the past, it's all about politics.

 

there are 2 pathways to follow: first, these Games have always been felt like the Russian garden, their way to show their sport muscles to the Continent they would like to be part of, but never wanted them.

 

second, all the officials of the various European sports Federations have always seen these Games like a huge threat to their power and to their "regular" Continental Champs.

therefore they choose to boycott in every possible way the EGs development, especially in the Western Countries (that have been heavily joked by the organizers in the past, including only sports where the Eastern block could easily dominate the Western rivals with fair but also with unfair judges left and right).

they even came up with the idea of an opposing event like the unified Europeans, which almost immediately show all of their limits however.

 

imho, there's no place in Europe for a big event like this.

too many expenses (especially in these very difficult years, thanks to the crazy, idiotic politics of the EU) and too little income because of the lack of interest for all the socalled "minor disciplines" in most of the "supposed" rich Western Countries, where all the attention and all the money go to the mainstream sports like Football, Tennis, Motorsports, maybe Basketball (but only in a few Nations).

there's no way to earn a single penny focusing on things like Fencing, Canoeing and so on.

I agree in that part...but whats the point of having EG like this at all?

Better to finish this project after this edition, IMO.

[Nickyc707 382]

1 hour ago, Federer91 said:

Of course they won't. After all, with all due respect, the UK won't be winning 200 medals here, even if the UK athletes were taking the EG seriously, which they aren't. 

 

If these are the results we would get from all aspects, then better have no EG at all. There is no point in wasting time for something that is valued by almost no one.

The problem with the European Games is it doesn't have the core sports like athletics - the team event has pretty weak lineups - swimming, gymnastics, road/track cycling, etc. which attract the viewers. In contrast it has a lot of sports that frankly British viewers have little or no interest in. Team GB doesn't even bother to send athletes to compete in the non-Olympic sports.

 

Both the CWG and multi-sport European Championships is a different story and both get full coverage. Personally I thing further development of the European Championships concept is the way forward rather than the European Games but I'm sure views differ from country to country.

 

To date British TV has never covered these Games and this year it's not helped by having to compete against an Ashes cricket series and tennis's grass court season. It just isn't a fair contest.

Edited June 23, 2023 by Nickyc707

[Olympian1010 7,971]

It should be pointed out the European Championships have yet to announce a host for 2026, with both athletics and aquatics off the program at the moment. Gymnastics is 50/50 with the federation still keeping an open mind to the European Games. Cycling is presumably still onboard, but they’ve also been a constant at the European Games in some form. 
 

Both multi-sport events are currently without a future host. Both are facing sports being flakey about joining, and a public confused as the the concept. The next few years should be very interesting.

[Olympian1010 7,971]

23 minutes ago, phelps said:

imho, there's no place in Europe for a big event like this.

too many expenses (especially in these very difficult years, thanks to the crazy, idiotic politics of the EU) and too little income because of the lack of interest for all the socalled "minor disciplines" in most of the "supposed" rich Western Countries, where all the attention and all the money go to the mainstream sports like Football, Tennis, Motorsports, maybe Basketball (but only in a few Nations).

there's no way to earn a single penny focusing on things like Fencing, Canoeing and so on.

Financial concerns aren’t a problem limited to Europe though. Many other multi-sport games are facing the same problem in that regard. 

[Federer91 2,793]

1 hour ago, Jinzha said:

I think the combined European Championships in Glasgow and Munich basically prove this point. They felt bigger to me than the European Games.

There must be something wrong with me, because these combined EC always felt like an empty shell and in theory a much weaker concept, then an European Games. 

 

It's like the individual European Championships for the different sports, just under a nice banner. The European Games are at one place, this stuff is at one place... Of course the difference is who gets the revenue money i suppose, but from a sporting stand point, the so called combined EC are completely pointless 

[Vektor 3,326]

I think the European federations would be willing to cooperate if the "big guys" would be willing to go all-in on it. And by big guys I mean London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Berlin, Munich, etc. Nobody will take the European Games seriously when it's in Krakow or Minsk. You need a proper big city and a country that has ton of Olympic tradition and/or willing to spend a shit ton of money to make this event big.

 

The ultimate proof that thing isn't working is that we never had any interest in hosting it. Budapest would be the perfect host, historically we might be the strongest European sport nation that never hosted an Olympic Games, we got the venues and the Olympic sport traditions. You can bet that we would try everything to fill the stadiums, just like how we are working overtime to market the Athletics WCh in a country that doesn't really care about athletics because we suck in this sport. And yet we will just keep bidding for the real thing, the Summer Olympic Games, because even for a mid-tier city like Budapest this European multi-sport concept seems like a bad investment.

 

And when you are left with Split as your only option, while the other multi-sport thing doesn't even have a host three years before the competition, you might think that it's time to pull the plug on something that nobody really wanted in the first place. 

Edited June 23, 2023 by Vektor

[hckošice 14,822]

SLOVAKIA AT THE EUROPEAN GAMES 2023

 

Daily Recap

 

0 - 1 - 0

 

 

 

DAY 2

Friday, June 23rd, 2023

 

 

 

Archery

 

Spoiler

 

 

08.45 M Individual Recurve - Ranking Round

41. Miroslav Duchoň  634

 

13.00 M Individual Compound - Ranking Round

7. Jozef Bošanský  709

 

13.00 W Individual Recurve - Ranking Round

17. Denisa Baránková  652

 

16.15 Mixed Teams Recurve - 1/16 Elimination

Miroslav Duchoň/Denisa Baránková  - Jarno De Smedt/Charlotte Destrooper (BEL)

4:5  Eliminated

 

-----------------------------

 

 

 

 

 

Boxing

 

Spoiler

 

13.00 Ring A

W -60kg - Round of 32

Miroslava Jedináková vs Kellie Harrington (IRL)

1:4  Eliminated

 

19.30 Ring A

  M -63.5kg - Round of 32

Viliam Tankó vs Semjon Kamanin (EST)

4:1  Qualified for the Round of 16

 

---------------------------------

 

 

 

 

Canoeing Sprint

 

Spoiler

 

10.05 M K1-500m - Heats - Heat 2

5. Milan Dorner  1:46.073  Qualified for the Semifinals

 

14.16 W K2-500m - Final

9. Katarína Pecsuková/Bianka Sidová  1:45.806

 

17.05 M K1-500m - Semifinal - Semifinal 2

6. Milan Dorner  1:44.373  Qualified for the Final-B

 

17.54 Mixed K2-200m - Semifinal - Semifinal 1

6. Denis Myšák/Bianka Sidová  35.158  Qualified for the Final-B

 

-------------------------------

 

 

 

 

Karate

 

Spoiler

 

Kumite W -61kg

Ingrida Bakos Suchánková

 

Pool B

(Morning session start 09:00)

 

3. match on tatami A

Ingrida Bakos Suchánková vs Alessandra Mangiacapra (ITA)

1:2

 

8. match on tatami A

Ingrida Bakos Suchánková vs Anita Serogina (UKR)

2:3

 

11. match on tatami A

Ingrida Bakos Suchánková vs Anna-Johanna Nilsson (SWE)

4:O

 

Pool B Final Standing:

 

1. Anita Serogina                             UKR  9

2. Alessandra Manguiacapra        ITA 6

---------------------------------------

                     3. Ingrida Bakos Suchánková  SVK 3   Eliminated

4. Anna-Johanna Nilsson           SWE  0

 

 

Shooting

 

Spoiler

 

11.30 M 10m Air Rifle - Qualifiers

17. Patrik Jány 627.8  Eliminated

27. Štefan Šulek 625.8  Eliminated

 

13.30 W 10m Air Rifle - Qualifiers

6. Kamila Novotná  629.8  Qualified for the Final

25. Daniela Demjén Pešková  624.9  Eliminated

 

16.30 W 10m Air Rifle - Final

2. Kamila Novotná 13:17 (260.8)

SILVER MEDAL

 

-------------------------------

 

 

 

Sport Climbing

 

Spoiler

 

11.30 M Lead - Semifinal

18. Martin Matúšek  27+  Eliminated

 

11.30 W Lead - Semifinal

15. Sára Šimeková  23+  Eliminated

 

-----------------------------

 

 

Table Tennis

 

Spoiler

 

11.30 Table 2

Mixed Doubles - Round of 16

Ľubomír Pištej/Barbora Balážová vs Liam Pitchford/Ho Tin-Tin (GBR)

3:1

(6, -5, 5, 8) Qualified for the Quarterfinals

 

20.45 Table 4

M Singles - 2. Round

Ľubomír Pištej vs Alex Naumi (FIN)

4:0

(11, 7, 7, 4) Qualified for the 3. Round

 

------------------------------

 

 

Pictures: SOŠV/ANDREJ & SAMUEL GALICA

[Federer91 2,793]

45 minutes ago, phelps said:

as I explained in the past, it's all about politics.

 

there are 2 pathways to follow: first, these Games have always been felt like the Russian garden, their way to show their sport muscles to the Continent they would like to be part of, but never wanted them.

 

second, all the officials of the various European sports Federations have always seen these Games like a huge threat to their power and to their "regular" Continental Champs.

therefore they choose to boycott in every possible way the EGs development, especially in the Western Countries (that have been heavily joked by the organizers in the past, including only sports where the Eastern block could easily dominate the Western rivals with fair but also with unfair judges left and right).

they even came up with the idea of an opposing event like the unified Europeans, which almost immediately show all of their limits however.

 

imho, there's no place in Europe for a big event like this.

too many expenses (especially in these very difficult years, thanks to the crazy, idiotic politics of the EU) and too little income because of the lack of interest for all the socalled "minor disciplines" in most of the "supposed" rich Western Countries, where all the attention and all the money go to the mainstream sports like Football, Tennis, Motorsports, maybe Basketball (but only in a few Nations).

there's no way to earn a single penny focusing on things like Fencing, Canoeing and so on.

Russia could show their sports muscles in the single European Championships either way (if they were led to).

 

I fail to see what is threatening for about 20 sports of their regular continental Championships. Are fencing, rowing, wrestling, weightlifting, gymnastics, canoeing etc. doing these blockbuster ratings and revenues, that i am not aware of? If the European Games are built into a big deal, then the benefits for these sports would be much better, then their week long regular Europeans, which come and go. Maybe the only thing i can think of, is that they don't want other sports to overshadow their EC, when it is in a multi-sport event.

 

I agree on expenses being higher now, which is why team sports shouldn't be included (in addition to their calendar already being stuffed), though having volleyball in Baku was great, even if it wasn't with A players. 

 

Tennis has it's own thing, they are out, which leaves only athletics and swimming. Both of those are the only ones, which are strong enough to generate big revenue through their European Championships and don't need the European Games. 

 

Maybe the only way this could work is if the IOC took the European Games, Asian Games, Pan-American Games etc. like stepchild's and help with the organization and intertwine the Olympic qualification with these continental Games.

[heywoodu 15,135]

Lol, the 'Replays' section of the TV website is just one big-ass spoiler   (literally even including scores in the title, as if the thumbnails spoiling the results weren't enough)

https://europeangames.tv/videos

 

Unbelievable, these organizations never learn, do they?  

 

Apparently from the 'Program' section one can't even go straight to a replay of the stream...now it's time to find out how to start rewatching stuff (non-spoilered)...

 

Ah, there's 'Highlights' of the athletics sections...consisting of seeing a lady jump up and down in slow motion and slowly seeing a discus fly through the air. Sigh. I was kind of looking forward to this, but I guess this entire event can go in the trash can in terms of my 'Things to watch' list...

Edited June 23, 2023 by heywoodu