European Games 2023: Date, events and how to watch 2024 Paris Olympics qualifying in Krakow

Ben Miller

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European Games 2023: Date, events and how to watch 2024 Paris Olympics qualifying in Krakow image

From basketball and breaking to karate and kickboxing, the European Games 2023 promise a treat for viewers when thousands of athletes from across Europe head to Poland.

European titles are on the line in disciplines including the pentathlon, which will feature 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games champion Joe Choong.

"It's going to be similar to an Olympic experience, which has brought me some of my best memories," said Team GB participant Choong. "I'm really looking forward to it."

Here's how the European Games work, the sports involved, ticket details and more as Choon and his fellow stars target a summer to remember.

MORE: Paris Olympics 2024 tickets: Registration, how to buy, price for next Olympic Games

When are the European Games 2023?

The third edition of the European Games will take place between June 21 and July 2, 2023, in Krakow and Malopolska, Poland, which was unanimously awarded hosting duties four years ago.

Created by the European Olympic Committees at the end of 2012, the games are held between athletes from European countries, as well as several transcontinental nations.

The 2015 games were held in Baku, followed by Minsk in 2019. A host nation has not yet been decided for the 2027 version.

The Henryk Reyman Municipal Stadium in Krakow
(European Games)

What are the European Games?

The European Games are in the tradition of the Olympic Games and, indeed, there are qualifying routes to Paris 2024 at this year's competition.

The multi-sport event comprises 29 disciplines in 25 venues across 12 days, featuring around 7,000 athletes from 48 countries.

Organisers ran an open children's illustration competition to decide the mascots. After initially choosing 'Krakusek' — a dragon described as "exceptional" — the committee also decided to include 'Sandra', a black-and-gold salamander said to be a native of southern Poland.

An Olympic-style torch relay, featuring more than 900 torchbearers and running from Rome to Krakow, is taking place as part of the games.

As you might expect at an event with such a diverse range of sports, the selection of venues varies from stadiums and arenas to climbing and aquatics centres and Krakow's main square.

Fencing at the European Games
(European Games)

The games will showcase some new sports including beach handball, which will be making its first appearance at a senior multi-sport event since the ANOC World Beach Games in Qatar in 2019. There are also five 'side events': sumo wrestling, mountain running, chess, amputee football and hill climb racing.

Importantly for many of the athletes involved, the majority of the main competitions offer direct entry or progression towards qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

European Games 2023: List of events

Sport Countries Athletes Events
3×3 Basketball* 19 128 2
Beach Soccer 9 168 2
Cycling – Mountain Bike* 30 160 2
Modern Pentathlon* 20 216 5
Climbing* 17 100 6
Archery* 30 128 8
Boxing* 45 350 13
Diving* 20 150 13
Muay Thai TBA 80 10
Table tennis* 30 152 5
Artistic swimming* 20 170 8
Breaking* 15 32 2
Fencing* 35 460 12
Padel 23 128 3
Taekwondo* 44 256 16
Athletics* 48 2,000 37
Canoe Slalom* 28 280 10
Judo* 22 264 1
Rugby Sevens* 14 312 1
Teqball 18 72 5
Badminton* 32 160 5
Canoe Sprint* 35 350 16
Karate 20 96 12
Shooting* 35 450 30
Triathlon* 30 120 3
Beach handball 8 192 2
Cycling — BMX freestyle* 15 62 2
Kickboxing 25 128 16
Ski jumping 17 111 5

*Denotes direct qualification opportunities or chances to progress towards Olympic Games qualification.

Breakdancing at the Olympics: Breaking debuts in Poland

One new sport debuting at the 2024 Olympic Games will be breaking, which is heading to the Park Strzelecki in Nowy Sacz, Malopolska for the European Games.

Across men's and women's competitions, dancers will compete against each other as part of a tournament format with an initial round-robin group phase on June 26 containing four groups of four athletes.

The second day of the competition, which will take place in front of around 2,500 spectators, will feature the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals.

The origins of breaking come from the streets of New York in the 1970s, and it appeared at the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018.

According to the European Games website, the first dancers to perfect the art impressed with their "flexibility, strength, endurance and sense of rhythm" when they made moves in time to hip-hop in the US.

"At that time, it was still hard to imagine that one day breaking would become an Olympic discipline," it says. "The rules for judging the competition were created and, in the 1990s, the first competitions were held in various places around the world.

"The new discipline quickly gained popularity and, in parallel, efforts began to consider breaking as an Olympic sport."

Two Quota Places — one in each gender category — will be allocated for the Olympic Games at the end of the competition.

European Games 2023: How to watch on TV

Television coverage will be broadcast around the world from Poland's International Broadcast Centre by Spanish broadcaster Grup Mediapro and the Warsaw-based Festival Group.

Boxing at the European Games
(European Games)

Mediapro was the host broadcaster for the 2019 Pan-American Games and will offer 1,900 hours of live coverage of the European Games.

Broadcasting rights for the games had not been bought in the US, Canada and Australia in early June. Organisers said negotiations with interested broadcasters were ongoing but did not specify in which countries they were.

Country Channel
UK BBC
USA TBA
Canada TBA
Australia TBA

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European Games 2023: How to stream online stream

The European Broadcasting Union has reached an agreement with organisers that the games will be free-to-air across Europe.

Hasan Arat, of the European Games Co-ordination Commission, said that he wanted fans around the world to enjoy the event. "Our sports programme includes new and innovative sports which often do not get mainstream coverage but with significant view interest," he added.

Country Stream
UK BBC Sport, BBC iPlayer
USA TBA
Canada TBA
Australia TBA

European Games tickets: How to buy online, prices

Ticket sales for the games opened in April and have been proceeding briskly, but there are still some available at a wide variety of prices for different events.

Prices for the pool stage of the badminton tournament, for example, begin at around €5, while access to every round of the boxing competition costs around €71.

There is also still availability for events such as the opening ceremony at the Stadion Miejski im. Henryka Reymana, where the musical entertainment will include Polish acts Tribbs and Roxie Wegiel and Ukrainian hip-hop band Kalush.

Visit the ticketing page on the games' official website for full details, latest ticket availability and to book.

Ben Miller

Ben Miller Photo

Ben Miller has been writing about sport for 25 years, following all levels of football as well as boxing, MMA, athletics and tennis. He’s seen five promotions, three relegations, one World Cup winner and home games in at least three different stadiums as a result of his lifelong devotion to Brighton & Hove Albion. His main aim each week is to cover at least one game or event that does not require a last-minute rewrite.