Another one bites the dust.
After holding out against hope and perhaps reason, the European Athletics Federation have announced the cancellation of the European Athletics Championships, which were set to take place in Paris in August after the Tokyo Olympics.
With those Tokyo Olympics postponed into 2021, and another European Athletics Championships set for Munich in August 2022, this edition of the championships – the slightly reduced version without marathons or race walks – will not no go ahead in any shape or form.
In a statement on Thursday evening, the European Athletics Federation outlined the reasoning to cancel rather than try to seek a postponement of some sort.
“It is with regret that we inform you that the Paris 2020 European Athletics Championships, scheduled to take place at the Charlety stadium in Paris from 25-30 August, have been cancelled.
“The decision was taken today by the Paris Athlé 2020 Local Organising Committee and Fédération Française d’Athlétisme (FFA) at an extraordinary Executive Committee meeting held following a meeting with all relevant French authorities.
“European Athletics and Paris Athlé 2020 had been evaluating all possible options for holding the championships this year as planned following a feasibility study into the current situation, but this proved to be unfeasible.
“As you can imagine, the decision was not an easy one and we at European Athletics have been working diligently together with the LOC and the FFA and our staff to deliver an event for all our stakeholders.
“We had hoped in these troubled times to offer European athletes, fans and partners alike a major athletics event to aim for at the end of this summer. Unfortunately, today we were informed by the LOC and French athletics federation that after discussions with the relevant French national and local public health and safety authorities, they were no longer able to proceed with delivering the championships this August and were forced to cancel the event.
“Whilst we regret announcing the cancellation of our European Athletics Championships, it is worth reiterating that in these unprecedented times the health and safety of all athletics’ stakeholders including athletes, fans, officials, partners and everyone connected with the sport is paramount. We will always do what is best for the members of our athletics family and the wider public.”
