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The year 2022 offered and will continue to offer prospects of excellent athletics events. Sports enthusiasts, especially those more inclined to follow track sporting events, are enjoying a feast of tournaments this year while placing bets at instant withdrawal casinos. Some events include the Winter Olympics and the Winter Paralympics in Beijing, China, and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, in the United Kingdom. In addition, to these significant events, there are important athletics competitions such as the Diamond League and the London Marathon.
Following the positive outcome of its bid to hold the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, China became the first country in the world to have had the honour of hosting both the summer and winter editions of the Olympic Games. Building on the foundations and legacies of the landmark Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, China managed to encourage its population to embrace winter sports through the organization of 109 events held in three cities of Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou. The Chinese capital hosted the four snow events of snowboarding big air and freestyle skiing big air for males and females. It also hosted ice events such as curling, ice hockey and skating. These events were held in venues built and used during the Beijing Olympic Games of 2008. Yanqing hosted the alpine skiing and sliding events, including bobsleigh, skeleton, and luge.
The aggregate medal table winners saw Norway with 37 medals, the Republic of Korea with 32 medals, Germany with 27 medals, and the United States with 25 medals.
The Winter Paralympics 2022
The Winter Paralympic Games 2022 were also held in Beijing, China, from March 4-13. For this tournament, China welcomed a record of over 650 para-athletes from 49 National Paralympic Committees. The participants competed in 78 events across six Para sports. A total of 39 events for men, 35 for women and four mixed events. The sporting events were held in five venues in the zones of Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou. Some of the venues used in respect of ice hockey and wheelchair curling were built in 2008 for the Olympic Games held in China in the same year. The Paralympic Winter Games in China welcome the participation of Israel, Azerbaijan, and Puerto Rico for the first time. The official motto for the games was “Together for a Shared Future”, resonating with the games’ power to overcome global challenges and create a shared future for humanity.
22nd edition of the Commonwealth Games
The 22nd edition of the Commonwealth Games was held in Birmingham between July and August. The Commonwealth Games is the largest multi-sport event held in England for 10 years and consisted of thousands of top world-class athletes followed by over one and a half million spectators. This year’s Commonwealth Games were a fantastic sporting event, where 877 medals were awarded, 96 Commonwealth Games records and four world records were broken. The incredible positive thing was that there were more para-sports than ever at the Commonwealth Games, more medal events for women than men for the first time ever at a major multi-sports tournament, 3×3 wheelchair basketball, and women’s T20 cricket, featured for the first time at the Commonwealth Games.
Events took place in 15 venues across Birmingham, the West Midlands, and the English capital, London. With nineteen different sports events, the Games entertained and attracted more than one and a half million spectators. The 2022 Commonwealth Games were the first with a social value charter considering the economic, social and environmental effects of delivering the tournament. It also ensured the inclusivity and the protection of human rights, which were paramount to the Games.
European Athletics Championship
The European Championships held in Munich this year was one of the most significant events held in Germany since the Olympic Games in 1972. The competition was held in August, and the best athletes from the European continent participated and vied for the title of “European champion”. This year’s edition included nine Olympic sports – Athletics, Beach Volleyball, Canoe Sprint, Cycling, Gymnastics, Rowing, Sport climbing, Table Tennis, and Triathlon. In athletics the host country, Germany, topped the medal table with seven gold medals, ahead of Great Britain and Northern Ireland with six. The 2024 edition of the European Athletics Championships is slated to be held in Rome in June 2024. It will be 50 years since Italy hosted the championships.
Antigoni Ntrismpioti (Getty)
2022 World Athletics Championships
In July, the 18th edition of the 2022 World Athletics Championships was held in Eugene, Oregon, in the United States. This tournament was slated to be held in August of 2021 but was re-scheduled to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The stringent health restrictions imposed by the United States health authorities proved a difficult task for participating countries, and only 179 nations managed to enter the USA. The number of participating nations was the lowest since the event was held in Tokyo in 1991. At the championships, three world records and 13 championship records were broken.
The Diamond League
The Diamond League is an annual series of the best track and field athletic competitions consisting of 14 of the foremost invitational athletics meetings. The first part of the series of the Diamond League was held in May in Doha in Qatar, Birmingham in England, and Eugene in the United States. In June, it was the turn of Rabat in Morocco, Rome in Italy, Oslo in Norway, the French capital Paris, and Stockholm in Sweden. The meetings in August were held in Monaco and Lausanne in Switzerland. September saw the league being held in Brussels and Zurich.
Important athletics events to watch for include the London Marathon scheduled for October 2. The marathon was initially held in April but was moved to October 2021 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
