European Olympic Committees vote to create 1st European Games in Baku in 2015 with 17 sports
The inaugural European Games were approved Saturday by continental Olympic committees and assigned to Baku in June 2015. The secret ballot of European Olympic Committees ends years of debate, passing with 38 in favor, eight against and three abstaining. The capital of Azerbaijan was the sole candidate. [...]
[...] Dates have not been fixed yet, but as many as 7,000 athletes are expected to participate. The event will include 15 of the 28 summer Olympic sports, plus two non-Olympic sports, which haven’t been selected yet. Sports that could be confirmed include: archery, badminton, boxing, canoeing, fencing, handball, judo, rugby sevens, shooting, taekwondo, table tennis, triathlon and volleyball. [...]
[...] The games will be held every four years. [...] “These first games will be very much a trial and test run for a huge event in 2019,” EOC President Patrick Hickey told The Associated Press on Friday. “My idea is that this would become a qualifier for the Olympic Games in 2020 for certain sports. We have to negotiate with certain federations.” [...]
Quelle: Washington Post