After a breakthrough season which included three European records and a bronze medal in the 10,000m at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Sweden’s Andreas Almgren is already looking ahead to 2026.
Almgren is unlikely to compete in either the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa or indoors in 2026 but the 30-year-old is focusing on a busy summer including the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham where the Swede is targeting both the 5000m and 10,000m.
Surprisingly, Almgren is yet to win a major European senior medal. He has the unfortunate distinction of having finished fourth in four different events in major European events, most recently at the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn where he just missed a medal in the 3000m.
En route to Birmingham, Almgren will drop down in distance to contest the 1500m on home soil in the Stockholm Diamond League on 7 June. He will face not just strong international opposition but domestic stakes will also be on the line as Almgren looks set to face Samuel Pihlström who broke Almgren's Swedish 1500m record this year.
"It's a bit of a duel that I've been campaigning for. We've both talked about it, and we think it would be really fun if it happened," said Almgren whose lifetime best of 3:32.00 from 2023 stood as the Swedish record until Pihlström improved the mark to 3:30.87 in Rome this June.
Almgren set one of his three European records in 2025 in Stockholm, taking victory in the 5000m - just moments after Armand Duplantis had broken the world record in the pole vault - in 12:44.27 in what was a euphoric 10 minutes for Swedish athletics.
And the Swede bookended his season with European records on the roads in Valencia. After becoming the first European to break the 27 minute-barrier for 10km with 26:53 in January, Almgren broke another barrier by becoming the first European to run inside 59 minutes for the half marathon, clocking 58:41 to smash the European record by over half-a-minute.
Aside from Birmingham, Almgren also set his sights on three other big championships, including the 2026 World Road Running Championships which take place in Copenhagen on 19-20 September.
“Ahead of us is a very fun finish with the Diamond League final, Ultimate Championship and the World Road Running Championships,” said Almgren who could contest either the 5km or half marathon.