Behind the scenes of seven days of competition, thirteen stadium sessions, two marathons and four race walks at Birmingham 2026, Air Aware Labs were monitoring something a little more unseen.
Air Aware Labs provide an air quality and pollution exposure monitoring app, and throughout the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships they provided athletes with three months free access to Air Track Premium to help them make informed training decisions and also delivered air quality modelling at the stadium and off-track events throughout the week.
Alexander Stadium sits close to the M6, so you might expect traffic pollution to dominate but, in reality, nitrogen dioxide and particulate pollution around the stadium remained relatively low for most of the week as weather, wind direction and time of day often had a big influence.
Will Hicks, Co-founder of Air Aware Labs, said “The Championships showed how traffic, weather, wind, sunshine, route and time of day all interact, while different pollutants behave in very different ways. Conditions can change substantially within a matter of hours. It could be seen as a challenge for organisers to mitigate, but those insights also create an opportunity for athletics and athletes to lead the way in making decisions around events, training and other air quality considerations.”
The cleanest stadium session by measured ozone was Friday evening, after cooler and cloudier weather had arrived. Just 24 hours earlier, however, conditions were very different. Thursday was hot, sunny and had little wind which resulted in the morning session having the highest ozone concentrations of the Championships.
The weekend road races gave us another perspective. The race walks started at 07:30 on Saturday, close to the cleanest part of the whole day. The marathons followed a similar pattern, and both races gave athletes the chance to compete through comparatively clean air. Closing Birmingham city centre roads made a meaningful difference alongside the early timing of the races. Air Aware Labs estimate that the closures reduced nitrogen dioxide exposure for the marathon champions by around 42-46%.
Kate Chapman, Head of Sustainability at London Marathon Events and advisor for Birmingham 2026, said: “With so much excitement happening on and off the track, we know many people might not have been thinking about the air quality around them. But it’s an important factor to consider for our health and could make all the difference for our athletes when deciding when and where to train. We hope staff, spectators and athletes alike found the ability to check stadium air quality on our website useful, and that the athletes continue to use their gifted Air Track Premium to continue achieving greatness. It’s brilliant to know some of our sustainability initiatives had a positive impact on the air quality too, like being a car-free stadium.”
For more about the Beyond programme, click here.