With one week to go until the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships (10-16 August), it is confirmed that the ten leading performances will each be rewarded with a Gold Crown and a performance bonus of €50,000.
The Gold Crown initiative was launched at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships and saw Karsten Warholm (NOR), Femke Bol (NED), Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR), Nadia Battocletti (ITA), Leonardo Fabbri (ITA), Sandra Elkasevic (CRO), Mondo Duplantis (SWE) Malaika Mihambo (GER), Johannes Erm (EST) and Nafissatou Thiam (BEL) become the inaugural recipients.
The Gold Crowns are awarded across five groups of events at Birmingham 2026 both for men and women.
The groups of events are:
WOMEN
A) Sprints & Hurdles (100m, 200m, 400m, 100m hurdles, 400m hurdles)
B) Middle & Long Distance (800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, 3000m steeplechase)
C) Throws (Shot Put, Discus Throw, Hammer Throw, Javelin Throw)
D) Jumps (High Jump, Pole Vault, Long Jump, Triple Jump)
E) Road, Combined Events & Relays (Marathon, Half Marathon Race Walk, Marathon Race Walk, Heptathlon, 4x100m, 4x400m)
MEN
F) Sprints & Hurdles (100m, 200m, 400m, 100m hurdles, 400m hurdles)
G) Middle & Long Distance (800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, 3000m steeplechase)
H) Throws (Shot Put, Discus Throw, Hammer Throw, Javelin Throw)
I) Jumps (High Jump, Pole Vault, Long Jump, Triple Jump)
J) Road, Combined Events & Relays (Marathon, Half Marathon Race Walk. Marathon Race Walk, Decathlon, 4x100m, 4x400m)
The winners of each Gold Crown are the athletes within each group of events that achieves the highest scoring performance in their respective finals using World Athletics scoring tables.
The final entries for Birmingham 2026 were confirmed on 30 July and included several athletes who have already broken European records this year:
- Mondo Duplantis (SWE), men’s pole vault, 6.31m
- Jimmy Gressier (FRA), men’s 5km, 12:51 (contesting 5000m/10,000m)
- Francesco Fortunato (ITA), men’s half marathon race walk, 1:23:00
- Simon Ehammer (SUI), men’s heptathlon, 6670 (contesting long jump)
- Keely Hodgkinson (GBR), women’s 800m indoors 1:54.87
- Diane van Es (NED), women’s 5km, 14:33 (contesting 10,000m)
- Klara Lukan (SLO), women’s 10km, 29:51 (contesting 10,000m)
The Gold Crown initiative supports the vision of the European Athletics Strategic Roadmap 2024-2027 in which competition and athletes are prioritised and it includes an objective to “strengthen the European Athletics Championships, attracting the best athletes and creating the best possible event for fans, sponsors and broadcasters alike.”