Another huge year lies ahead in athletics, including the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships, where some of the world’s biggest stars will compete. But what will be the major storylines in 2026?
How will Femke Bol fare in her new event?
The Dutch icon, twice world and European 400m hurdles champion and also a world indoor and European indoor 400m gold medallist and world record holder, will double her distance this year as she steps into the 800m.
It promises to be a fascinating transition into the unknown for one of the sport’s true icons. No first race has yet been confirmed.
How high can Mondo go?
Every man has his limits. But Mondo Duplantis’ limits have not yet been found. On four occasions in 2025, he improved his own world record in the men’s pole vault. Now the mark stands at 6.30m. How much further into the stratosphere can the Swede go?
Can Jakob Ingebrigtsen get back to his best?
Elimination in the 1500m heats and a 10th-place finish in the 5000m final at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo was not the Jakob Ingebrigtsen the athletics world is used to seeing.
The injury-affected Norwegian was a pale shadow of the multiple Olympic, world and European champion and world record holder he is. But, as he nearly always does, he showed up on the start line.
Can he return to full fitness in 2026 and be the same imperious athlete by the finish line?
More 1500m fireworks
The return of a fully fit Ingebrigtsen would add another enticing ingredient to the men’s 1500m, arguably the tastiest event in the sport right now. For the last four years, the event has thrilled and fascinated global athletics fans with its blend of personalities, unpredictability and spellbinding racing.
From Ingebrigtsen’s almost identical back-to-back defeats at the 2022 and 2023 World Athletics Championships to British runners Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr respectively, to a surprise Paris Olympic final victory by USA’s Cole Hocker, and on to Portugal’s Isaac Nader shocking a class field to win world gold in Tokyo last year, it rarely disappoints.
Ingebrigtsen, Wightman, Kerr, Nader and the brilliant young Dutch athlete Niels Laros are sure to be in the mix again this year, with the focal point being the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships. The men’s 1500m takes place on Saturday 15 August. Cancel all plans.
Can Yaroslava Mahuchikh return to previous heights?
After a phenomenal 2024 that saw her set a new women’s world high jump record of 2.10m in Paris and then return to the French city to win Olympic gold, the Ukrainian had a comparatively fallow 2025.
She won gold at the Apeldoorn European Athletics Indoor Championships, but bronze at the World Athletics Championships was a fair reflection of a stuttering summer campaign.
With the emergence of Poland’s world silver medallist Maria Żodzik and Serbia’s European U23 champion Angelina Topić, who also shared bronze with Mahuchikh in Tokyo, the Ukrainian will need to be back to her best to retain her European title this summer.
Road running record spree
2025 saw European records rewritten on five separate occasions across road events. With a combination of improving shoe technology and a golden generation of talent in both men’s and women’s disciplines, 2026 looks set to keep the sport’s statisticians busy once again.
Belgium's Jana van Lent became the first record-breaker, setting a European women's 10km record in a mixed race of 30:10 in Nice on 4 January. Attention now switches to the 10K Valencia Ibercaja where Sweden's Andreas Almgren and Great Britain's Eilish McColgan will attack the European records.
The races will be live streamed on the European Athletics YouTube channel from 9.15am CET.
Fields of Orange?
The defining memories of the Apeldoorn 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships were of Dutch dominance, with a sea of orange celebrating seven gold medals.
Then, at the 2025 Madrid European Athletics Team Championships First Division, Italy retained their title through sheer consistency across all events. But it was the Dutch who celebrated eight individual event winners; the next best were Italy, France, Germany and Czechia with three each.
Can the Dutch, including the likes of Bol, world shot put champion Jessica Schilder, rising middle-distance star Laros and their talented relay squads, maintain their rich run of form through to the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships?
Intense rivalries
As well as Ingebrigtsen’s simmering men’s 1500m rivalry with Kerr and fellow British runner Wightman, there are plenty more intriguing match-ups to excite audiences. None more so than in the men’s long jump between Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou and Italy’s Mattia Furlani.
For so long the dominant figure in the event, the Greek athlete lost his grip on the world titles indoors and outdoors to the young Italian last year. Yet he still set a world-leading 8.46m in a year hindered by illness and injury.
The women’s 800m could again pitch British training partners Keely Hodgkinson and Georgia Hunter Bell into direct competition. The duo won world silver and world bronze last year, with Olympic champion Hodgkinson having to settle for third.
Throw in Femke Bol and last year’s European Athletics Rising Star Audrey Werro of Switzerland, and it is an event of rich potential this summer.
The men’s triple jump, featuring Spain’s Olympic champion Jordan Díaz Fortún, Portugal’s world champion Pedro Pichardo and Italy’s world indoor and European indoor champion Andy Díaz Hernández, is another event bound to excite.
The men’s 10,000m, women’s javelin and men’s discus also boast deep fields of high-quality European contenders.
Can anyone challenge Battocletti?
Since winning 5000m gold on the opening night of the European Athletics Championships in Rome on 7 June 2024, Nadia Battocletti has dominated women’s distance running in Europe.
She went on to add 10,000m gold four days later and has since become European champion in cross country (twice) and over 10km at the inaugural European Running Championships. She also became the European record holder in the 5km. Can any European match Battocletti this year?
Who will rule the combined events?
Across the calendar year, Norway’s Sander Skotheim was arguably the world’s leading male multi-eventer in 2025, winning world indoor and European indoor gold, setting a new European record in the men’s heptathlon and leading the world rankings in the decathlon.
But he was disqualified in the 110m hurdles during the decathlon at the World Athletics Championships, and Germany’s Leo Neugebauer took advantage to win gold. For Skotheim, it was history repeating itself after no-heighting in the pole vault at the Paris Olympics and dropping out of contention.
So what of 2026? Can Skotheim hold it together at the European Athletics Championships? Can Neugebauer add European gold to world gold? What about Olympic champion Markus Rooth, Skotheim’s Norwegian teammate who missed 2025 through injury? And what of reigning European champion Johannes Erm of Estonia?
The women’s combined events offer even more permutations. In a turbulent year defined by off-track issues, three-time Olympic and three-time European champion Nafissatou Thiam lost her status as the world’s leading heptathlete to USA’s Anna Hall, who won world gold and moved ahead of the Belgian to third on the all-time list.
Still only 31, Thiam has previously shown a rare ability to bounce back. Can she do it again and secure an unprecedented fourth European title? And how will emerging talents such as Ireland’s world silver medallist Kate O’Connor or Finland’s world indoor and European indoor champion Saga Vanninen fare? An intriguing year awaits.