Welcome Messages from the Presidents
Dobromir Karamarinov,
European Athletics President
Pål Hafstad Thorsen,
LOC President
European Athletics President’s Welcome Message
I am very pleased to welcome everyone to Bergen and the 2025 European Athletics U23 Championships.
Norway has a very important place in the history of athletics and especially European Athletics. Consequently, it is always a pleasure and an honour to return here for one of our events.
This country was one of just 17 founder members of World Athletics back in 1912 and is one of only six European Athletics Member Federations to have provided a President of our organisation since its foundation in 1970, that person being my much-loved predecessor Svein Arne Hanson who was also a close friend.
Your capital Oslo held a famous and historically important European Athletics Championships in 1946 as the shadows of World War II started to recede and the Oslo Diamond League meeting is to this day one of the world’s great one-day meetings.
Bergen itself has its own place in European Athletics history and, after a hiatus of 15 years, we are returning to this historic and picturesque city that hosted the 2010 European Team Championships.
In recent years, Norwegian athletics has risen to new heights which I am sure will be reflected at these championships with more successes after their four gold medals at the last edition.
The Norwegian athletes who compete in Bergen will certainly be inspired by Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Karsten Warholm and Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal, who all won gold medals at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships.
This trio have climbed to the top of the podium at many major championships and have been role models on and off the track not just Norwegian athletics but for our sport across Europe and beyond.
This is also the 15th edition of the European Athletics U23 Championships and many of the European medallists from the Olympic Games Paris 2024 competed at these championships in the past.
The European Athletics U23 Championships themselves were inaugurated in 1997 as a way of providing high-level international competition for this age-group which would then be stepping stone between our U20 championships and the senior stage.
As seen from the results in Rome and Paris, these championships continue to fulfil that important objective, and I feel confident that these championships will be remembered for years to come not just for its superb organisation but also for the athletes who competed here.
To conclude, I would also like to offer a big thank you on behalf of European Athletics to the Norway athletics federation – Norsk Friidrett – the Bergen 2025 Local Organising Committee, the public authorities in the city and municipality of Bergen, as well as all the other host institutions, partners, officials and volunteers.
Dobromir Karamarinov
European Athletics President
LOC President’s Welcome Message
It is a pleasure to welcome Europe to Norway and the athletics city of Bergen!
Bergen, the city between the seven mountains, offers a unique setting for hosting the European U23 Athletics Championships here in Western Norway, with its proximity to the sea and nature. Bergen is the driving force in a region committed to promoting grassroots sports, developing talents, and facilitating elite sports.
The European U23 Athletics Championships is one of the largest sporting events in the city’s history. We are now welcoming the future stars of athletics. Many years of hard work and significant effort have gone into the application, planning, and execution of the championship. We are therefore pleased to have the Norwegian Athletics Federation and the Municipality of Bergen as organizers, the County of Vestland as a partner, and generous sponsors supporting the event.
Bergen is a proud sports city with over 100,000 sports memberships, where athletics, in particular, has strong and rich traditions. Volunteerism is the backbone of the athletics movement, which, through dedicated enthusiasts, coaches, and leaders, creates a rich offering for the athletes. Altogether, this has laid the foundation for Bergen to now be equipped to host the European U23 Athletics Championships.
Bergen is a city with strong local pride, but with generous and inclusive inhabitants who have always been outward-looking and open to the world. In a time of global unrest and external forces attempting to create division in Europe, it is more important than ever to unite nations in the joy of sports and come together around peaceful messages.
As president of the local organizing committee, our goal as organizers is to facilitate the realization of the athletes’ dreams of achieving great sporting performances at Fana Stadium, and for nations and spectators to experience a championship of the highest quality here in Bergen.
I would like to thank the European Athletics for the trust they have placed in us by awarding the European U23 Athletics Championships to Bergen. It is an honor, and we will seize the opportunity and meet expectations with the aim of bringing more major championships to our city in the future.
Pål Hafstad Thorsen
LOC President