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2023 European Games overview (Krakow-Malopolska)

The 3rd European Games were staged from 21 June 2023 to 2 July 2023, with Krakow and the Malopolska region in southern Poland serving as the main host area. While Krakow was the central hub, the event used a multi-venue footprint that extended across the region and, for some competitions, into other parts of Poland.

The European Games are the flagship multi-sport event of the European Olympic Committees (EOC). For the 2023 edition, athletes represented 48 National Olympic Committees, alongside the inaugural EOC Refugee Team created in partnership with the Olympic Refuge Foundation of the International Olympic Committee.

• Dates: 21 June 2023 to 2 July 2023
• Host location: Krakow and the Malopolska region, Poland (with selected events held in other Polish host cities)
• Organisers: European Olympic Committees (EOC) with delivery by the Krakow-Malopolska 2023 Local Organising Committee in partnership with the Polish Olympic Committee and host authorities
• Official slogan: "We Are Unity"

Dates and host region

The Games opened on 21 June 2023, with the Opening Ceremony held at the Henryk Reyman Municipal Stadium in Krakow. Competition then continued through the Closing Ceremony on 2 July 2023.

A defining feature of Krakow-Malopolska 2023 was the regional hosting model: 13 towns and cities in the Malopolska region were involved, reaching beyond Krakow toward mountain venues in the Tatra area. In addition, some headline competitions took place outside Malopolska, including athletics sessions staged in Chorzow in the neighbouring Silesian region.

Planning for Krakow-Malopolska 2023 emphasised operational delivery over major new construction. The EOC Coordination Commission noted that, with no permanent new venues required, the Local Organising Committee focused on services, logistics, and Games-time operations across the distributed venue network.

Organisers and governance

The EOC owned and governed the event, working through its European Games structures and a dedicated Coordination Commission for Krakow-Malopolska 2023. The Coordination Commission met with Polish stakeholders during the lead-up to the Games to review readiness across sport operations, medical and anti-doping planning, transport, logistics, communications, broadcast, ticketing, volunteers, accreditation, and security.

On the Polish side, the event was delivered by a Local Organising Committee for Krakow-Malopolska 2023, working with the Polish Olympic Committee and host institutions in Krakow and the Malopolska region. In the final months before competition, EOC leadership repeatedly highlighted the partnership between the EOC, the Local Organising Committee, and Polish Olympic organisers as central to the event's delivery model.

What made the 2023 edition distinct

Krakow-Malopolska 2023 marked the first time the European Games were hosted in a member country of the European Union, and it was also Poland's first time hosting the event. The EOC described the Games as the biggest sport event ever hosted in Poland, reflecting the scale and geographic spread of the competition footprint.

Programmatically, Krakow-Malopolska 2023 expanded the European Games identity by introducing several sports to the event for the first time. The EOC highlighted first-time European Games appearances for the following sports:

• Padel
• Teqball
• Rugby sevens
• Ski jumping (summer)
• Muaythai
• Beach handball
• Breaking
• Sport climbing

The 2023 edition also had a direct connection to the Olympic qualification calendar. Athletes could earn Paris 2024 quotas through the European Games in 10 sports, and a total of 91 Olympic quota places were at stake across those qualification pathways.

By the end of the Games, Olympic qualification places had been awarded through competitions in:

• Archery
• Artistic swimming
• Boxing
• Breaking
• Canoe slalom
• Diving
• Modern pentathlon
• Rugby
• Shooting
• Table tennis

Hosts, venue footprint, and event distribution

The 2023 European Games were branded as Krakow-Malopolska 2023, with Krakow serving as the main hub and a wider, multi-city footprint used to place each sport in an existing venue that fit its technical needs. This hosting approach spread competition across Krakow and multiple Malopolska towns, while also using a small number of specialist venues in other Polish cities for sports that required purpose-built facilities.

Host region and city clusters

The center of gravity was Krakow and the Malopolska (Lesser Poland) region, where most sports were staged in or near Krakow and in surrounding towns. The mountain and foothill areas of southern Malopolska were used for outdoor and hill-venue sports, while Tarnow functioned as a secondary cluster with dedicated arenas for several indoor and outdoor disciplines. A separate, limited out-of-region cluster covered specialist facilities used for athletics, diving, shooting, and karate.

Krakow hub: core city venues

Krakow hosted the largest concentration of sports, with venues split between major indoor arenas, purpose-built sport sites, and prominent public spaces. This mix let the Games combine ticketed indoor sessions with high-visibility outdoor settings in central Krakow.

• Henryk Reyman Municipal Stadium (Stadion Miejski im. Henryka Reymana) - Opening/closing ceremonies and rugby sevens.
• Tauron Arena Krakow - fencing.
• Hutnik Arena - table tennis.
• Cracovia Arena - 3x3 basketball.
• AWF Sports Centre (Academy of Physical Education facilities) - modern pentathlon.
• Kolna Canoe Slalom Course (Kolna Sports Centre) - canoe slalom (including extreme slalom).
• Kryspinow Waterway - canoe sprint.
• Plaszowianka Archery Park - archery.
• Nowa Huta Lake - triathlon.
• Krakow Main Square (Rynek Glowny) - padel and teqball.

Malopolska satellite venues: regional hosting beyond Krakow

Outside Krakow, Malopolska towns hosted sports in venues that already had the right scale or technical profile, helping distribute crowds and operational load across the region. Several of these sites were closely aligned with their local sporting strengths, such as ski jumping in Zakopane and combat sports in established regional arenas.

• Krynica-Zdroj - Krynica-Zdroj Arena (judo and taekwondo) and Krynica-Zdroj Hill Park (mountain bike cycling and mountain running).
• Zakopane - ski jumping at the Zakopane jumping hills (including Srednia Krokiew and Wielka Krokiew).
• Tarnow - Arena Jaskolka Tarnow (badminton), Tarnow Beach Arena (beach handball and beach soccer), and Tarnow Climbing Centre (sport climbing).
• Myslenice - Myslenice Arena (muaythai and kickboxing).
• Nowy Targ - Nowy Targ Arena (boxing).
• Nowy Sacz - Strzelecki Park (breaking).
• Krzeszowice - Krzeszowice BMX Park (BMX freestyle).
• Oswiecim - Aquatics Centre (artistic swimming).

Specialist venues outside Malopolska

A small number of competitions were assigned to cities outside Malopolska to make use of established, specialist venues that match international technical requirements. This kept those sports in facilities designed for their field of play, while Krakow and Malopolska remained the primary host area for the overall event.

• Chorzow - Silesian Stadium (athletics, including European Athletics Team Championships competition staged within the European Games framework).
• Wroclaw - Wroclaw Shooting Centre (shooting).
• Rzeszow - Rzeszow Diving Arena (diving, staged as the 2023 European Diving Championships within the European Games).
• Bielsko-Biala - Bielsko-Biala Arena (Pod Debowcem / Debowiec Sports Arena) (karate).

Sports programme and disciplines

Krakow-Malopolska 2023 combined medal events, European championship competitions, and Olympic qualification pathways inside a single multi-sport schedule. Across 12 days (21 June 2023 to 2 July 2023), the European Games staged 254 events, with the programme spanning both long-established Olympic sports and newer, fast-growing disciplines.

How the programme is counted depends on the classification used. EOC communications often group closely related disciplines under umbrella labels (for example, Aquatics, Canoe, and Cycling), while venue-by-venue programme materials list individual programme disciplines separately. In practice, the competition calendar included a broad line-up that covered aquatics, combat sports, racquet sports, urban and beach formats, endurance events, and a small number of specialist outdoor disciplines.

Sports and disciplines contested in 2023

The following sports and programme disciplines were staged as part of the European Games competition programme. Several of these were organised as European championships in their sport, and some events formed part of Paris 2024 Olympic qualification pathways.

• Aquatics (artistic swimming and diving)
• Archery
• Athletics
• Badminton
• Basketball 3x3
• Beach handball
• Beach soccer
• Boxing
• Breaking
• Canoe slalom
• Canoe sprint
• Cycling BMX freestyle
• Cycling mountain bike
• Fencing
• Judo
• Karate
• Kickboxing
• Modern pentathlon
• Mountain running
• Muaythai
• Padel
• Rugby sevens
• Shooting
• Ski jumping (summer)
• Sport climbing
• Table tennis
• Taekwondo
• Teqball
• Triathlon

New sports at the European Games in 2023

The EOC highlighted eight sports making their first appearance at the European Games in Krakow-Malopolska 2023. Their inclusion helped define the character of the 2023 edition by adding a larger share of beach, urban, and emerging disciplines alongside the core Olympic sports.

• Beach handball
• Breaking
• Muaythai
• Padel
• Rugby sevens
• Ski jumping (summer)
• Sport climbing
• Teqball

Programme changes and notable decisions

In the build-up to the Games, the sports programme evolved through staged confirmations and additions, including the formal inclusion of beach soccer and kickboxing as part of the 2023 line-up. The Games also returned athletics to the European Games framework in a strengthened format via team-championship competition staged in Chorzow within the European Games schedule.

Gymnastics, which had been discussed for inclusion earlier in the cycle, did not appear on the final programme. European Gymnastics stated in September 2022 that the Krakow-Malopolska region did not have a suitable venue for gymnastics, and that the sport would therefore not be part of the 2023 European Games programme.

Participation

The Krakow-Malopolska 2023 European Games brought together 6,857 athletes and competitors from 48 nations across the Games programme. Participation was delivered through National Olympic Committee (NOC) delegations, alongside an EOC Refugee Team entry created by the European Olympic Committees (EOC).

Delegation sizes varied widely, from large, multi-sport teams fielded by major European sporting nations to compact, sport-specific squads focused on a limited set of events.

Participating nations

Forty-eight nations were represented at Krakow-Malopolska 2023. This figure reflects the breadth of EOC-affiliated participation at the European Games, with delegations arriving to compete across the full set of disciplines on the official schedule.

In addition to national delegations, the EOC entered an EOC Refugee Team, competing as an independent EOC delegation rather than under a national flag.

Athlete totals

The official participation total for the event was 6,857 athletes. This total covers athletes across the Games schedule, including both individual and team competitions staged in Krakow and across the wider host region footprint.

Delegation sizes and team size patterns

Team sizes were shaped mainly by how many sports a delegation entered and whether its programme included full team competitions alongside quota-limited individual events. Countries with broad participation typically built their rosters around multiple disciplines, while smaller delegations concentrated resources on selected sports and qualification pathways.

• Host Poland announced a 370-athlete delegation made up of 182 women and 188 men, representing 29 disciplines.
• Germany's Team Deutschland listed 287 athletes across 27 sports for Krakow 2023.
• Smaller NOCs and microstates generally sent compact delegations, often centered on a small number of sports with limited entry slots per nation.

Notable participation notes

The EOC Refugee Team competed with four athletes selected for boxing and taekwondo. The EOC announced Kasra Mehdipournejad and Cindy Winner Djankeu Ngamba as the team's Opening Ceremony flagbearers, describing the entry as the first refugee team to take part at a continental association's multi-sport event.

Russian and Belarusian athletes did not take part in the European Games Krakow-Malopolska 2023 under the EOC's position in effect for the event.

Paris 2024 qualification links

The Krakow and Malopolska 2023 European Games were used as an Olympic qualification event in multiple sports. In practice, specific final placings at the Games triggered Paris 2024 quota places under each sport's Olympic qualification system.

Depending on the sport, the quota place was either allocated to the National Olympic Committee (NOC) (with the NOC later naming the athlete(s) under federation rules) or allocated directly to the athlete or pair.

Sports where European Games results awarded Paris 2024 quota places

• Archery (recurve) - The highest placed recurve mixed team earned one men's and one women's quota place for its NOC (two quota places total). In recurve individual, the NOCs of the two highest placed athletes from different NOCs in each gender earned one quota place per athlete (two men's quota places and two women's quota places). If the host NOC was among the NOCs due to receive a quota place, the quota place was reallocated to the next highest placed NOC in that event.
• Artistic swimming - The best placed duet in the combined results (technical routine and free routine), among duets not already qualified, earned the quota place for Paris 2024.
• Boxing - The European Games functioned as an Olympic qualifying pathway for boxing, with 44 quota places (22 for women and 22 for men) available for Paris 2024, distributed across the 13 Olympic weight categories under the IOC boxing qualification system.
• Breaking - One quota place per gender was allocated from the European Games for Paris 2024 (one B-Girl and one B-Boy quota place).
• Canoe slalom - In each of the four Olympic events (men's canoe single, men's kayak single, women's canoe single, women's kayak single), the highest placed eligible athlete earned a quota place for their NOC, subject to the Paris 2024 canoe slalom qualification system and eligibility rules.
• Diving - The champions in each of the four individual Olympic events (men's 3m springboard, women's 3m springboard, men's 10m platform, women's 10m platform) earned a quota place for their NOC.
• Modern pentathlon - The eight highest placed athletes in each gender earned quota places for Paris 2024, with a maximum of one quota place per NOC per gender awarded through this route.
• Rugby sevens - The winners of the men's and women's tournaments earned a Paris 2024 quota place for their NOC. The second and third placed teams in each tournament progressed to the final Olympic qualification tournament (repechage) for another route to Paris 2024.
• Shooting - The highest placed athlete in each Olympic individual event on the European Games programme earned one quota place for their NOC for Paris 2024, subject to the maximum-per-NOC limits set by the Paris 2024 shooting qualification system.
• Table tennis - The gold medalist mixed doubles pair earned automatic qualification for Paris 2024 via the Olympic mixed doubles pathway.

What qualification meant in practice

In NOC-allocated sports, athletes effectively "won" quota places through their results, but the place was awarded to the NOC, which then had to confirm and name athletes in line with federation procedures, eligibility requirements, and any per-NOC caps. Where qualification was by athlete or pair, the qualifying result directly booked the Paris 2024 place for that specific entry.

Several qualification routes also included built-in roll-down and reallocation logic. Examples at the European Games included reallocation provisions if the host NOC would otherwise receive a quota place in archery, and quota awards in multiple sports being limited by maximums per NOC, causing roll-down to the next eligible NOC or athlete where applicable.

Ranking and follow-on pathways beyond direct quotas

Not every Olympic place for Paris 2024 was decided in Krakow and Malopolska. Athletes and teams who did not secure quota places at the European Games continued through the remaining qualification competitions and ranking routes defined by each sport's Paris 2024 qualification system.

• Modern pentathlon - European Games results also counted toward the UIPM world ranking used to allocate additional Paris 2024 quota places later in the cycle (six quotas per gender via the world ranking route noted in the European Games documentation).
• Rugby sevens - The European Games also acted as a gateway to the final Olympic qualification tournament for teams that finished second or third, preserving a direct competitive pathway for Paris 2024 even without winning the European Games title.

Competition highlights

Krakow-Malopolska 2023 produced a mix of headline medal-table outcomes and Olympic-qualification moments across multiple sports, with several disciplines running in formats that directly shaped the road to Paris 2024.

Alongside the sporting results, the Games carried a few notable off-field storylines, including the governance dispute surrounding boxing qualification and publicly disclosed anti-doping case management under the European Olympic Committees' testing authority.

Medal table storyline

Italy finished first on the overall medal table, with 35 gold medals and 100 total medals. Spain placed second, and Ukraine placed third, with Germany and France also among the leading nations by gold and total medals.

• Italy: 35 gold, 100 total medals
• Spain: 21 gold
• Ukraine: 21 gold

Breaking debut and direct Olympic berths

Breaking made its European Games debut in Nowy Sacz, with the gold medals doubling as direct Paris 2024 qualification opportunities. The winners secured the European quota places for the sport's Olympic debut in Paris.

• B-Girl India (India Sardjoe, Netherlands) won the women's event and qualified for Paris 2024.
• B-Boy Dany (Dany Dann, France) won the men's event and qualified for Paris 2024.

Rugby sevens golds that booked Paris 2024

Rugby sevens at Krakow-Malopolska 2023 also offered a direct Olympic route. The tournament winners earned Paris 2024 quota places, turning the European Games finals into Olympic qualifiers rather than only continental title matches.

• Great Britain won the women's rugby sevens tournament and qualified for Paris 2024.
• Ireland won the men's rugby sevens tournament and qualified for Paris 2024.

Shooting quotas and other Paris-pathway moments

In shooting, European Games finals were used to allocate Paris 2024 quota places under the sport's Olympic qualification system. One of the widely reported storylines was Italy taking two trap gold medals and, with them, two Olympic quota places.

Notable participation notes that carried into later headlines

The EOC Refugee Team competed in boxing and taekwondo, including taekwondo athlete Kasra Mehdipournejad as one of the team members featured in Games-time coverage. In boxing, Cindy Ngamba was part of the EOC Refugee Team entry at the European Games, before later making history at the Paris 2024 Olympics as the first Refugee Olympic Team athlete to win an Olympic medal.

Controversies and governance notes

The boxing tournament sat inside a wider dispute between the International Boxing Association (IBA) and Olympic organisers. Ahead of the Games, the IBA publicly argued that the European Games should not serve as Paris 2024 qualifiers, citing the absence of Russian and Belarusian athletes and the broader conflict between the IBA and the IOC over control of Olympic qualification and event delivery.

On anti-doping, the International Testing Agency published a public disclosure page listing individuals subject to provisional suspensions or other sanctions under the European Olympic Committees' anti-doping rules for Krakow-Malopolska 2023, noting that some cases may not be final and could be in dispute.

Medal table

The Krakow-Malopolska 2023 European Games medal table was led by Italy with 35 gold, 26 silver, and 39 bronze medals (100 total). Spain finished second with 21 gold (57 total), and Ukraine finished third with 21 gold (41 total).

The official medal ranking is ordered by gold medals first, which can produce different standings than a table sorted by total medals alone.

Top 10 nations (gold, silver, bronze, total)

• Italy - 35 gold, 26 silver, 39 bronze (100 total)
• Spain - 21 gold, 17 silver, 19 bronze (57 total)
• Ukraine - 21 gold, 12 silver, 8 bronze (41 total)
• Germany - 20 gold, 16 silver, 27 bronze (63 total)
• France - 17 gold, 19 silver, 26 bronze (62 total)
• Poland (host nation) - 13 gold, 19 silver, 18 bronze (50 total)
• Great Britain - 12 gold, 10 silver, 27 bronze (49 total)
• Hungary - 10 gold, 10 silver, 18 bronze (38 total)
• Türkiye - 9 gold, 9 silver, 20 bronze (38 total)
• Netherlands - 8 gold, 6 silver, 5 bronze (19 total)

Gold-driven ranking vs total medal volume

Spain and Ukraine both won 21 gold medals, but Spain ranked above Ukraine because it earned more silver medals (17 vs 12). Germany and France collected more total medals than Spain (63 and 62 vs 57), but placed fourth and fifth because they won fewer gold medals than Spain.

Further down the table, Czechia won 28 total medals but ranked behind the Netherlands because it won fewer gold medals (7 vs 8). These comparisons reflect the medal table's emphasis on gold medals rather than total podium finishes.

Distribution trends

In total, 41 delegations won at least one medal, and the Games-wide medal count totalled 254 gold, 253 silver, and 333 bronze medals (840 medals overall).

The top 10 nations won 166 of the 254 gold medals (65.4%). The top five nations by gold medals won 114 gold medals (44.9%). By overall medals, the top 10 nations collected 517 of 840 medals (61.5%).

Notable patterns

Poland finished sixth overall as the host nation with 13 gold medals and 50 total medals, closely followed by Great Britain with 12 gold and 49 total. Several mid-table teams showed notably different profiles between gold and overall totals, reflecting where podium depth was broader than first-place finishes.

• Great Britain: 49 total medals with 27 bronze, one of the largest bronze totals among the top seven nations.
• Greece: 17 total medals from 2 gold, 5 silver, and 10 bronze, illustrating a high total with comparatively few golds.
• Czechia: 28 total medals (7 gold) compared with the Netherlands on 19 total medals (8 gold).

Legacy and economics

Public-sector auditing and official communications around Krakow-Malopolska 2023 paint a mixed picture: the Games were delivered on schedule, but the planning timeline, late programme decisions, and governance shortcomings were linked to higher-than-expected public costs and uneven delivery of planned investments.

Costs and public funding mix

Poland's Supreme Audit Office (NIK) identified total European Games-related expenses of PLN 1,668.7 million, financed primarily from the state budget and government funds, with substantial contributions from local governments.

• Total expenses identified by NIK: PLN 1,668.7 million
• State budget and government funds: PLN 1,078.1 million
• Local governments: PLN 582.9 million
• Other sources: PLN 7.7 million

NIK also reported that about 65% of the total came from the state budget and government funds, with about 35% from local government budgets.

Spending categories

NIK grouped spending into five major categories, with infrastructure-related expenditure the largest single component.

• Infrastructure investments: PLN 694.9 million
• Sports investments: PLN 305.8 million
• Preparation and organisation of the Games: PLN 490.3 million
• Licence fee paid to the EOC: PLN 164.1 million
• Other expenses: PLN 13.5 million

Infrastructure and venue investments

Host planning and EOC messaging emphasised using existing venues and modernising selected facilities rather than building major new permanent venues. NIK's audit found that the compressed timetable and changing assumptions contributed to reduced scopes, delays, and cases where investments were not delivered in the planned form.

In the sports-investment programme reviewed by NIK, 15 sports-investment projects were listed in the official investment register, 12 ultimately received state-budget co-financing, and the total value of co-financed tasks was reported as PLN 251.6 million (with state co-financing amounting to PLN 210.1 million). NIK also stated that Krakow did not complete any sports investment in its originally planned scope and dimension.

NIK documented examples of investment-plan changes, including a planned classic canoe track project that was not contracted for co-financing due to issues with completing it at the originally intended location (OSiR "Kolna"), while the infrastructure needed to stage canoe sprint competition in Kryspinow was delivered through other Games-related funding streams.

Tourism, promotion, and measurable benefits

EOC communications framed the Games as a major marketing platform for Krakow and Malopolska, including expectations of media exposure and spillover benefits for local businesses and tourism. After the event, organisers publicly claimed the Games contributed to record tourist numbers in Krakow and the Malopolska region in 2023.

Regional tourism reporting for 2023 showed strong increases in visitor traffic, including large year-on-year rises in foreign tourist counts during the summer season. These figures describe broader tourism performance in Krakow and Malopolska, but they are not, by themselves, an event-specific impact assessment isolating what share of the increase was attributable to the European Games.

NIK explicitly noted it could not evaluate whether planned objectives were met or whether methods and spending were optimal, because responsible authorities did not set measurable indicators to determine expected effects (including financial effects) from hosting.

Ticketing, sponsorship, and revenue pressures

NIK reported that ticketing did not translate into strong paid attendance. Proceeds from ticket sales were reported as PLN 700,000 lower than the cost of producing the tickets, and the distribution mix was heavily weighted toward complimentary allocations.

• Total tickets: 171,585
• Tickets sold (online and at box offices): 61,745
• Tickets distributed: 77% of the available ticket pool
• Share of distributed tickets that were free invitations: 64%

On sponsorship, NIK reported the organising company signed three sponsor agreements with State Treasury companies worth PLN 21 million net, which NIK characterised as only a little over 1% of the audited public-funds expense base.

Governance and oversight issues

NIK's audit described late decision-making as a driver of cost and operational instability, including a legal framework adopted 19 months before the Games, financing principles adopted 15 months before, and a sports programme and host-location list that was finalised and incorporated into the organisation contract only two days before the Games began. NIK stated that expanding competition delivery from four planned locations to 14 locations increased costs and contributed to limiting or abandoning some sports investments.

NIK also reported irregularities, including procurement problems across contracts exceeding PLN 123 million and delayed settlements with contracting parties of nearly PLN 54 million, tied to liquidity pressures from late state-budget transfers. NIK stated it prepared reports for the prosecutor's office, including concerns about a currency-exchange decision in paying the EOC organisation fee that NIK said overestimated the fee by at least PLN 2.5 million.

Another governance and commercial issue cited by NIK related to media rights: the EOC had guaranteed media rights as a main source of revenue and benefits in the May 2022 agreement, but NIK reported that the EOC had sold all television rights to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), meaning the rights could not be transferred to the Polish organising company as expected, and the EOC reduced the organisation fee by EUR 350,000.

NIK additionally reported that a nearly PLN 277 million targeted state-budget subsidy transferred to the organising company was not settled in due time, and that the lack of final settlements also prevented winding up the organising company, which continued to operate and generate ongoing costs.