European Athletic Association
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| Abbreviation | European Athletics |
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| Formation | 1969 |
| Type | Sports organisation |
| Headquarters | Lausanne, Switzerland |
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Region served
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Europe |
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Membership
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51 national associations |
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Official language
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English, French |
| Svein Arne Hansen | |
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Main organ
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European Athletics Council |
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Parent organization
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IAAF |
| Website | european-athletics.org |
The European Athletic Association (more commonly known as European Athletics) is the governing body for athletics in Europe. It is one of the six Area Associations of the world's athletics governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). European Athletics has 51 members and is headquartered in Lausanne. Svein Arne Hansen is its current president.
Originally created in 1932 as a European Committee, it was made into an independent body during the Bucharest conference of 1969. The first European Athletics congress took place in Paris on 6–8 October 1970, with Dutchman Adriaan Paulen elected as its first president. From a volunteer-led organization based in the acting Secretary's home country, European Athletics has developed into a professional organization with a permanent base in Switzerland.
European Athletics runs and regulates several championships and meetings across Europe - both indoor and outdoor.
After the foundation of the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) in 1912, it was clear there needed to be a European committee as part of the governing board. While the idea originally met with some resistance, it was the active promotion by the Hungarian representative Szilard Stankovits that bought the initiative to life following the Los Angeles congress of the IAAF in 1932. Following this meeting, the Council officially designated a European Commission (chaired by Stankovits) with the task of reviewing the conditions for the organisation of the European Athletics Championships.
The first official meeting of what was later to be known as the European Commission was held in Budapest on 7 January 1934. The organization of the first European Athletics Championships was officially awarded to Turin. These first games were men-only and were notable by the absence of the British delegation, which opposed an event seen as competing with its own British Empire Games. The next championships took place in Paris in 1938, but after Stankovits' death the same year and the cancellation of all events during WWII, the Commission lay dormant until 1945.
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