The first edition of the European Olympic Games, hosted by Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, start on Friday, June 12 and will unfold until Sunday, June 28. Romania will participate in this new multisport competition with a large group of 147 athletes.
More than 6,000 athletes will compete in 30 sports at Baku, competitions being hosted by 18 sport sites, 253 gold medals are to be awarded. And they will be attended by athletes from 50 European Olympic Committees.
The program includes 16 Olympic sports and four non-Olympic sports. The disciplines to provide qualification for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 are archery, athletics, boxing, cycling, judo, shooting sports, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon, volleyball and wrestling.
Opening and closing ceremonies will be held at the Olympic Stadium in Baku, the first one having Dimitris Papaioannou as artistic director, the creator of ceremonies held in 2004 at the Olympics Games in Athens. The artistic director of the closing ceremony on June 28 will be James Hadley, a former Cirque du Soleil artistic director at many shows.