Para Archery at the 2023 European Para Championships on Rotterdam ©EPC2023
Para sports across Europe are locked into a growing trajectory now that the important European Para Championships in 2027 will be hosted in Geneva. Organizers in February announced that government representatives from the Swiss Canton, major institutions and strategic partners met and are aligned in their efforts to successfully deliver a platform that showcases elite performance and drives the future of para sport in Europe.
The Geneva edition will further validate the para sports championships model first launched in Rotterdam in 2023 when 1500 athletes from 45 nations competed in 10 European championships centered in a single event venue over a 12-day span. Athletes at the Netherlands events described the experience a key milestone on the road to the Paralympic Games.
The event, in part, was designed to fill a giant gap in European para sports and provide a qualification path for athletes vying to compete in the Paralympics. Successful competitors in Rotterdam were qualified for the Paris 2024 Paralympics and the intention is to repeat the process every four years – one year before the Games – starting next year in Geneva ahead of the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympics. Similar models already existed on other continents including the Para Asian Games and the Para Pan American Games.
Athletes in Rotterdam competed in sports including para archery, para taekwondo, wheelchair tennis and wheelchair basketball – and organizers say more sports may be added in 2027 as demand for the event grows. It is estimated that 2,000 athletes might compete in Geneva making it the largest para sports event in Europe.
Further details about the sports program will be released later this year.
Geneva 2027 will be staged mostly at the Palexpo Exhibition venue and at Parc Sarasin for the outdoor sports, both directly adjacent to the international airport. Multiple hotels and transportation options are nearby.
Palexpo previously staged tennis matches at the 2014 Davis Cup and was host of the Roger Federers’ Laver Cup in 2019.
“Hosting the European Para Championships offers Geneva the opportunity to strengthen its position as a European centre for para sport,” Thierry Apotheloz, member of the Geneva Cantonal Government said when the Canton was chosen for the event last October.
“Geneva stands for international cooperation and inclusion, values that are central to our identity as an event,” European Para Championships (EPC) founder Eric Kersten said.
“We are proud to bring the next edition to a city that shares our ambition and our values.”
European Para Championships is a privately owned organization that describes itself as a social enterprise committed to providing a stage to support and highlight para athletes. The European Para Championships is partnered with the European Paralympic Committee in a longterm deal.
That partnership is important, Kersten told GamesBids.com, because it provides a “Games stamp” that allows for the continental qualification route for some international sport federations.
“For example, wheelchair tennis, because they don’t have continental championships. So we actually solved a problem for them.”
Kersten believes his organization is the first privately owned enterprise of its kind where the European Paralympic Committee is an important stakeholder.
International Paralympic Committee President (IPC) president Andrew Parsons, speaking during the Rotterdam 2023 event said “it was the right project at the right time at the right place by the right people.”
“To have this event prior to the Paralympics helps in different ways. Of course athletes are qualified for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games through this European Championships. But also it’s important in the promotion of the Games.”
Looking ahead he added “this can’t be one of, this has to be consolidated in the European or international parasports calendar because I do think that this can change the shape of para sports in Europe.”
Germany and Turkey had initially submitted bids to host the second edition of the Championships but later withdrew plans before Geneva was chosen last year.
The EPC is already looking to continue building the Championships beyond 2027 as the organization is now actively seeking municipalities interested in hosting in 2031.
Kersten said the Championships is a great option for cities the size of Geneva where the population of the city core is about 200,000 and the greater metropolitan area just over one million. The operational budget in Rotterdam was about 30 million euros (USD $35.1 million), an amount that is very “doable” for big cities and is affordable compared to recent European multi-sport events such as the Special Olympics World Games Berlin 2023 that cost about 140 million euros (USD $164 million), he said.
The Geneva Championships will run from August 2 to 15, 2027.