Athletes from nineteen European countries will participate in the European Calisthenics Championships in the Rai in Amsterdam this weekend. The age-old sport, which resembles a type of strength training, is gaining popularity among young people. The tournament will be the first officially organized in a European context.
“It took me three years,” says Paco Podunajec, who organizes the tournament from The Calisthenics Club. “It has of course stopped for a while due to the lockdowns,” said the chairman of the club. It was precisely those lockdowns during the pandemic that made calisthenics popular because the sport can easily be practiced outdoors.
Calisthenics have been practiced since ancient Greece in preparation for wars and battles, but international tournaments have only been organized for a number of years. Very little is needed for the sport, for the exercises you only need your own body weight.
Because calisthenics is still small in terms of competition, there is little to earn for the practitioners. “You don’t get much in return,” says European Championship participant Angelo (18). Nevertheless, he puts his heart and soul into it in the preparation: “It’s great that the tournament is now very close.”
The European Championship is one of the parts of the two-day European Calisthenics Fair that takes place in the Rai with the aim of making the sport more known among the general public. In addition to the showdown between the top athletes, there are workshops, where visitors can become acquainted with calisthenics in an accessible way. The project is supported by the European Union.