How many athletes from how many nations competed at the 2026 European Athletics Championships?

The 2026 European Athletics Championships involved 1,645 athletes from 49 nations.

The participation figure covers the athletes entered in Birmingham’s senior championships across the many track, field, combined-event, relay and road-race disciplines. Because relays and combined events require different types of specialists, the entry list represented a wide cross-section of European athletics.

The 49-nation figure counts participating national teams, not the number of medal-winning countries. Those two numbers can differ because some nations compete without reaching the podium, while other countries may collect several medals.

Another possible source of confusion is the total number of entries in individual heats and events. The official participation statistic counts athletes, whereas event-entry totals can include multiple appearances by the same athlete and therefore should not be added together as a headcount.