By David Melly
March 12, 2025
If there’s one winter tradition that American track fans have grown accustomed to, it’s the randomness and uncertainty of big name pros actually showing up to race during the indoor season. Even in a World Indoors year, plenty of global medal threats would rather hibernate in the comfort of balmy training camps of Southern California, Florida, or Texas, then emerge sometime in April or May with Worlds circled on the calendar.
Collegiate athletes—even those with global podium aspirations of their own—enjoy no such luxury. And that’s why historically the NCAA indoor championships are super exciting and among the highest-caliber track meets in the world. But this past weekend and a continent away, non-North American pros proved the weight of the indoor track world doesn’t need to be placed solely upon the shoulders of collegians. The European Indoor Championships rocked this year. And a big reason for that is, with a few notable exceptions, all the stars showed up.
Begrudging kudos have to go to UK Athletics, who, after years of public pressure, decided to send a robust roster to Apeldoorn, Netherlands, and were rewarded with seven medals, the third highest total behind France and the host country. They were also the source of the bigger absences — namely, Dina Asher-Smith, Josh Kerr, Laura Muir, Zharnel Hughes, Matthew Hudson-Smith, Keely Hodgkinson, and Jake Wightman — but they made up for it with 34 individual entrants, maxing out their spots in all the track events, save the hurdles.
Beyond the handful of Brits skipping out on their bite of the Apel, most of the fastest Europeans on the circuit did make the trip, including Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Femke Bol, the Kambundji sisters, and Georgia Bell. 2021 Euro Indoor champ Mondo Duplantis didn’t care to pick up another pole vault title, perhaps to give time for the ink to dry on his new world record, but three men cleared 5.90m nevertheless and had to sort out the medals on countback. And another reigning world record holder, Yaroslava Mahuchikh, successfully pulled off the threepeat in the high jump with a 1.99m leap.
Eight world leads were set, led by Jessica Schilder’s incredible 20.69m haul to win the shot put (and reset her Dutch national record in front of a home crowd), and Ditaji Kambundji’s blazing 7.67 victory in the 60m hurdles. Kambundji, who’d never broken 7.80 before last weekend, caught lightning in a bottle to knock 0.13 seconds off her PB, win her first major title, and land at T-2nd on the all-time list.
The distance races were a tale of two outcomes. In the men’s races, the theme was predictability as Ingebrigtsen picked up his sixth and seventh Euro Indoor golds in the 1500m and 3000m. On the women’s side, however, we got a pair of upsets as Frenchwoman Agathe Guillemot bided her time perfectly in the 1500m to blow past Georgia Bell in the final lap. Bell wound up out of the medals entirely as her countrywoman Revée Walcott-Nolan pipped her at the line for bronze. In the 3000m, Irishwoman Sarah Healy rode Brit Melissa Courtney-Bryant’s shoulder to the homestretch and timed her pass just right to claim a gold as her first medal of any color in a championship.
While the most jingoistic of American observers might turn up their noses at some of the shallower events, most notably the men’s 4x400m, where the Dutch team’s winning time of 3:04.95 would put them at 10th on this year’s NCAA list, all in all it was a solid showing from a continent that has historically put a lot more time, effort, and passion into indoor track than most. With World Indoors a few short weeks away, North Americans like Ronnie Baker, Grace Stark, and Sarah Mitton are probably feeling a lot less confident than they were a few days ago.
Making a regional championship compelling is a tricky balancing act. The meet has to have the right combination of star power to feel important and new faces to not feel redundant. For global fans, the familiar names are what makes the meet worth tuning in, but for participating countries, the thrill comes from seeing your flag show up on podiums where it’s normally absent. And ultimately, the athletes actually investing their own time and efforts into an event that could easily be skipped in favor of Nanjing or an outdoor season opener is what lends Euros a credibility that meet organizers can’t manufacture unilaterally.
Lastly, the proximity of Euros and NCAAs creates some food for thought in the future. The team score element of NCAAs will always make it one of the most compelling championships to watch, because the top eight finishers in every single event could influence the ultimate outcome of the meet. It’s an added team element that professional track and field sorely lacks. At global championships, the reality is that Team USA would simply run away with the points race, but European Indoors is a meet with far more parity across nations. Maybe team scoring is something worth piloting at future championships. It’d certainly do more for the fan experience than Wavelights or a long jump takeoff zone.
Apeldoorn ‘25 proved itself a worthy showcase of professional track and field. (And it actually got to be showcased, as Eurosport streamed the meet for free around the globe!) The passion that European athletes and fans have for their continental championship may never quite translate fully overseas, but this year’s edition made a solid case that it deserves its spot on the viewing calendar, regardless of your actual affiliation with any of the competing nations.
David Melly
David began contributing to CITIUS in 2018, and quickly cemented himself as an integral part of the team thanks to his quick wit, hot takes, undying love for the sport and willingness to get yelled at online.
