This page always looks at the single most recent European Championships that has field-event Final results loaded - currently Stadio Olimpico, Roma (ITA) 2024. No date is hard-coded: the first query below finds that edition automatically, so once Birmingham 2026's results are loaded this page moves on to them with no edit required.

Why one edition, not several pooled together: the selection-policy classification this page joins against describes each federation's current mechanism. Pooling in older editions would compare last decade's results against this year's documented policy, which may not be the policy that was actually in force at the time. A future version could pool recent editions deliberately, but only for federations whose mechanism is confirmed not to have changed across them.

What this page cannot do yet: tell a selective, well-judged squad apart from one that left eligible athletes at home. Both look like "few entrants, but a high finalist rate" in results data alone. Answering that properly needs the list of athletes who held a valid qualifying place (by entry standard or world ranking) ahead of the championships, not just who started - a dataset this page does not currently load. Adding it would let a future version show, per country, how many quota-holders were left unselected and what they went on to do elsewhere that season.

Most recent edition with field-event Finals loaded:

    SELECT c.competitionId, YEAR(c.startDate) AS year, c.venue, c.startDate
    FROM athletics_wa_competitions c
    WHERE c.type = 'E'
      AND EXISTS (
        SELECT 1 FROM athletics_wa_competition_results r
        WHERE r.competitionId = c.competitionId
          AND r.race = 'Final'
          AND r.eventId IN (10229615,10229616,10229617,10229618,10229619,10229620,10229621,10229636,10229526,10229527,10229528,10229529,10229530,10229531,10229532,10229533)
      )
    ORDER BY c.startDate DESC
    LIMIT 1

Per-country entrants, finalists and medals at that edition:

    SELECT SUBSTRING_INDEX(r.athleteUrlSlug, '/', 1) AS slug,
           COUNT(DISTINCT r.aaId) AS entrants,
           COUNT(DISTINCT CASE WHEN r.race = 'Final' THEN r.aaId END) AS finalists,
           COUNT(DISTINCT CASE WHEN r.race = 'Final' AND r.place BETWEEN 1 AND 3 THEN r.aaId END) AS medals
    FROM athletics_wa_competition_results r
    WHERE r.competitionId = 7158244
      AND r.eventId IN (10229615,10229616,10229617,10229618,10229619,10229620,10229621,10229636,10229526,10229527,10229528,10229529,10229530,10229531,10229532,10229533)
      AND r.aaId > 0
      AND r.race <> 'Combined - Group' -- decathlon/heptathlon legs are also recorded
                                        -- under the standalone event's own eventId
                                        -- (e.g. a decathlete's shot put leg shows up
                                        -- as a 'Shot' row too) - without this they'd
                                        -- be double-counted as entrants in events
                                        -- they didn't separately enter
      AND r.athleteUrlSlug IS NOT NULL
    GROUP BY slug

Selection-mechanism categories are read directly from athletics_selection_policy_countries, the same table behind the Selection Policy Comparison page.