It is Munich 2022’s honour to crown 177 European champions over the span of 11 days. Until the day comes no one can say who these outstanding athletes will be, either way the Local Organising Committee (LOC) has put the utmost love to detail into collating worthy prizes for its champions.

The medals for European Championships Munich 2022 were conceptualised by Munich 2022’s Creative Director Florian Weber and drawn up by Designworks, the home-grown design forge of BMW. These medals are unique in every way possible. Unlike usually, the ribbon is more than just a lanyard but a seamless connection to and integrated into the medal itself. The ribbon’s ends cross like the traditional and well-known Munich pretzel, paying homage to the host city, and to the embrace of worlds, sports and arms after a long while apart.

“I’m proud that together with Designworks we managed to compress so many stories into our medal design. These unique stories tell the history of Olympiapark, pay tribute to Munich as the host city and most importantly place the athletes at the centre,” explains Weber. The summary of the efforts of the past two years is a positive one: “We challenged the status quo of medal design and succeeded thanks to this great cooperation.”

A total of 1,300 medals in gold, silver and bronze will be handed out across all nine Olympic sports, with each being specific to their sport. Therefore, the ribbon includes not only the sport icon but also the corresponding sport colour. Nevertheless, the overall design and feel will be the very same to bring in another unifying element to the event. The medal design is bold and dynamic with a contemporary triangular prism form inspired by the European Championships' ‘Mark of a Champion’ star.

The front of the medal features another Munich symbol, as its slanted and layered surface culminates in a discreetly flowing art piece inspired by the silhouette of the roof tent in Olympiapark. It is a tangible element giving power to the smallest of details leading to the biggest of victories. Through these different angles and the contrast between the finish of the background and the shine of the logo, the medal catches the light's reflections and brings them to life. All while leaving room for the obligatory engraving of the medallists’ names in the middle of their new physical award. Also, the medal winners won’t have to come up with a unique way to store or showcase their prized possession, because the case already doubles as a base for proper display.

As sustainability is one of the core values of the multi-sport event, the medals and boxes have been produced in the most sustainable way possible. The box is made from card, which in turn is FSC certified. While the championship medals are manufactured from recycled PET and use the zinc pressure die casting process.

Production has been handled by Touch of Ginger who have already produced the torch for the 2012 Olympic Games, and the 2018 European Championships medals and corresponding Nations Trophy. The trophy will return in the 2022 edition of the European Championships and serves as one of the main unifying elements of the multi-sport event. It will once more be awarded to the nation that finishes top of the overall medal table featuring all participating sports. At Glasgow/Berlin 2018, Russia claimed said trophy ahead of second-placed Great Britain and third-placed Italy.