For the European Olympic community, 2015 is a very important year. Europe will join the rest of the world's Olympic family through the organization of their first Games. Baku was elected as a place of meeting and sports competition at the Assembly of the European Olympic Committee, which was held on December 8th 2012 in Rome. The spectacular opening ceremony will be held on June 12th, 2015. and will mark the beginning of the seventeen-day long competition, which will unite Europe and celebrate sport. During the time between 12. – 18. June there will be 6000 athletes competing in 20 sports (16 Olympic and 4 non-Olympic). They will fight for one of the 253 medals, and some of the athletes will get a chance to qualify for the Rio Olympic Games in 2016. Azerbaijan is a country that is rich in natural resources, has a century-old culture and deep-rooted hospitality. Its position in the world map, in the southern part of the mountain Caucasus, unites Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The trademarks of "Baku 2015" are the mascots: Jeyran the gazelle and Nar the pomegranate. A gazelle represents natural beauty, grace and purity, and is a protected species in Azerbaijan. A pomegrenate, on the other hand, symbolizes the Azerbaijani folklore in unison with beautiful fruity colors of Baku. The following facts may emphasize the significance of this spots event to European sports: ❒ an 800 hours of broadcast is planned, ❒ 34 territories have signed the TV broadcast rights, ❒ 750 media agencies will be reporting from the European Games. Over the course of event, there will be: ❒ up to 1,600 employees, ❒ there are 1,245 people working at this moment, ❒ 43 different nationalities from 6 continents, ❒ 13,000 volunteers, ❒ 20,000 contractors involved in preparation of Baku as a host of the first European Games. At the inaugural European games, which will gather athletes from all 50 countries, Montenegro will participate with a large delegation. Our junior water polo team has ensured its participation by winning gold in Malta, in 2013. There will be numerous athletes competing in team events, the qualifications for judoists are to be finished at the end of March, and we will have representatives in several individual sports, like boxing and karate.
