On 10 July the Diamond League stops in Monaco. Eight days later, on 18 July, London hosts one of the most anticipated meetings of the European season. Two weeks in which the best names in world athletics race each other on a tartan track, in front of packed stadiums, with times and marks that end up on every sports headline on the continent.
It is the kind of spectacle that lights something up. Not just the urge to watch the next race, but a more concrete one: to get back to running fast, to try a long jump take-off, to feel a track under spiked shoes instead of asphalt under running trainers.
Europe's athletics summer
Athletics is, by tradition, a deeply European sport. The tracks of Stockholm, Lausanne, Paris, Brussels, and Zurich have hosted Diamond League meetings for years, and Monaco and London join the calendar this summer as it moves across the continent from north to south. Every stop fills stadiums, and the evening after, it fills municipal tracks in much smaller towns too: people who watched the 100m on TV over the weekend often turn up at their local track on Monday.
You do not need to be competitive level to feel the pull. Athletics is, together with swimming, one of the oldest and most elemental sports there is: run, jump, throw. Public tracks in Berlin, Warsaw, Madrid, Vienna, and dozens of other European cities are open all summer, often with free lanes in the evening hours. The problem is not the facility.
Track training is not running alone
Here lies the important difference from road running. An endurance run can be done solo, on any route, with no specific equipment. Track athletics works differently: interval reps make sense when someone else keeps the pace or runs alongside you, starting-block technique is learned by watching and being watched, jumps and throws almost always need a second pair of eyes to correct the movement.
It is training that, to be genuinely effective, calls for a group — not necessarily a registered club with formal membership, but at least a core of people at your level, to share the lane and the stopwatch with. Finding that as an adult, without having come up through youth athletics, is far from obvious: friends who run usually do road running, established clubs can feel reserved for competitive athletes, and showing up alone on a track for the first time is intimidating.
The result is that a lot of amateurs interested in athletics end up giving up, or fall back on running because it is easier to organise. A shame, because the track offers something the road does not: structure, a variety of events, progress you can measure meet after meet.
How it works on PlaySportMate
PlaySportMate is free and covers 150+ sports, athletics included. Every profile lists the sport, event group (sprints, middle-distance, hurdles, jumps, throws), stated level, city, and weekly availability. The search system is built exactly for the problem above: finding compatible people — level, event group, schedule, area — without going through a club or a membership card.
Go to /cerca, choose Athletics, set your city. You will find amateur athletes to share track sessions with, or even just a structured group run with intervals and recoveries planned together instead of improvised.
- Profile with sport, event group, city, level, and weekly availability
- Search by sport + city, with level filter
- Direct contact in chat — no middlemen, no cost
If you want to build a regular group — the same people every Tuesday and Thursday on the track — you can create a Crew. It is a shared space to organise sessions, confirm who is showing up, and run the group chat, with no WhatsApp group to keep alive by hand.
A few weeks of shared training sessions are usually enough to go from "I'd like to get back on the track" to actually having a group to do it with consistently.
What the Diamond League cannot give you
Watching Monaco and London on TV, or streaming them, is an experience. Putting your feet on a tartan track, hearing the snap of the starting blocks, racing a 400m with someone next to you pushing just as hard, is something completely different — and much more within reach than it looks.
Athletics does not ask for expensive gear or a minimum level to start. It asks for a track, which already exists in most European cities, and the right people to share it with.
You find the first with a search on a map. The second is what PlaySportMate helps you find.
If road running is more your thing, read our guide on how to find a running partner this summer — different sport, same principle. And if you want to understand how PlaySportMate works overall, take a look at what PlaySportMate is.
Find your athletics training group now
Join PlaySportMate, select Athletics and find training partners at your level in your city. The Diamond League gives you the inspiration — PlaySportMate gives you the group.
Find athletics training partners →Frequently asked questions
How do I find an athletics group near me on PlaySportMate?
Go to /cerca, select 'Athletics' as your sport and set your city. You will see amateur athletes' profiles with their stated event group (sprints, middle-distance, jumps, throws), level, and weekly availability. Contact is direct via chat, no middlemen and no paid sign-up.
What is the difference between a track athletics group and a running buddy?
They are two different things. Road running is continuous running, often done solo or in pairs, with no specific equipment. Track athletics is structured training — interval reps, starting-block technique, jumps, throws — usually guided by a coach and tied to a facility with certified lanes. PSM covers both: if you are after the second one, check our dedicated summer running guide.
Do I need to already be registered with a club to train on a track?
It depends on the facility: many European municipal tracks allow free or pay-per-hour access even without a federation card, while others require club membership. Either way, before membership even comes into play, the practical problem is almost always finding people to train with consistently — that is where PlaySportMate helps.
Does PlaySportMate work for other sports besides athletics?
Yes. PSM covers 150+ sports: football, tennis, basketball, padel, swimming, cycling, running and much more. The same search system for level, city, and availability applies to any discipline, always free.