sport
Copenhagen Opens 11 Sports Halls for Free Trials Before World Championships
Eleven venues across the city launch free trials this weekend as local facilities prepare for the World Athletics Road Running Championships Copenhagen 26.
How we reported this
This weekend Copenhagen opens 11 sports halls for children to sample activities at no cost through the event titled 'What do you want to do?, Try a sport'.
The timing places these openings six weeks before the World Athletics Road Running Championships Copenhagen 26, scheduled for September 19-20. Organisers expect elite and open youth fields in the 5 km, One Mile and Half Marathon distances, drawing attention to how existing and upgraded venues can absorb extra demand from visiting athletes and local participants alike.
Venues already in use or near completion
A green-roofed multipurpose sports centre in Ørestad City, designed by NORD Architects, now operates around the clock with fully accessible spaces that adapt for different groups. At the same time a new recreational facility atop the CopenHill waste-to-energy plant, complete with a dry ski slope and Europe’s tallest outdoor climbing wall, remains on track for an autumn opening. F.C. Copenhagen is also completing a staff-and-player building at its Number 10 training site, due for handover in roughly five weeks.
Parken Sport & Entertainment, the City of Copenhagen and the Danish FA have formed a joint working group to explore a new DBU headquarters and sustainable capacity options at the stadium. These projects sit alongside established community sites such as DGI Byen, which already hosts nearly 100 local clubs, and the indoor asphalt facility run by GAME Copenhagen in the city centre.
Participation numbers and city ranking
Copenhagen sits eighth on the Global Sports Cities Index among 610 evaluated locations. Football alone accounts for more than 360,000 registered players across Denmark’s 1,600-plus clubs, while three out of four Danish children take part in sport on a regular basis. The weekend hall openings target that youth cohort directly, offering taster sessions in disciplines that feed into the September road-running programme.
City officials have not announced additional temporary venues for the championships themselves. Instead they point to the existing network of halls, the Ørestad centre and the forthcoming CopenHill site as the practical backbone for training and community engagement in the weeks ahead. Residents interested in the free trials can find the full list of participating halls on the City of Copenhagen website.