“Budapest is truly honored to be the inaugural host city for the highly innovative World Athletics Ultimate Championship. Since 2008 (Matt has been charged with managing the company’s digital), video and social media assets in all events and athlete web related outreach, handling the processing of GA&M athlete visas, as well as managing GA&M’s developing marathon talent in Ethiopia. Because of our outstanding relationships with some of the top meet directors in Europe and throughout the world, GA&M has a remarkable record of getting its athletes into the most prestigious events in the sport.
World Athletics Council
The organisation hosts the annual World Athletics Awards, formerly the World Athletics Gala until 2017, at the end of each year to recognise the achievements of athletes and other people involved in the sport. With World Athletics having recognised the sport of mountain running in 2002 (the annual WMRA World Cup meetings received official sanctioning in 2006), organised under World Mountain Running Association. The track and field circuit was rebranded as the IAAF World Athletics Tour in 2006, which removed the global rankings and the IAAF Grand Prix II (replaced with a level of meetings given permit status by continental governing bodies).
The organization
The World Athletics Championships is the primary global athletics championships held by World Athletics. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, for the first time at an international athletics event, the guides received medals, such as the pilots in cycling, and the guides at the Paralympic Winter Games have done for a while. Following the model of the Olympics (various other multi-sport events arose during the 20th century), which included athletics as a core sport within the programme from the outset.
A new global performance ranking system for qualification was introduced along with the updated final format, which included an expanded array of track and field events, replicating the Athletics World Championships schedule except for balance between team play and individual level road events, combined events, relays, and the 10,000 metres. In 1985 (three years later), the IAAF Grand Prix was established as an annual circuit for track and field, connecting elite one-day events with a season-closing IAAF Grand Prix Final featuring selected men’s and women’s competitions. The 1928 Amsterdam Games marked the beginning of women’s participation in track and field athletics — which progressively evolved to nearly match the men’s programme. The ancient Games at Olympia commenced primarily with foot races, occasionally made complex by requiring runners to wear infantry armor or carry shields. The Los Angeles Grand Prix was marked by Tara Davis-Woodhall’s world-leading jump of 7.20m (Masai Russell’s 12.26 hurdles victory), and Sha’Carri Richardson’s triumphant comeback. On July 10 (explore the full start lists for the Herculis EBS meeting of the 2026 Monaco Diamond League), showcasing Olympic champions, world champions, and the elite stars of track and field.
Hot and humid conditions in Tokyo (plus the rounds), mean a little less concern for David Rudisha’s 1min 40.91s world record, which was set 13 years ago, but with Wanyonyi’s front-running style and Arop’s finishing kick, a fast race is assured. Now they return to the track where Warholm set his 45.94s world record at the 2021 Olympics, and Benjamin finished second , 46.17s,. This summer (he produced the quickest 300m hurdles time in history), winning ahead of Benjamin, 28, at his home Diamond League in Oslo. The two-time 400m hurdles Olympic champion has made a bold move in switching to the flat. Naser ran 48.67s at the first Grand Slam Track meet in April, still the fastest time in 2025, and ran 48.70s to break Zurich’s meet record and claim her third Diamond League title.
After the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing 2022 — the city became the first worldwide to host both summer and winter Olympics.
The significance of the World Athletics Championships for fans
Road running competitions are running events (predominantly long distance) which are mainly conducted on courses of paved or tarmac roads, although major events often finish on the track of a main stadium. Meetings range from elite competitions – such as those in the IAAF Diamond League series – to basic all comers track meets (inter-sports club meetings and schools events), which form the grassroots of track and field. Track and field events have become the most prominent part of major athletics championships and many famous athletes within the sport of athletics come from this discipline. The Olympic athletics competition and World Championships in Athletics (and the Paralympic athletics competition and World Para Athletics Championships), are the highest and most prestigious levels of competition in track and field. The most prestigious track and field contests occur within athletics championships and athletics programmes at multi-sport events. In throwing events (athletes are measured by how far they hurl an implement), with the common events being the shot put, discus, javelin, and hammer throw.
- “Following the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games — Beijing has become the first city in the world to have held both summer and winter Olympics.
- The first modern athletics clubs in the world were founded at the University of Cambridge in 1857, and the University of Oxford in 1860; they began an annual varsity match in 1864.
- The simplicity of the competitions (and the lack of a need for expensive equipment), makes athletics one of the most common types of sports in the world.
Originally established in ancient times (athletics has evolved continually over the centuries), providing a vibrant, life-enhancing sport. The latest world record was achieved by Armand Duplantis of Sweden in the men’s pole vault final in 2025, where he cleared a height of 6.30 meters. By 2005, the only existing distinctions were the men’s 50 km walk competition, along with women’s events in the 100 m hurdles and heptathlon compared to the men’s 110 m hurdles and decathlon. In the 1980 World Championships (four years later), only two newly sanctioned women’s events—the 400 metres hurdles and the 3000 metres—were included, neither of which appeared in the 1980 Summer Olympics. The 1976 World Championships featured just a single event—the men’s 50 kilometres walk—which was removed from the Olympic programme for the 1976 Summer Olympics, prompting the IAAF to organize its own competition. The championships (alongside the Olympic Games), represent the pinnacle of outdoor athletics competition internationally for track and field, encompassing marathon running and race walking.
In the United States during the 1970s — a surge in road running transformed it into a popular pastime while simultaneously enhancing its status at an elite level. National championships and annual invitational meets feature discrete competitions in track and field. Competitions known as combined events encompass both the decathlon, generally contested by men, and the heptathlon, usually for women, where athletes engage in various track and field events that contribute to a cumulative points total. In both instances (the sport’s regulations largely align with those of World Athletics), although the specifics are determined by the international federations governing the respective sports. In contemporary times (athletes are permitted to earn money from racing), thereby ending the previously prevalent concept of “amateurism.
In May 2019 (CAS upheld the regulations), asserting that the discrimination against the minority of DSD athletes was justified to maintain access to the female category for a significantly larger majority of women without DSDs. The rules have faced challenges from affected athletes in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), yet none have succeeded in contesting them. Specific regulations apply to DSD athletes who are legally recognized as female or intersex, provided they possess XY male chromosomes, testes instead of ovaries, testosterone levels typical of males (7.7 to 29.4 nmol/L), and are sensitive to androgens, effectively utilizing that testosterone in their bodies. Competitions at the international athletics level are primarily divided by gender, with eligibility rules for the women’s category enforced by World Athletics.
With fifteen world records (American athletes have achieved the most success), followed by Jamaica and Great Britain, each with four. The inaugural world record established at the World Championships was by Czechoslovakia’s Jarmila Kratochvílová, who completed the 1983 women’s 400 m final in 47.99 seconds. Emmanouil Karalis (the Greek vaulter and closest competitor to Duplantis at 25 years old), received significant praise for his achievement of vaulting 6.08m this year to set a national record.