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World Athletics plans to launch an elite global competition for track and field athletes with $10mn of prize money, in a significant shake-up of the sport’s calendar.
The federation said the World Athletics Ultimate Championship would take place over three days, in a format designed to expand the global appeal of athletics at a time when sports are competing hard for fans, viewers and commercial partners.
The inaugural event, which is set to take place in September 2026, will bring about 400 athletes from 70 countries to Hungarian capital Budapest, the first host city and the stage for last year’s World Athletics Championships.
As well as the $10mn prize pot, World Athletics said the event would be a platform for athletes to promote their own sponsors, create their own content and increase off-track income.
“I want more athletics, we want the athletes competing on a regular basis,” said World Athletics president Lord Sebastian Coe at a press conference held to announce the plans. “I want to give them greater opportunities to compete, and for a longer period in the season, and the opportunity to finish the season with more money in their pockets.”
Every athlete competing at the event would be paid, Coe told reporters.
The move comes just weeks after World Athletics set out plans to be the first sports federation to pay out prize money at the Olympic Games. The move will start at this summer’s tournament in Paris, where gold-medal winners will receive $50,000 each. World Athletics will triple that to $150,000 at its Ultimate Championship event.
The federation’s effort to increase pay for athletes comes at a time of rising earning power for elite performers in other sports.
Like all long-established sports operators, World Athletics is also under pressure to innovate. Four-time Olympic sprint champion Michael Johnson earlier this year set out plans to start a new track league in 2025 in an attempt to introduce another high-impact competition outside the quadrennial Olympics and biennial World Athletics Championships.
The Ultimate Championship will conclude the summer athletics season and will potentially add another top event to World Athletics’ roster. The intention is to hold the event every two years, meaning the second edition will take place after the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Coe told reporters the event would “absolutely and uncompromisingly” be a major championship, sitting alongside its other elite competitions and with the same status.
“We have already spoken to a lot of the athletes, to the athlete representatives, to the shoe companies . . . the overwhelming belief is that this is the right thing to do,” he said. “If we make sure these championships are delivered well . . . that the prize pot is significant . . . there will be take-up for this.”
The event would include classic events such as sprints, middle distance and endurance runs, as well as jumps, throws and relays, Coe said. This could include a debut event such as a mixed 4×100 relay and a shorter steeplechase if “properly road-tested and they’re seen to work”.
World Athletics chief executive Jon Ridgeon said the federation wanted the competition to “look different” to existing events, to be “faster paced” and act as a launching pad for “one or two new ideas, providing they test well”. However, he stressed that the new competition was “not about gimmicks”.
“This is about meaningful world-class athletics, where the best of the best are competing to prove they’re the best,” he said.
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