Technogym and World Athletics join forces with Seb Coe saying it’s important to combine technology and physicality.
For the first time, the World Track Championships will be held over 5km next year, where ordinary athletes will be able to test themselves against elite runners in thousands of qualifying events for the first part of 2026, before the grand finale in the later part of the year at an as yet unannounced venue.
The competition is called RUN X and is the result of a collaboration between Technogym and World Athletics. The event, launched in Milan on Monday (October 27), included World Athletics President Coe and world 10,000m champion Jimmy Grecier, who explained how “trackable and validated results” will be generated through the Technogym ecosystem, which currently includes around 50,000 Technogym clubs in more than 120 countries.
“It’s always been a challenge for me how to make our sport more accessible and exciting using the technology we have today,” said Coe, who traveled from Los Angeles to Italy to attend.
“We are committed to democratizing our sport and making people realize that when they are on their track at RUN X, they are part of the global athletics family.”
Technogym has been the official supplier of the Olympic Games for nine games in a row. Could we one day see this event as part of the Olympic program?
“That’s a little above my pay grade.” Coe smiled, “but it’s important that the Olympic movement understands the challenge around technology, and as the No. 1 Olympic sport, it’s really important that world athletics seizes this opportunity.
“It’s one thing to have the technology, but it’s important to have the ‘physicality’ in these projects. We marry these two things. We’re just not encouraging people to be more sedentary.”
With Gressier involved, it is all but certain that the Frenchman will compete in 2026. A number of top 5,000m runners also frequently train on the tracks, such as Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and British record holder George Mills, while Eilish McColgan is already interested in the concept.
It remains to be seen if they will participate, though. It is also unclear how accessible the competition will be to athletes based in regions such as East Africa, home to many of the world’s top 5000m runners.
However, Coe believes this project will be huge. “I think history doesn’t always repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes,” he says. Technogym was founded in 1983 and we had our first World Championships in Helsinki the same year, so it’s only fitting that 42 years later we introduce another World Championship to the sport here.
“The 1983 World Champs changed the game and I believe the World Treadmill Champs will have a similar impact.”
The process will begin in 2026 with fitness centers attached to the event. This will be followed by runner registration. There will be a wave of pre-qualifiers and then regional qualifiers, with the top 10 men and top 10 women advancing to the world finals, which organizers in Milan described as a “secret and iconic venue”.
READ MORE. Why the World Treadmill Champs is no joke
There’s a $100,000 prize pool and entry to the World Road Race Championships as prizes.
