Athletics’ world president claims new, more track-focused events on calendar show sport’s strong position
World Athletics president Seb Coe does not believe the sport is headed for a “tipping point” as we enter a year of change.
Events such as Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Run League will take place for the first time in 2025, with the opening match in April. It has attracted a number of big names, is getting a lot of attention and shows a lot of promise.
However, such projects and the women’s-only Atlos meet in September have both focused entirely on track, which has drawn criticism and in some cases outright anger from track athletes who feel their events are being marginalized.
While many observers may feel that the field of athletics is in danger of fragmenting, Coe argues that these new additions to the athletics landscape should be encouraged and actually point to a position of growing strength.
Speaking on a year-end media call, Coe said: “I am comforted by the fact that we have now created a platform in World Athletics where people believe that sport is something worth investing in. They are foreign investments and the market is a pretty unforgiving place. They tend not to put money where they believe there is no trajectory or the organization is moving in the right direction.
“Long before Michael or Atlos came up with this idea, I’ve always encouraged opportunities for people to come to the table with ideas and to be active around fresh investments. I hope these events add luster to what we already have.” we create.”
Michael Johnson (Grand Slam)
Part of the build-up to World Athletics is their ultimate championships in Budapest in the summer of 2026. The condensed program will include 16 race events and 10 field events, all with direct finals.
It has also been criticized for items that will not be shown and, when asked about the reaction of some athletes in the field, Coe added: like this.
“If I talk about Budapest for a moment, it’s not really about winners and losers. I’m not ashamed of this. It’s a televised event. It’s three hours in three nights. We can’t put all the subjects (there). We don’t have all the discipline there.
“What we’ve tried to do is put the best events together in the right format. Maybe when we come to 2028, it’s different disciplines. But the main thing here is that there are no winners and losers. It’s not like we are will suddenly lose the events that are not seen in Budapest. They are not going to go to the Europeans or our national championships, or even the Olympic Games. This is largely related to the new audience with bringing in, making our sport as mainstream as possible, people who love big events but might not watch athletics… all of that.”
World Cross U20 start (Getty)
The sports schedule is looking ever more crowded as the arrival of new events means athletes have more choices about where and when to compete.
However, Coe added: “I would rather give them more opportunities than sit there. “We have to put together a season and we don’t have a choice of ways and plans.” won’t work, but I think I’ll be doing more events.
“If we want to be a professional sport, we have to do more than a professional sport from May to September. We have to have more competition, and we have to be able to do that, not just give the athletes roads for, but hopefully to create better financial stability for them.”
Coe could be in for a year of big changes on the professional front as well, given that she is one of seven candidates vying to become the next president of the International Olympic Committee should she win the vote in March over senior vice president Ximena Restrepo, a 400m Olympian former Games bronze medalist, will replace him as World Athletics president.
The man who achieved such success by staging London 2012 would not comment on IOC matters, but reiterated his desire to add cross-country to the Winter Olympic programme.
The schedule for the World Cross Country Championships is currently under close scrutiny, and Coe added that discussions are ongoing with European Athletics over the prospect of the biennial global championships being held before Christmas, potentially clashing with the European Cross Country Championships in 2012. December
The World Cross will next be staged in Tallahassee in January 2026, and Coe said: their general conditioning to know that it actually works.
“But we also know it needs help. It requires space and opportunity to do that, particularly with the discussions we’re having with Paris 2030 (Winter Games) and also with Salt Lake City in 2034 as a re-presentation.” potential is part of our focus.”
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