World Athletics’ Ultimate Championship

It does not matter how MANY championships they make.

There will always be DOPERS who win.

Only DOPERS in SUPERSPIKES and WAVELIGHTS can run fast.

How many gold medals did LANCE ARMSTRONG WIN?

PS. Jakob is a FAILURE in global championships, with a PATHETIC record compared to everyone else. PATHETIC.

PS. PS. Jakob is a DOPER!

Sub 3:28 1500 is impossible without dope

I just want to note how funny it is that one of the biggest changes to this sport in the last several decades just got announced and the first two posts on the letsrun discussion thread is decrying progress and technology, flinging personal insults at Jakob, and accusing some of the top stars in the sport of doping.

Very much indicative of why this website was left off the planning committee for this event. I've heard that a member of the world athletics athletes council has a personal vendetta against letsrun.

Basically a mini WCs. Perhaps with additional events like mix 4x1, mile steeple, DMR.

I think this could be really good. And the prize money means the big names will actually compete, even if it doesn't have the prestige of olympics/world champs while it's in its infancy.

Good to see new things being tried. Maybe Michael Johnson can claim all the speculation about his league seems to have spurred on WA.

The post you are replying to is satire. Good quality one, too!

Isn’t this just worlds with a slightly different format and prize $?

It's Lagat, right? i don't think he's a fan of "b sample Lagat"

Adding yet another championships without a plan to bring in new audiences is a bad move by world athletics. Our sport doesn't suffer from a lack of events it suffers from a lack of ELITE COMPETITION. This just makes the problem worse.

Give us one annual championships, dump all the prize money into that, and force athletes to run on the diamond league circuit to get entries. That's how you make the sport a cohesive product you can sell to fans.

That’s wrong. The first thing the sport needs to do is make sure it doesn’t lose the existing fans. Especially the ones who spend money. This sounds exciting and I’m planning on being in Budapest 2026 just like I was in Budapest for the worlds and Eugene

too bad it clashes with the NFL and premier league and the other European soccer leagues.

This could be good. My takeaway is that its a pseudo diamond league final designed to bring the end of track season meet up to parity with the olympics and world championships. Athletes will be trying to peak for this instead of being done after worlds or just chasing times in late aug/sept. In the off year, its basically a world championship.

The bad thing though is that this is just another meet in the olympic year, something to extend the season. I imagine athletes will still peak for the Olympics and in Olympic years, it will be a second chance for those whose dreams were dashed in bad races, hot weather, whatever.

I think to grow the sport, this money should be put into world xc instead. Make a major march championship over pseudo worlds every 4 years and the second chance meet every olympic year.

• record-setting prize pot of US$10 million, the largest ever offered in the history of track & field athletics – with gold medallists set to receive US$150,000
• 11-13 September 2026 and set to be held every two years,
• Taking place over three evening sessions, each under three hours in duration
• Athletes will represent their national teams
• All athletes competing at the championship will be financially rewarded
• Athletes will also benefit from greater promotional rights, allowing them to commercially activate and enhance their personal profiles
• “By embracing innovation and breaking away from traditional models, we are looking to reach a broader audience, particularly younger fans, and elevate the entire sport,” said World Athletics CEO Jon Ridgeon. “There will be a strong focus on television audiences, with an aim to reach the biggest global audience possible. We also want to enhance the viewing experience, both at home and in the stadium, so we are looking at what new competition innovations can be introduced, all of which will be thoroughly tested in advance. We truly believe this will be a game changer for our entire sport.”
• Global championship event: Launching in 2026, the championship will take place every two years and serve as a grand conclusion to the track and field season.
• Compact format: A three-day event, with each evening session packed with semi-finals and finals for track disciplines, and straight finals for field disciplines.
• Elite athlete participation: Featuring 8-16 of the world's top-ranked athletes per discipline, with selections based primarily on world rankings. Approaching 400 athletes from about 70 countries will compete, representing the pinnacle of global athletic talent.
• Prize money: A total prize pot of US$10 million, with winners receiving US$150,000, setting a new benchmark for financial rewards in athletics.

I particularly like that every athlete who competes will get rewarded financially. Also that the selections will be based primarily on world rankings. Moving towards world ranking is the best direction for the sport, since it incentivizes racing. Hopefully they can pair it with giving out more points for actually racing at meets with competition, as opposed to now when it can be more worth it to solo a 3:33 at a random meet. I think we should reward meets like Night of the 10ks that are innovating and making great experiences for fans and athletes alike by giving whoever runs there a ton of world ranking points. Incentivize the best athletes to show up to those meets by giving out a ton of points.

Also the focus on making it as action packed as possible, 3 days in a row, 3 hour time windows is good to see. It seems like they're trying to make a DL equivalent to the World Championships, but my one worry is that it's too similar to WCs. Is this really gonna be all that different from Worlds without the heats? Kinda reminds me of how the NCAA does it. Regionals are the heats and they're completely separate meets, then NCAAs is like 3 days of a ton of competition. I hope they do something else to differentiate it. Maybe special events like the 4xmile that don't get run too often, maybe exhibition races pitting athletes from different disciplines against each other (top 1500 guy vs top 800 guy at 1k). I'd love to see something like an elimination mile or 3k or something run at an elite level. It'd also be cool to see a race with men and women staggered by pb and see who comes out on top. That doesn't work in smaller meets because people will be in better shape than their pb, but since this meet is taking the very best in the world, people's pbs won't be way off their actual shape. This is a great chance to try a bunch of different things, and I hope it doesn't become just WCs without the heats.

If it’s every two years, will it still take place during an olympic year? Is this meant to be a mini championship final that replaces the diamond league final in years with no olympics or world championships? Will the diamond league final even be a thing after this?

I think it's a great idea but I don't like the every other year thing. That seems to be prevalent in track and field. I like the Diamond League format and it's every year- consistent to bring in and keep more fans.

There IS a limit to how many championships a sport can have- Worlds/Olympics, Diamond League, Indoor Worlds, World Cross (different discipline I know) and now the Ultimate.

Golf has the PGA and Masters. Tennis has the Grand Slam events. Formula 1 has no championship just a Grand Prix point total thing.

I learned about this announcement from an elevator (pic below) so it's getting broad coverage. It seems like a great concept.

One idea I've been thinking of: Crown an "overall champion" based on highest World Athletics points score across all events at the Ultimate Championship, and cover it with that as a central focus. T&F is so disjointed as it is, I think this would at least add an overarching theme to the competition.

Of course, to make this fair there would have to be pacers / lights in all the distance events, but I don't see why they can't do that. It would be cool if the pacing lights of e.g. the men's 5K were set to whatever exact time they would need to, for example, beat the women's 100m score. Considering this will be held on Olympic years, I don't mind having time trials as long as the result matters and the athletes buy into it.

If the WA points tables have historical bias then maybe they could be weighted to the last two years of competition per event to give everyone a chance.

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If they don't figure out a way to broadcast for free it will make no difference. Currently coverage is buried behind various paywalls that only the most hard core fans make the effort to locate. If you want to expand the audience make it easy to follow the sport. That goes for the Michael Johnson series too.

Its free in most of the world outside of the US.

I like the idea but I think they need to give it a unique name. Having a World Athletics Championships and a World Athletics Ultimate Championships is just silly. If they are truly trying to emulate the Super Bowl/Masters/Wimbledon then it needs to have a succinct, memorable name. I think naming it just the “Athletics Ultimate” makes more sense.

Agree with the spirit of this, but they wish they chose something different than Ultimate since that immediately made me picture Frisbee Championships.