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≡ WORLD ATHLETICS ≡
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe (GBR) was in a good mood in a Monday online news conference, especially when he was asked – as a two-time Olympic 1,500 m champion – about the Paris 1,500 m, where American Cole Hocker shocked everyone to win the gold medal ahead of Britain’s World Champion Josh Kerr with a brilliant sprint down the straight:
“As a race, it was a very good race and it had everything in it. I remember sitting with [FIFA President] Gianni Infantino [SUI] who I’d invited to come and watch the championships that night. And he said, ‘Oh my God, if there’d been one night – if I’d known – this is the one I would have chosen.’ So I said, well, you should come back more, Gianni, it’s more interesting than football. And with less of a determined outcome.”
Coe laughed, recalling his own joke with the FIFA chief, but he noted that that’s how good the season was, with spectacular performances everywhere.
“It’s been a very, very successful year. Look, as an athletics enthusiast, I would go so far as to say – in athletics terms – it’s been one for the ages. … Clearly, Paris was a big moment in the year, it cemented our sport absolutely at the epicenter of the Olympic Movement. …
“It’s invidious to pick out one performance from Paris, but I’m still trying to come to terms with what Sydney McLaughlin [-Levrone] did on the track that day [world women’s 400 m hurdles world record of 50.37]. I mean, I haven’t seen a more definitive Olympic win since David Rudisha [KEN 800 m world record] back in 2012.”
And Coe pointed to the impact that these performances and others have elevated the sport outside the oval as well:
“In a way they demonstrate a momentum that has delivered in another one of our key areas and metrics and that is extending the income streams. Finding new income streams and certainly the welcoming and introduction of new partners. And that’s an important message from the market, because the market is pretty unforgiving animal and when partners come to you, they’re making all sorts of decisions not just based on the fact that I’m saying nice things about athletics but based on their own analysis and analytics.
“They’re data-driven. The days of CEOs who like athletics, rugby or football, or saying well, that’s where we’re going to put our sponsorship spend is over. I understand that probably better than most because that’s what I do. That’s my business; that’s what I do when I’m not doing this. And that’s a very big statement by the market that companies like Sony and Honda, supplier partnerships with Deloitte, supporter partnerships and Morinaga, Pocari Sweat, Corpay are all coming to us, and they’re making judgements, judgements about a sport that’s moving in the right direction, and they’re making judgements about the excitement and the personalities that are on display amongst the athletes. All these come together.
“They’re making judgments about a well-governed sport as well. So that’s also been a pleasing element.”
There are problems. Coe pointed to “the atrocious gender-based violence that we witnessed earlier in the year [including the death of Ugandan marathoner Rebecca Cheptegei]. It’s not uniquely attached to sport, but we did feel a responsibility to at least sit down with the right people and the right partners to see whether there was anything that we could constructively do.”
Asked about the situation with Russia, Coe explained:
“We have two separate issues here. The first was around doping. And I can tell you that we got into good shape. We created a task force, we worked painstakingly for seven years. Some years we’re better than others; some years took us forward, and some years took us back. But we now have the Athletics Integrity Unit across this, we have 40 athletes in the international Registered Testing Pool and we have safeguards in place that tell me that is a downside more secure than it’s ever been.
“And we have people working within the [Russian] federation that we know and we trust, and … it is a new federation, and it is also a new National Olympic Committee. So that is one issue that we felt we completed the journey.
“Of course, other things [war against Ukraine] intervened, so that is really not within our control and it’s not something you can set up a task force to deal with. And so we watch that closely. But from a point of view of simple humanity, I just hope to Christ this finishes, because you know I’ve been to Ukraine and you know the suffering is extraordinary.”
Russia has essentially been banned from the sport since the state-sponsored doping scandal broke open in 2015.
Coe was brighter when talking about the new events coming online, whether it’s Grand Slam Track or the federation’s Ultimate Championship in 2026, explaining “I think there’s just a recognition, and I take comfort from the fact that we now have created, in World Athletics, a platform where people think that the sport is something that is worth investing in. …
“I hope these events add luster to what we’re already creating, and just a recognition that they don’t happen overnight, it’s a massive amount of work that goes on behind the scenes. … I would encourage anybody that wanted to invest in that space to do so.”
Asked about more coordination of the calendar, which is getting more and more crowded, Coe was – in one way – in favor of it:
“It is awfully crowded. It’s better than the alternative. … Look, we have to be conscious about that … I would rather give them more opportunities to be able to triage than sitting there going ‘well, you know we’re having to scrape a season together’ and we don’t have the pathways and the programs to choose. …
“I am never going to force-feed athletes into programs that aren’t going to work for them and I know the primacy that they have and the primacy their coaches have and that has to be respected.
“But I think that I would rather have more events and look, it’s really important if we want to be a professional sport, we have to do more than be a professional sport from sort of May through to September. We really do have to broaden it with it.
“If you think about it, we have a very, very small shop. Yes, we have lots of other things going on at the same time, but look let’s be blunt: it’s our World Championships that deliver 95% of our income. It’s our World Championships that get the billion-plus eyeballs on what we’re doing.
“We need to extend the length of the season. We need to have more competition and we need to be able to do that not only to give the athletes the pathways, but hopefully to create better financial stability for them. And those are all the things that we wake up here at World Athletics every day trying to trying to figure out.”
Coe was also enthusiastic about the early ticket sales – about 200,000 so far – for the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, and looking to place cross country into the Olympic Winter Games in 2030 or 2034. To that end, he said that discussions are on now about possibly moving the Cross Country Worlds into December, especially now that it will be held in odd years beginning in 2027.
This was a very good year, but Coe emphasized there is a lot to do to make sure future years are just as good or better:
“I can tell you at this very moment, in this building, in the lead-up to Christmas, there are probably three or four people who are doing nothing else other than thinking about what ‘26 looks like. and the work that goes on behind-the-scenes to make that happen and we’re two years out.”
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