Zurich (Switzerland), Aug 28
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe has said that he is very optimistic about the future of athletics and that the sport must maintain its position as the number one Olympic sport.
"There are only two truly global sports: one is football, and one is athletics. We must maintain our position as the number one Olympic sport," Coe said ahead of the Diamond League meeting in Zurich on Thursday night.
"I'm very optimistic about the future of the sport. I've never been more optimistic about the future of the sport. Whoever my successor is, they are inheriting a very much stronger sport than I inherited. I'm absolutely sure that the sport will continue to grow. I know it will remain the number one Olympic sport," said the president, who will turn 70 next month.
The Briton will step down as president in 2027. He was elected president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), renamed World Athletics in 2019, in Beijing on Aug. 19, 2015, and his successor will be elected at the 2027 World Athletics Elective Congress in Beijing, immediately before the World Athletics Championships.
"My objective in the next year is to continue to make the changes that I think will help build and create a stronger sport in the years to come. When I step down, I want to ensure we have strong leadership and that the sport continues to prosper, and I will always obviously be there to support and to help in any way, but it's then time for someone else to be taking on those challenges," the president said.
The 2026 Diamond League is nearing its conclusion ahead of the inaugural Ultimate Championship, to be held in Budapest from Sept. 11 to 13. The biennial season-ending competition will bring together world champions, Olympic champions, Diamond League winners and the year's best-performing athletes to vie for titles and prize money. The total prize purse is 10 million U.S. dollars, with the winner of each event receiving 150,000 U.S. dollars.
"The Ultimate Championship was clearly athletic, but athletics with an innovative spin. We didn't just want to create another World Championships. This is a shorter format. This is just three days, three nights, fewer athletes, not every discipline, but male and female balanced with a very large prize pot," Coe said.
The Ultimate Championship program features 16 disciplines and 26 individual events, comprising 16 track and 10 field events, plus two relays, including the new mixed 4x100m, at the Budapest National Athletics Centre.
"It's going to be like maybe the Olympics or maybe the World Championship? We want the best of the best, and we were absolutely ambitious about that," he added.
Talking about the World Championships in China next year, Coe said, "We can rely upon the Chinese federation and the organising committee, and you have total political leadership and support behind it. Major world championships are complicated. It challenges in terms of project management, it challenges cities, it challenges organisational structures, and it is really important that we have consistency and reliability, and our Chinese federation and the organising committees are world-class."
"I think it's really important to have the combination of a strong federation, world-class coaches, good administrative power, good funding, and political support. I think that Chinese athletics needs to be ambitious. You have assets in place that many federations, many countries don't have. This is a well-organised sport, and it deserves to be successful," he added.
For the final year of his presidency, Coe said he has no specific plans of his own. "At the moment, we're obviously looking at how we increase our revenues. Many of our contractual arrangements, both sponsorship and broadcast, come to a conclusion in 2029. (We have) So much to do next year: some changes to our competition regulations, some things that we want to continue to adjust around the calendar. And those are all the things that are the appropriate discussion for the Council."
