World Athletics Debuts Changes for Inaugural Ultimate Championship

World Athletics has unveiled a package of innovations ahead of its inaugural Ultimate Championship in Budapest, Hungary, from September 11—13, as the governing body seeks to reshape track & field competition and bring elite athletes closer to fans.

Through enhanced TV coverage, reimagined event presentation and the introduction of fresh digital platforms, World Athletics President Lord Sebastian Coe believes that the Championship can appeal to broader audiences and create new storylines for track & field on the global stage.

When the Championship was first announced two years ago, it was revealed that the event was also designed to be held every two years, placing the second edition squarely in the same competition season as the 2028 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles.

Format

Taking place at Budapest’s National Athletics Centre, the Ultimate Championship will feature invited world champions, Olympic champions and the year’s best performing athletes, while the season’s Wanda Diamond League winners will qualify automatically.

The competition will feature 28 finals, spanning three three-hour-long evening sessions. The format will ensure that only one field event takes place at a given time, wherever possible, so each discipline has equal visibility and broadcasters do not miss out on important storylines.

Each evening session will feature a horizontal jump, vertical jump, a throwing event and track finals. Jumping and throwing events, as well as the 1500m and 5000m track races, will be run as straight finals, and events with shorter distances will be staged with semi-finals.

The format, though, will be different for the athletes before they even set foot in the stadium.

On September 10, the day before the Championship gets underway, there will be a variety of events to allow athletes to showcase their personalities, conduct interviews with the media, and create their own content. There will be a formal press conference with Lord Coe and eight-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt, a red carpet event, dedicated photo shoots and media sessions for different disciplines, live lane draws for the men’s and women’s 200m races, and a grassroots Kids’ Athletics Ultimate challenge led by athletes Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Letsile Tebogo.

Enhanced Broadcast Coverage

Broadcast coverage will be enhanced at the Ultimate Championship to ensure that each track & field event feels like its own spectacle and stands out against the rest.

Among the innovations to broadcast coverage will be augmented reality graphics, athlete headshots and data, including algorithm-generated live win probabilities and further statistical information around projected finishing positions. In addition, the on-screen race clock will move across to the bottom center of the screen, providing a better viewing experience for mobile devices and vertical platforms, after fans were invited to share their own feedback on the graphics for the first time.

More than 20 broadcasters are set to show the Ultimate Championship live in September.

Visual Presentation

All areas of the visual presentation are being transformed for the inaugural edition of the Ultimate Championship.

Active competition areas will be the only sections to be illuminated, drawing the spectators’ and viewers’ attention to the events. The infield — the area inside the running track — will have a predominantly black surface to help the field of play stand out even more.

A bespoke soundtrack, enhanced lighting and live performances during the warm-up will be incorporated too, following feedback by Olympic and world champion Noah Lyles about how to give athletes more prominence pre- and post-race. Together, these will lead up to the Ultimate Anthem, the event’s official anthem which will be presented in part by pole vault world record-holder Mondo Duplantis.

Interviews with athletes will also be shown live, both in the stadium and on the world feed.

Athlete-Generated Content

In a departure from tradition, competitors will be given greater scope to generate content for their own digital channels.

After competition has taken place, athletes will receive footage and official photographs from their individual events and behind the scenes, giving them more control over the use of their name and image. Meanwhile, Tara Davis-Woodhall will not only be competing, but she will also serve as the event’s lead content creator.

Fans will also benefit from enhanced content creation at the event, in the shape of a new World Athletics mobile app during the Championship. The app will feature live results, athlete profiles, predictions, visualized content, interactive features and personalized notifications, bringing fans closer to their sporting idols.

Rewards

Athletes will compete against each other for the largest prize pool in the sport of $10 million (€8.8 million), with each individual champion receiving $150,000 (€131,000).

Instead of medals, however, athletes will each receive a participation token. Champions will then receive a trophy that is designed to connect with their participation token, creating a single object when combined, although more details about it are set to be confirmed in due course.