Global governing body president says innovation remains big part of his strategy as latest council meeting also approves 4x100m mixed relay and new race walking distances

World Athletics president Seb Coe says the governing body will continue to explore opportunities to innovate in 2025 following a successful Olympic year, although he warns: “Change is hard but we know how to do it.”

Recent months have seen a host of major events, world records and the Paris Olympics, but work is already underway to stage a World Athletics Ultimate Championships in 2026 in Budapest and other ideas include a possible world championships for treadmill running.

“It has been a fantastic year for our sport with some jaw-dropping performances, strong fan growth and engagement, exceptional broadcast and media coverage, and, of course, the Netflix series which thrust athletics into the centre of mainstream entertainment,” said Coe, speaking at the close of the 236th World Athletics Council Meeting in Monaco.

“We hit the No.1 Olympic sport spot again, with the biggest broadcast reach of any Olympic sport.”

He added: “I believe our sport is stronger than it has ever been, and we need to capitalise on this. At the start of this year, the first year of our new four-year strategic plan Pioneering Change, we added a fifth pillar: innovation. We made it a key priority in 2024 and we have had some significant success, but more needs to be done with a sense of urgency. We need to keep up the momentum.

“Change is hard, but we know how to do it. By working in close collaboration with our athletes and stakeholders, and only implementing the most popular and thoroughly tested new concepts, we have an extraordinary opportunity, right now, to make a strong and growing sport stronger and even more popular.”

Decisions made at the latest council meeting include the mixed 4x100m being added to the programme for the World Athletics Relays Guangzhou on May 10-11 next year.

There are new official distances for race walks, too, with half-marathon and the marathon replacing 20km and 35km. “It makes it more relatable for most people to understand,” says Coe, who added the changes come into effect from January 1 in 2026.

Linked to this, race walks at the World Under-20 Championships will shift from 10,000m to 5000m.

The World Cross Country Championships will also move from ‘even years’ to ‘odd years’ after the 2026 event in Tallahassee.

Coe was also pleased to announce that the council had taken eight countries from the competition manipulation watch list. They include: Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

Finally, World Athletics says it wants to expand safeguarding measures in the sport with campaigning against gender-based violence as a priority.

Coe said: “I am particularly encouraged by our athletes' commitment to address the subject of gender-based violence as a priority and the discussions on the role that World Athletics can play to address it.”

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