interview
World Association President Sebastian Coe is convinced of the success of the World Athletics World Championships that started on Saturday (13.09.2025). He rejects criticism of the newly introduced genetic tests for the athletes in the sports show interview.
Sebastian Coe, the World Athletics World Cup is the greatest sporting event in Tokyo since the 2021 Olympic Games determined by Corona pandemic. Now there are no more restrictions, no masks. To what extent can the World Cup be compensation for the Japanese – and of course also for the athletes?
Coe: I don’t know if it can be a complete compensation. It was a difficult loss to play the games without fans. I was the first president of Tokyo in 2020 and met with the governor, the mayor and the political leadership, was announced when the games were postponed. At the time, I committed myself to do everything in my power in order to bring the World Cup back here as soon as possible. So I’m very happy that we are here.
I am pleased that the stadium will be filled with loud, passionate and expert athletics fans and hope that it will be a little bit of the loss of fans during the games. The athletes know that they are coming to a fantastic stadium. But this time – unlike four years ago – they will have a big fan base.
After Tokyo 1991 and Osaka 2007 it is already the third World Athletics Championships in Japan. Why is this country so well suited?
Coe: After baseball, athletics is the second most popular sport in Japan, it is seen as a kind of national religion. Marathon and go have been very historical and iconic disciplines in Japanese culture for over a century. And athletics is one of the sports that, in my opinion, appeals to the nature of excellence in Japanese society.
It is about top performance in industry, top performance in culture, top performance in everything they do. And I think there is a natural affinity between the spectators who look in Japan Sport, and the realization that our athletes – like now “Mondo” Duplantis or in 1991 Carl Lewis and Mike Powell’s top performance, which are the trademark of athletics. That fits the Japanese mentality.
However, if you stroll through the city in Tokyo, you don’t see much advertising for the World Cup. Most have not even heard of the event. How do you want to awaken enthusiasm in the next few days?
Coe: We sold 50,000 tickets a evening for the World Cup, and we still have to improve something on a few days. Tell me another world championship somewhere in the world that reaches such numbers for over ten days. According to all standards – be it media reporting, the range of the transmissions or the number of 2000 participants from 200 countries – this is nowhere the case.
The Japanese buy tickets, which is a pretty good indicator of how the World Cup is seen here. And I believe that, as with most World Championships, the dynamics will increase during the week.
Summer and also the late summer in Tokyo are very hot and moist. Sometimes it is very uncomfortable outside. Is it really a good idea to organize a World Cup this time of year?
Coe: There is no place that is really free from this challenge. This is something with what the sport has to deal with because the governments are unable to really tackle this existential challenge.
You are right: The only challenge in front of which international sport is standing and which I have been talking about for many years is that sport has to keep an eye on the global calendar. 70 percent of our athletes stated in a study that climate change not only affects their competition programs, but also their training opportunities at certain times of the day. I think we have to seriously think about carrying some endurance competitions in athletics at cooler and quieter times of the year.
At the marathon on Sunday, the temperatures could rise to over 34 degrees. Wasn’t it an option to move the marathon to Sapporo to the north of Japan as at the Olympics?
Coe: The International Olympic Committee has forced this laying, and ultimately it made little difference. We still had to advance the start times. The additional challenge was that we had to divide our resources and some of our medical team remained in Tokyo, while another part was in Sapporo without really making a difference.
We decided to carry out these championships in Tokyo. There are no simple answers here. But I can say that we have the best health and science team in the world. They have been organizing our endurance competitions for many years in very coordinated and well thought -out way.
World Athletics has introduced an obligatory genetic test for athletes. Is this achieved more fairness in sports?
Coe: The tests serve to promote, protect and maintain the women’s category in sport – and that is important. The athletes are figureheads of athletics. So if we also advance sport as a whole by promoting women’s sports, this is a profit for everyone.
We have more female fans than ever – and they belong to a younger population group, which is also important. But if there is a sport where young girls think there is a biological glass ceiling that you can never break through, you won’t choose this sport and you will shrink. For all possible reasons – both philosophical and practical and commercial – the tests are the right decision.
Some athletes complain primarily about the short -term nature of the introduction of the tests.
Coe: It was not a short -term decision. The Council of the World Association made this decision last March in Beijing at the Hallen World Championships. Yes, it was a closer time frame when we would have liked it for our member associations, but this is partly due to the fact that we were so concerned with consultations. The vast majority of the athletes we spoke to not only supported this, but also expressed it positively. And you know that it is really important that this sport defends your birthright, your ability to compete at the highest level.
It is a one -time test. No athlete will ever be asked to take this test again as soon as it has been validated. Safety is of course very important. The test result is destroyed after its validation. And the discussion, if there is something to clarify, only takes place directly between the medical delegate and the athlete. We only test the presence of a Y chromosome. We do not carry out DNA tests. It’s all about this data.
However, as soon as a Y chromosome is detected, further tests are required, for example, the detection of a uterus. Is that morally acceptable?
Coe: This is a discussion that will continue the medical teams, but I can assure you that this is recognized internationally in all medical standards. So we don’t do anything that goes beyond this protocols. And I am very confident that our health and science teams, which are all practicing doctors, are very clear about this process.
Can one say in this context that the tests from athletics can serve as a blueprint for other sports?
Coe: I have never taken anything that we did in athletics as a yardstick for other sports. But a number of international associations talks to us about our approach and we share this information with you.
What do you want for the World Cup in Tokyo?
Coe: Many of us used to be athletes. We do not go into competitions to be weaker or less effective than in the competitions before. That is why we focus on organizing a great World Cup. The crucial moment will be when you enter the stadium and see it really fully for the first time, and not like the Olympic Games. For me it will be emotional to see and share the joy of the people, who unfortunately could not see athletics and many other sports here at the 2021 Olympics.