World Association President Sebastian Coe does not rule out an annual event for the future of the World Athletics Championships. He attaches conditions to possible World Championships in Saudi Arabia. In 2025 we will first go to Tokyo.
Will athletics also go to Saudi Arabia in the medium term, where there is currently high income for several sports thanks to the Kingdom’s sports washing measures there? When asked about the criticism of Saudi Arabia’s path by human rights organizations, Coe said in an interview with several British media outlets that he really doesn’t care where athletics competitions are held. But you shouldn’t just take this step because of the money. “We can’t afford to have empty stadiums”said Coe.
If only a handful of people were at the competitions, “that looks lousy”. The many empty seats at the World Cup in Doha 2019 “heartbreaking” been for many participants. So one condition would be full stadiums. The perspective for the competitions after the upcoming 2025 World Cup is still open. For 2027 there would be five applications “big cities” expected, said Coe. Among them would be Istanbul and Beijing.
World Cup no longer every two years in the future?
Coe is currently trying to make athletics fit for the future with various measures. Certain disciplines may be less featured and certain new high profile competitions may be introduced. A Netflix series as a boost, as in other sports, is also in the works.
Another measure could be to hold the World Cup annually instead of every two years, as has been the case up to now. “We’re not ruling that out”said Coe, emphasizing: “There’s only one risk for us right now. And that’s just our innate conservatism.”
Next World Cup station: Tokyo 2025
The 2025 World Cup in Tokyo offers an opportunity to make up for at least some of what was missed at the Olympics. The summer games planned for 2020 were initially postponed by a year and finally took place almost without fans in the competition venues for reasons of infection control.
The world association preferred Tokyo to the competition from Singapore, Nairobi (Kenya) and Chorzów (Poland) when the World Cup was awarded in July 2022. “We promise that the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo will be packed with fans and will be an unforgettable experience.”said Mitsugi Ogata, President of the Japan Federation at the time.
At the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, no fans were allowed to be in the stadium.
Olympia 2021: expensive summer games in a sterile setting
A few weeks before the opening ceremony in 2021, the Japanese government declared a state of emergency due to the increasing number of infections. The games had to be played in a sterile setting so that at least the show on TV could go on. Especially in athletics in the large Olympic Stadium, the lack of fans was often clear.
Above all, the rising costs to more than 15 billion US dollars also ensured that acceptance among the population continued to fall. Now the World Championships in Athletics should trigger new enthusiasm for sports in Tokyo and Japan – as far as this is possible after the experiences at the Olympics.
Coe is against moving the endurance disciplines
One issue could be the great heat with high humidity in summer in Tokyo. The World Cup should initially take place in August 2025, but the world association and the organization in Japan agreed on the period in mid-September. The hope: At this time of the year, the worst of the heat could be over.
In 2021 the Olympic marathon was run in Sapporo.
It’s the endurance disciplines, the long distances, that are the biggest challenge in the heat. At the Olympic Games, the marathon races and several walking competitions were therefore moved to the higher and cooler Sapporo. Is that a possible approach for the 2025 World Cup? So far, World Association President Coe has spoken out against it. “We will be in Tokyo”said Coe in November 2022 by the Japanese news agency Kyodo News. “Tokyo is the city that applied. We’ll make sure it works in Tokyo.”
Coe calls for changes to sporting calendar due to climate change
But the heat waves have become more intense and frequent in Japan. The temperatures at the World Cup in Budapest were very high at times. Coe acknowledges that in the face of climate change, something needs to change.
“I believe this will force global sport to reconsider the calendar”said Coe on Thursday (08/25/2023) in the sports show. “If we have a conscience towards the athletes, we have to ask ourselves what future host cities can look like.” He assumes that governments will not solve the problem, said Coe. “So it’s up to the sport to deal with that.”