World Athletics Council commits to action against gender-based violence

• Competition decisions continue to drive innovation agenda

The World Athletics Council committed to taking action against gender-based violence and made a series of other decisions ranging from competition updates to further driving the organisation’s innovation agenda during the 236th World Athletics Council Meeting in Monaco on 3-4 December.

Safeguarding and action against gender-based violence

Building on the extensive work done by World Athletics to expand safeguarding measures in the sport, the World Athletics Council – working alongside the Athletes' Commission and Gender Leadership Taskforce – has identified campaigning against gender-based violence as a priority.

One in three women worldwide face violence in their lifetime, with recent high-profile cases in Africa sending shockwaves through the sport. Gender-based violence is a global issue, with all 18 members of the Athletes' Commission – from 18 different countries across all six areas – highlighting the impact and extent of gender-based violence in their regions.

While the Athletes' Commission recognises that the sport may not have the power to implement policy due to lack of jurisdiction outside of the sporting landscape, World Athletics can use the space in which it does have jurisdiction to drive change through three main areas: raising awareness, education, and lobbying for change.

Commenting on this clear mandate, World Athletics President Sebastian 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.

“The fact that both our Athletes’ Commission and our Gender Leadership Taskforce have put the critical item on their agendas this weekend fills me with confidence in our stakeholders' understanding that we have a responsibility that goes far beyond what is happening on the field of play and I look forward to working together with them on supporting our female athletes and to enshrine the results of this work in our safeguarding policies.”

The Athletes’ Commission would like World Athletics to take a leadership role, for practical ideas that can help across the globe, and recommends that World Athletics explores partnerships with relevant organisations to combine forces and push for change.

World Athletics Athletes’ Commission Chair Valerie Adams said: “In a sport as diverse and universal as athletics, it is rare to see athletes from different countries, disciplines and socio-economic backgrounds agree on something as unanimously as the topic of gender-based violence.

“We as athletes are in a unique position to leverage our profiles and social influence in our communities to lobby for change. It will take a concerted effort from all of us to be leaders in the space to influence and drive the change we need.”

Focus on innovation

In his summary of the year to the Council, Coe highlighted the innovations introduced in 2024 and the need to continue to embrace change.

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

“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.”

As part of its innovation agenda, World Athletics this year launched the World Athletics Ultimate Championship and reconfigured the season to always end on a global championship. Building on this, a series of other innovations have now been approved by the World Athletics Council.

Competition updates

With the introduction and rescheduling of certain World Athletics Series events, the global calendar has become much more crowded in certain years. To address this, the World Athletics Council has approved the Competition Commission’s recommendation to move the World Athletics Cross Country Championships from ‘even’ to ‘odd’ years, to be introduced after the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee in 2026.

The World Athletics Council also approved the introduction of new official senior road distances for race walking events, in order to help put the remarkable achievements by athletes into context, make the events more relatable for fans, and encourage mass participation. The standard senior distances for race walking will therefore change from:

• 20km race walk to half marathon race walk (21.0975km)
• 35km race walk to marathon race walk (42.195km)

These changes will be implemented starting 1 January 2026 in senior World Athletics Series events.

At U20 level, the men’s and women’s 10,000m race walk at the World Athletics U20 Championships will be replaced by a 5000m race walk event, starting at the 2026 edition of the championships in Eugene.

In addition, the mixed 4x100m has been added to the programme for the World Athletics Relays Guangzhou 25, taking place on 10-11 May.

Timetables approved

The timetables for three World Athletics Series events have been approved and published.

• World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25
• World Athletics Relays Guangzhou 25
• World Athletics Road Running Championships San Diego 25

The World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25, taking place 21-23 March, will feature finals in each of the six sessions. The World Athletics Relays Guangzhou 25, held 10-11 May, will include a mixed 4x100m for the first time. The World Athletics Road Running Championships San Diego 25 will have three days of action, on 26-28 September, kicking off with the mile events on Friday 26 September and closing with the half marathon races on Sunday 28 September.

In addition, the following dates have been protected from all international competitions to enable national championships to take place:

Outdoors:
2-3 August 2025
23-24 August 2025
20-21 June 2026
25-26 July 2026
31 July - 1 August 2027
17-18 June 2028

Indoors:
22-23 February 2025
28 February - 1 March 2026
20-21 February 2027
26-27 February 2028

Competition Manipulation Watch List

The World Athletics Council approved the introduction of a Competition Manipulation Watch List in 2022 in response to an Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) investigation prompted by reports of suspicious competition results. Following the 2024 annual review, and the progress made in enhancing officiating standards and processes, the following Member Federations will be removed from the list: Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Türkiye and Uzbekistan, subject to conditions set by the Competition Commission.

Progress on priority projects

Innovating the athletics product was one of five priority projects for World Athletics in 2024 and significant advances have been made in this area, with a focus on season reconfiguration, timetable principles, discipline reform, and strategy for out of stadium and mass running events.

The sport delivered five World Athletics Series events in a busy year that also featured the Paris 2024 Olympic Games plus the launch of a groundbreaking new global championship event, the World Athletics Ultimate Championship.

Beijing was announced as host of the 2027 World Athletics Championships, while the number of known fans who actively choose to connect and engage with World Athletics and the sport surpassed one million.

For 2025, priority projects include the continued development of the 2026 World Athletics Ultimate Championship, sport innovation that includes out of stadium events, the World Athletics Series championships in Nanjing and Tokyo, along with digital transformation including development of the web experience.

“The strength and increased popularity and profile of athletics is clear from the new investment that we are seeing others pour into our sport through new events and new formats,” added Coe in his remarks to the World Athletics Council. “I welcome this. But it is important that we are not sitting on the sidelines.

“We have an extraordinary opportunity to make a strong and growing sport stronger and even more popular. And we have a responsibility to the sport and those who voted for us to be around this table to evolve the sport and keep it relevant.”

World Athletics