The third episode in the &lsquo;Official business&rsquo; podcast series features Lisa Ferdinand, an international starter based in Canada who has started some of the sport&rsquo;s biggest races.&nbsp;&nbsp;
This podcast series is presented by athlete and Athletics Ireland Women in Sport manager Lilly-Ann O'Hora and Vicky Huyton, coach and founder of the Female Coaching Network, as they interview some of the women involved in officiating.
In this episode, Ferdinand shares her experiences of being a starter and explains how her journey began, and why.
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Ferdinand admits that on retirement from her high jump career, she hadn't even thought about officiating until she was asked to help out. "I am glad someone suggested it to me,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;It was a great way to stay connected with my former teammates and my coaches, and it was a great way not only to give back, but also to stay involved in the athletics family."
Throughout her career, Ferdinand has been a starter at the World Athletics Championships, World Indoor Championships, Commonwealth Games and Pan American Games. In 2015, she became the first woman to be nominated to the World Athletics Starters Panel. 
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<h2>Empowering women in athletics</h2>
The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/empoweringwomeninathletics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Empowering Women in Athletics</a> group on Facebook is an extension of the work of the Gender Leadership Taskforce, offering a community for women in athletics and a place where they can share stories and experiences as well as ideas and projects.
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/empoweringwomeninathletics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Find out more and join the discussion on Facebook</a> 
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 "In officiating, we do have a pretty good representation of men and women, the stats are roughly 60/40, although I would like to see that higher as we move closer to 50/50,&rdquo; Ferdinand says.
While she has had her own challenges and barriers during her career, Ferdinand hopes to support more women in taking to the track along the officiating pathway.

The third episode in the ‘Official business’ podcast series features Lisa Ferdinand, an international starter based in Canada who has started some of the sport’s biggest races

Official business podcast: Lisa Ferdinand

Multiple Olympic and world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will seek a strong start to her season when she races at the Botswana Golden Grand Prix, this year&rsquo;s second World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, in Gaborone on 29 April.
The Jamaican sprint star ran 10.67 in her first 100m race of 2022 at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, also a Continental Tour Gold event, to achieve the fastest ever women&rsquo;s 100m season opener. She went on to win a fifth world 100m title in Oregon and this year will aim to add another gold medal to her highly decorated CV at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23.
&ldquo;I will be returning to Africa at the Botswana Continental Tour Gold track meet,&rdquo; said Fraser-Pryce in a message to fans. &ldquo;I am excited to be opening my season so you guys get to see me run fast and have fun.&rdquo;
Joining Fraser-Pryce in Botswana will be fellow sprinters Kirani James and Ferdinand Omanyala, who have been announced for the 400m and 100m, respectively.
Grenada&rsquo;s James completed a set of world 400m medals in Oregon last year, claiming silver to go with his 2011 gold and 2015 bronze.
Kenya&rsquo;s Omanyala, meanwhile, claimed Commonwealth Games and African 100m titles in 2022.
This year's World Athletics Continental Tour offers the biggest calendar yet and includes 14 Gold level events spread across five of the six continental areas. The action kicked off in Melbourne, Australia, on 23 February and runs through to September, when the Memorial Borisa Hanzekovica in Zagreb, Croatia, welcomes athletes on 8-10 September.
Other athletes already announced for Tour events include Mondo Duplantis for the Ostrava Golden Spike on 27 June, and Femke Bol and Lieke Klaver for the FBK Games on 4 June.
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-continental-tour/calendar-results?season=2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full 2023 World Athletics Continental Tour calendar</a>

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Kirani James and Ferdinand Omanyala announced for the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting

Fraser-Pryce to open season in Botswana

Global gold medallists Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo will renew their rivalry in the men&rsquo;s race, while Hellen Obiri will go up against Senbere Teferi and Molly Huddle in the women&rsquo;s race when the United Airlines NYC Half takes place on Sunday (19).
Cheptegei is an Olympic and world champion on the track, with world 5000m and 10,000m records to his name, while his Ugandan compatriot Kiplimo is the world half marathon and cross country gold medallist, who set the world half marathon record of 57:31 in Lisbon in 2021.
Four weeks after their clash at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships Bathurst 23, where Kiplimo got gold and Cheptegei bagged bronze, the pair will meet again. Their career head-to-head record stands 8-2 in Cheptegei&rsquo;s favour, but seven of those wins for Cheptegei were achieved on the track. They have one cross country victory apiece &ndash; Cheptegei winning the 2019 world title ahead of silver medallist Kiplimo, and Kiplimo claiming this year&rsquo;s crown &ndash; while Kiplimo finished on top in their only other half marathon clash so far when he won the 2020 world half marathon title in Gdynia, where Cheptegei finished fourth.
Add in the undulating New York course that takes athletes from Brooklyn to Manhattan, and Sunday&rsquo;s event offers another intriguing match-up.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very excited for my first race in New York City,&rdquo; said Cheptegei, who will be contesting the second half marathon of his career after his 59:21 run in Gdynia. &ldquo;One of the primary goals for 2023 is to defend my 10,000m gold medal from the World Championships, and this half marathon is an important part of those preparations.
&ldquo;There's so much running history in New York, and the city has seen so many champions battling it out in iconic races. I want to add to that history.&rdquo;
Kiplimo added: &ldquo;It will be my USA road racing debut, and I will try hard to become the first champion from Uganda. My gold medal from the World Cross Country Championships shows that everybody will need to be at their best to beat me. I have been told that the NYC Half course is difficult, and a record may not be possible, so I will focus on being the first across the finish line in Central Park.&rdquo;
Joining them on the start line will be USA&rsquo;s two-time Olympic medallist and 2017 Chicago Marathon winner Galen Rupp and his compatriot Teshome Mekonen, Kenya&rsquo;s Kennedy Kimutai and Edward Cheserek, and Morocco&rsquo;s Mourad Maroufit.
In the women&rsquo;s race, Ethiopia&rsquo;s Teferi returns to defend her title against USA&rsquo;s three-time winner Huddle and Kenya&rsquo;s two-time world 5000m champion Obiri.
Teferi broke Huddle&rsquo;s event record last year when she won in 1:07:35 and the 27-year-old returned to Central Park three months later to claim victory in the New York Mini 10K. The 2015 world 5000m silver medallist set a women-only world record of 14:29 for 5km in Herzogenaurach in 2021 and her half marathon best is 1:05:32 from Valencia in 2019.
Like Cheptegei and Kiplimo, Obiri was also in action on 18 February but instead of defending her title at the World Cross Country Championships, the 33-year-old was racing for victory at the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon, where she set her PB of 1:04:22 last year. She ran 1:05:05 to win this year's race and is back on the roads again.
Huddle returns to the NYC Half for the first time since claiming her third consecutive victory in 2017. The former US record-holder finished fifth at the Houston Half Marathon in January, nine months after giving birth to her daughter.
&ldquo;In a lot of ways, my three straight wins at the United Airlines NYC Half really began my transition to full-time road racing,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited to return to the race for the first time in six years, with a different mindset towards training and racing since the birth of my daughter.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m inspired to teach her the value of hard work and resilience, and where better to do that than the city that has seen some of my career&rsquo;s greatest successes?&rdquo;
The line up also features USA&rsquo;s 2018 Boston Marathon champion Des Linden, Kenya&rsquo;s Irine Cheptai and Norway&rsquo;s Karoline Bjerkeli-Grovdal.

Global gold medallists Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo will renew their rivalry in the men’s race, while Hellen Obiri will go up against Senbere Teferi and Molly Huddle in the women’s race

Cheptegei and Kiplimo star in NYC Half head-to-head

Five athletes who competed at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships Bathurst 23 have won $200 gift prizes for the&nbsp;<a title="https://shop.worldathletics.org/" href="https://shop.worldathletics.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Athletics online store</a>.
The athletes, who raced in the event in Australia last month, were selected in a draw from among almost 100 athletes who participated in a post-competition sustainability survey.
The surveys, conducted after World Athletics Series events since early last year, will provide valuable data and feedback as World Athletics continues to embed elements of sustainability into the delivery of its events and operations and continues to engage other stakeholders, including athletes and fans, in its sustainability initiatives.
<h2>The winners</h2>
&bull; Perry MacKinnon (CAN) &bull; Cian Oldknow (RSA) &bull; Poppy Tank (GBR) &bull; Erin Teschuk (CAN) &bull; Fieke van der Kamp (AUS)
World Athletics

Five athletes who competed at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships Bathurst 23 have won $200 gift prizes for the World Athletics online store.

WXC Bathurst 23 sustainability survey draw winners announced

South America can boast of a proud athletics history that stretches back to the 19th century in several countries, not least Chile who were present at the inaugural Olympic Games in 1896 and a founding member of the global governing body of what is now known as World Athletics in 1912.
By contrast, through the combined influences of a relative lack of economic prosperity and infrastructure, Ecuador &ndash; whose national athletics federation celebrates its centenary on Wednesday (15) &ndash; left it later to embrace athletics.
In their book Historia del Atletismo Ecuatoriano 1923-1927, the authors Manuel Bravo Calderon and Veronica Idrovo Suarez write in their introduction: &ldquo;Ecuadorian athletics lovers at the start of the 1900s would run around the streets, parks and [town] squares of the emerging Ecuador but it was a long way from participating in a [formally organised] competition as there were no institutions in charge of organising a meeting that could bring together the best local exponents&hellip; much less being part of a delegation that could represent the country at the main international events.&rdquo;
Nevertheless, as Bravo Calderon and Idrovo Suarez note, by 1920 athletics competitions that would be recognisable today started to be held: &ldquo;by groups of driven athletes in Quito, Guayaquil and other provinces despite poor techniques and equipment.&rdquo; Within the space of just four years, several local multi-sports federations emerged, which then organised regional and national athletics competitions, with the Ecuador athletics federation being founded on 15 March 1923. In parallel, the Paris-based Ecuadorian diplomatic Enrique Dorn y Als&uacute;a, who was a personal friend of Pierre de Coubertin and had joined the International Olympic Committee in 1920, was also urging the Ecuadorian government to accept an invitation for the country to attend the 1924 Olympics Games in his adopted home city, as well as fund a team.
<h2>Ecuador makes Olympic debut in Paris</h2>
Consequently, a three-man team representing Ecuador and comprised solely of athletes was selected to make the arduous journey to the French capital.
However, it was an inauspicious start to Ecuadorian Olympic ambitions as, on the opening day of competition on 6 July, sprinter Alberto Jurado finished last in his 100m heat, and his compatriot Alberto Jarrin failed to finish in a famously chaotic straight 10,000m final which saw at least 33 runners &ndash; historians are still not certain of the exact number &ndash; crammed on to the start line of the 500m track before Finnish legend Paavo Nurmi subsequently emerged as the winner.
For a variety of political and economic reasons, Ecuador was not to return to the Olympic arena for more than 40 years until 1968, but despite being absent from the global stage the country did make forays into continental competition over the coming decades.
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6411b478351d00312d9a03d6.jpg" width="200" align="right" />Ecuador made a belated debut at the South American Championships in 1939, held in the Peruvian capital Lima, and returned from the first championships to feature women&rsquo;s events with a gold medal to its name thanks to the 100m winner Carola Castro (pictured), who acquired the nickname of La Flechita de Oro (&lsquo;The Little Golden Arrow&rsquo;).
From the late 1960s, in addition to returning to the Olympic Games, Ecuador stated to become more active in organising continental championships, starting with the 25th South American Championships in 1969.
However, not to diminish the efforts of all those that came before him &ndash; both on and off the track &ndash; the country&rsquo;s athletics profile reached new heights with the feats of race walker Jefferson Perez, whom many Ecuadorians would call their greatest sporting hero to emerge from their Andean country.
<h2>Atlanta gold makes Ecuadorian history</h2>
Perez first gave notice of his prodigious talent when he emotionally won the 1988 South American U18 Championships 5km race walk, held in his home city of Cuenca, at the age of 14 and against rivals up to three years older.
At the 1990 World U20 Championships, while still only 16, he took the bronze medal in the 10,000m race walk. It was the first time an Ecuadorian athlete had set foot on a global championships podium.
Later the same year, within the space of two weeks in November, he took the South American Race Walking Cup U20 10km title and gold over 5km at the South American U18 Championships.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6411b61aec3ae5b9aa7d746e.jpg" alt="Jefferson Perez at the 1995 Pan American Games" />
Jefferson Perez at the 1995 Pan American Games (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
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From that point, the age-group titles kept piling up for Perez, both on the road and the track, culminating in him winning the 1992 world U20 10,000m crown in the Korean capital Seoul, the first global title for any athlete from Ecuador.
In the following three years, his successes included two South American Race Walking Cup 20km titles and a Pan American Games gold medal in 1995. But, perhaps influenced by his disappointing 33rd place at the 1995 World Championships, he didn&rsquo;t start the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games 20km race walk regarded as a medal contender, with most pundits favouring members of the super-quick trios from Mexica and Russia.
However, Perez upset the odds and came through from fourth at the halfway point with a blistering second half of 39:08 to win in a national record of 1:20:07, nine seconds clear of his nearest rival and becoming the youngest ever Olympic race walk champion.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/a762912a-57b1-451f-bc97-18bdb8e19393.jpg" alt="Jefferson Perez wins the 20km race walk at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta" />
Jefferson Perez wins the 20km race walk at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta (&copy; Getty Images)
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It was a milestone for not just Perez but Ecuadorian sport as a whole &ndash; one of those &ldquo;Where were you when&hellip;&rdquo; moments for many Ecuadorians &ndash; as the first Olympic medal of any colour won in any sport by an Ecuadorian, let alone a gold.
<h2>Three world titles for Perez</h2>
After Atlanta, nobody ever left Perez out of the reckoning again and the Ecuadorian flag regularly flew high at major athletics championships.
Perez went on to take the 20km race walk silver medal at the 1999 World Championships and then earned three consecutive world 20km race walk gold medals in 2003, 2005 and 2007. His winning time of 1:17:21 in 2003 became the first official world record for the event when standards for road events were recognised from 2004 onwards.
In 2008, after just missing out on medals with fourth-place finishes in his preferred 20km event at both the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, Perez took one last tilt at a major title and finished second at the Beijing Olympics before bowing out of international competition a few weeks later with a third-place finish over 20km at the World Race Walking Challenge Final in Murcia, Spain.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/32b7ab5c-0d07-4489-a26a-21f8c4c10bf7.jpg" alt="Jefferson Perez donates his 2007 IAAF World Championships 20km race walk gold medal winning vest to the IAAF Heritage Collection - CONSUDATLE Centennial Dinner, Gran Salon, Panamerican Hotel, Buenos Aires" />
Jefferson Perez donates his 2007 World Championships 20km race walk gold medal winning vest to the World Athletics Heritage Collection
</div>
To mark the centenary of the South American Area Association in 2018, Perez donated his singlet from the 2007 World Championships in Osaka to the World Athletics Heritage Collection and it is <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/heritage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on display in the Museum of World Athletics</a>.
To date, even though other Ecuadorian sportspeople have since stood on the podium at the Olympics, Perez remains his country&rsquo;s only athletics medallist and the only multiple medallist across all sports.
But Perez is no longer the only Ecuadorian to stand on the podium at the World Championships after Alex Qui&ntilde;&oacute;nez earned 200m bronze in 2019.
Tragically, barely two years later, Qui&ntilde;&oacute;nez was shot and killed in the streets of Ecuador&rsquo;s second city Guayaquil.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61744139b80cc0f77d82d68d.jpg" alt="Ecuadorian sprinter Alex Quinonez" />
Ecuadorian sprinter Alex Quinonez (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
<h2>Pintado and Su&aacute;rez lead Ecuador&rsquo;s Budapest challenge</h2>
So is there anyone who can follow in the footsteps of Perez and Qui&ntilde;&oacute;nez and take a medal at the World Championships in Budapest this summer?
Sprinter Gabriela Anah&iacute; Su&aacute;rez, just 22, just missed out on a place in last year&rsquo;s World Championships women&rsquo;s 200m final, setting a national record of 22.74 in her semi and is clearly a huge talent. But perhaps the best bet is a man who has been inspired by the legacy of Perez, Brian Pintado.
Pintado, who coincidently also hails from Perez&rsquo;s home city of Cuenca, finished agonisingly close to emulating his idol with fourth place in the 35km race walk in a South American record of 2:24:37, and placed fifth in the 20km race walk, at last summer&rsquo;s World Championships in Oregon.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6276d98e6e5c17059dc2be2c.jpg" alt="Ecuadorian race walker Brian Pintado" />
Ecuadorian race walker Brian Pintado (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
The 2019 Pan American Games 20km race walk champion only started racing over the longer distance last year &ndash; and Oregon was just his second competitive outing over the distance &ndash; but he appears to have made the transition with ease.
A medal in the Hungarian capital this coming August would be a fitting way of celebrating and adding lustre to the Ecuador athletics federation centenary.
Phil Minshull for World Athletics Heritage

Looking back over a century of athletics in Ecuador

Perez the pinnacle of 100 years of Ecuadorian athletics

For Dan O&rsquo;Brien, 14 March 1993 was a day of redemption. His second in six months.
Having already claimed the decathlon world record in the wake of his heart-breaking failure to make the 1992 US Olympic team, the 25-year-old from Portland, Oregon, completed a world indoor record performance in the invitation men&rsquo;s heptathlon at the World Indoor Championships in Toronto.
At the same time, across in Europe in the Swedish town of Vaxjo, 10-year-old Carolina Kluft was starting to dream about making a sporting mark of her own, possibly as a footballer.
Her father, Johnny Kluft, had been a striker with the Vaxjo club Osters IF. In 1973 he scored a goal against a Feyenoord team featuring Wim van Hanegem and Wim Jansen, members of the great Dutch side that reached the 1974 World Cup final, in a Uefa Cup first-round tie at the hallowed De Kuip stadium in Rotterdam.
Exactly a decade on from Dan O&rsquo;Brien&rsquo;s combined events tour de force in Toronto, on 14 March 2003, Kluft produced one of her own, breezing to pentathlon gold at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, just 58 points shy of a world record points tally.
In doing so, with her infectious joie de vivre, the 20-year-old Swedish golden girl brought a breath of fresh air to the global athletics stage. A lasting breath of fresh air.
She also brought a shield of invincibility. Throughout her entire combined events career as a senior athlete, Kluft was unbeaten in pentathlon indoors and in heptathlons outdoors.
By the time she lined up in Birmingham that day in 2003, her first year in the senior age group, she had already suffered the only two defeats she was to experience in the 30 combined events competitions she ever contested, from her junior days in 2000 to her early retirement in 2007.
As an U20 athlete competing in senior competition, Kluft placed seventh at the European Combined Events Cup First League heptathlon in Reid, Austria, in July 2001, and third in the pentathlon at the European Indoor Championships in Vienna in March 2002, taking bronze behind Russia&rsquo;s outdoor world champion Yelena Prokhorova and Naide Gomes of Portugal.
<h2>Not so safe height</h2>
O&rsquo;Brien lost just three of the 20 combined events competitions that he completed in his stellar career, although he did not manage to last the course in two US Olympic decathlon trials.
As a 21-year-old rookie in Indianapolis in 1988, he withdrew after suffering a hamstring injury in the second discipline, the long jump. Four years later, with the 1991 world title to his name, the Oregonian stormed through the opening seven disciplines in New Orleans with the glint of golden Olympic promise in his stride.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/64105a173f6269e125c9578b.jpg" alt="Dan O'Brien in the decathlon pole vault at the 1992 US Olympic Trials" />
Dan O'Brien in the decathlon pole vault at the 1992 US Olympic Trials (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
</div>
At that stage, not only was he 521 points clear of Dave Johnson, the teammate and rival who took gold ahead of O&rsquo;Brien at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle, but also 59 points ahead of the world record pace Daley Thompson set with his 8847 score at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.
But then disaster struck in the pole vault. Opting to pass the first four heights, O&rsquo;Brien registered three failures at 4.80m, plummeting from first to 12th in the standings. Though he bravely fought on in the javelin and 1500m, clawing his way up to 11th, his dream of Olympic gold in Barcelona was over.
&ldquo;When I came to the track today, I felt invincible,&rdquo; the stunned world champion reflected. &ldquo;I felt it was impossible for Dave to beat me and that there was no way I wouldn&rsquo;t be in the team.
&ldquo;I come in at 4.80m in training every day. I believe that&rsquo;s a safe height for me,&rdquo; added O&rsquo;Brien, who had a PB of 5.20m. &ldquo;I believe I can go out and make it every day. Except today.&rdquo;
Even in his pit of despair, O&rsquo;Brien resolved to bounce back stronger. &ldquo;I have pity on anyone who comes up against me in the next four years,&rdquo; he defiantly declared.
<h2>Toronto redemption</h2>
O&rsquo;Brien happens to be a natural-born fighter. Given up by his parents at birth, he spent his infant days in foster homes and was named Wesley and then Dion before being adopted at the age of two by Jim and Virginia O&rsquo;Brien.
His athletic prowess earned him a scholarship to the University of Idaho but his grades were so poor he was not allowed to compete. For three years he didn&rsquo;t even train and developed a serious alcohol problem. He was arrested for driving under the influence, and for cashing &lsquo;bad cheques&rsquo;.
After waking up hungover and alone on Christmas Day in 1987, he decided to take control of his life. He returned to training and two and a half years later he was on the Goodwill Games podium.
A month after watching the Barcelona Olympics from afar, O&rsquo;Brien broke Thompson&rsquo;s decathlon world record, racking up 8891 points at the Decastar meeting at Talence in France in September 1992. Robert Zmelik, the newly-crowned Olympic champion from the Czech Republic, finished second with 8344.
Six months after that, the new world record-holder was tempted indoors for the first and only time in his combined events career. The men&rsquo;s heptathlon at the World Indoor Championships might have been an invitational non-championship affair, but O&rsquo;Brien treated it as an opportunity to take on the world: Frenchman Christian Plaziat&rsquo;s 13-month-old world indoor record, 6418, if nothing else.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/641056469c38fe142aa34f7d.jpg" alt="Dan O'Brien in the heptathlon shot put at the 1993 World Indoor Championships" />
Dan O'Brien in the heptathlon shot put at the 1993 World Indoor Championships (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
With a blizzard raging outside the Toronto SkyDrome, O&rsquo;Brien got off to a whirlwind start with a 0.104 reaction time en route to a 6.67 clocking in the 60m. He followed up with a 7.84m long jump, a 16.02m throw in the shot and a 2.13m high jump clearance to finish the opening day 215 points up on Plaziat&rsquo;s world record schedule with 3800 points.
He opened day two with his fifth win out of five, clocking 7.85 in the 60m hurdles, before a 5.20m pole vault virtually assured him the world record, which he duly claimed with a score of 6476 after completing the 1000m in 2:57.96.
Thereafter, the O&rsquo;Brien redemption mission continued to gain momentum, with a second decathlon world title in Stuttgart in 1993, a third in Gothenburg in 1995 and &ndash; finally, fittingly &ndash; an Olympic gold on home ground in Atlanta in 1996.
<h2>18 nil</h2>
For Kluft, the deeds of March &ndash; of 14 March 2003 &ndash; proved to be the launchpad for a senior career as the undisputed queen of the global combined events game.
Just five weeks past her 20th birthday, when she lined up for her first senior global championship, the Swede was already a rising star in the combined events firmament, having retained her world U20 heptathlon crown with a world U20 record at the 2002 World U20 Championships in Kingston and broken it again when winning the senior European title in Munich two weeks later.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/641056c59c38fe142aa34f80.jpg" alt="Carollina Kluft in the pentathlon high jump at the 2003 World Indoor Championships" />
Carolina Kluft in the pentathlon high jump at the 2003 World Indoor Championships (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
At those 2003 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, she notched PBs in the 60m hurdles (8.19), high jump (1.89m), shot put (14.48m) and long jump (6.61m) on her way to a championship record tally of 4933. An 800m time of 2:11.45 or quicker would have taken her inside Irina Belova&rsquo;s world indoor record but, after blasting through the opening lap in 31.87, she slowed to a 2:15.58 finish, missing the global mark by 83 points.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a dream to be world champion,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I came here to get good results and I got four PBs. It was great fun.&rdquo;
It was a taste of great things to come.
Outdoors, at the World Championships in Paris five months later, Kluft struck gold with 7001, moving to third on the world all-time list. She won Olympic gold in Athens in 2004 and two more outdoor world titles, in Helsinki in 2005 and Osaka in 2007, before deciding to retire from combined events and concentrate on long jump for the last five years of her career.
She was only 24 when she bade farewell to the heptathlon, having set a European record of 7032 with that third world outdoor victory in Osaka.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6410590eee148c4c78b66777.jpg" alt="Carolina Kluft at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka" />
Carolina Kluft at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
In addition to the natural radiance she shone on the global athletics scene, the engagingly-grounded Swede became one of the great Invincibles of the sport &ndash; like Herb Elliott, the Australian master of middle distance, who was unbeaten in 44 races at 1500m and the mile as a senior, and Bob Matthias, the US all-rounder who won all 11 decathlons that he contested.
As a fully-fledged senior, from her flying start in Birmingham in 2003 to her golden flourish in Osaka in 2007, Kluft contested 18 combined events competitions. She won all 18 of them.
Simon Turnbull for World Athletics Heritage

Looking back at the milestone indoor achievements of Dan O'Brien and Carolina Kluft

O'Brien and Kluft: The feeling of invincibility and being top of the world

World Athletics is deeply saddened to hear that 1968 Olympic high jump champion Dick Fosbury, who revolutionised his event by introducing the &lsquo;Fosbury flop&rsquo; technique, died on Sunday (12) at the age of 76.
Among the most influential athletes in the sport, Fosbury&rsquo;s innovation took the high jump to another level and he remained involved in athletics throughout his life. Sharing his knowledge and skill with future generations by coaching at numerous track camps, he also went on to serve as Vice President of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Association, and President of the World Olympians Association.
Born in Portland, Oregon, on 6 March 1947, Fosbury grew up in Medford where he took part in basketball as well as track and field. He developed what would become the &lsquo;Fosbury flop&rsquo; while at Medford High, his achievements in the high jump securing him a scholarship to Oregon State University, where he earned an engineering degree.
Before Fosbury, high jumpers would commonly use the straddle or scissor techniques to clear the bar, but in the mid 1960s a US teenager was busy honing a more effective method. After Fosbury won NCAA titles indoors and outdoors in 1968, the new style made its international debut at the Olympic Games in Mexico City later that year.
&ldquo;In 1968 Mexico, the spectators were so surprised by what I was doing, that they stopped cheering and just looked,&rdquo; Fosbury said in a 2014 interview with <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/spikes/news/dick-fosbury-tells-spikes-why-its-called-the" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spikes magazine</a>.
&ldquo;Even when the marathon runners came in after running 26 miles, there was silence. But my preference (for jumping) was quiet anyway.&rdquo;
The 21-year-old ended up winning gold with an Olympic record clearance of 2.24m.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/a8dafbb4-87c5-4db7-9711-127e45076056.png" alt="Dick Fosbury in the high jump at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City" />
Dick Fosbury in the high jump at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
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Other athletes had also been experimenting with backwards head-first techniques, including Canada&rsquo;s future Commonwealth Games champion Debbie Brill, but Fosbury's style really captured attention in Mexico City and not everybody liked the idea at first.
&ldquo;What I had developed worked for me,&rdquo; he <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/news/series/inside-athletics-dick-fosbury-video-interview" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Ato Boldon in 2015</a>. &ldquo;The criticism of other coaches didn&rsquo;t really matter as long as I was meeting the rules, meeting the standards.&rdquo;
But by the next edition of the Olympic Games, in Munich in 1972, 28 of the 40 high jump participants were using his technique, which Fosbury initially referred to as the &lsquo;back lay-out&rsquo;, named using his &ldquo;engineering analytical side&rdquo;.
In a later interview, he called it the &lsquo;Fosbury flop&rsquo;, and the term stuck.
&ldquo;I was the first person to call it that, but it came from a caption on a photo that said &lsquo;Fosbury flops over bar&rsquo;,&rdquo;&nbsp;he said.
&ldquo;The context in Oregon was that our town was on a river, very popular for fishing, an hour from the Pacific Ocean. And when you land a fish on the bank, it&rsquo;s flopping. That&rsquo;s the action, and so it&rsquo;s a good description by a journalist, and I remembered it.&rdquo;
Following his retirement from competitive athletics, Fosbury had a successful engineering career and coached at athletics camps around the world, including his own Dick Fosbury Track Camps. He&nbsp;joined the USATF National Track &amp; Field Hall of Fame in 1981 and was inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame in 1992.
He leaves a remarkable legacy.
"There are many great champions in our sport but few leave a legacy like Dick Fosbury, who transformed the high jump with his revolutionary technique," said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe. "He was passionate about track and field throughout his life and gave much to our sport beyond his innovative mindset, which famously won him Olympic gold in Mexico in 1968. His name will live on as the inventor of the Fosbury Flop. You will be missed, Dick. My deepest condolences to his family and friends."
&ldquo;One of the greatest legends in the sport is gone,&rdquo; wrote Steinar Hoen, Norway&rsquo;s 1994 European high jump champion. &ldquo;Dick Fosbury changed the high jump style and indirectly, my life. Rest in peace.&rdquo;
USA Track &amp; Field CEO&nbsp;Max Siegel was also among those to pay tribute.&nbsp;"I am deeply saddened by the passing of Dick Fosbury, a true legend and pioneer in the world of track and field," he said. "Dick's innovative technique of the 'Fosbury Flop' revolutionised the high jump event and forever changed the sport. His gold medal victory at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics not only cemented his place in US Olympic history, but also left an indelible mark on the global athletic community. We will always be grateful for his contributions to the sport and his impact on generations of athletes who followed in his footsteps. Dick will be deeply missed but his legacy will live on as an inspiration to all."
&ldquo;Yesterday, one of the most famous figures in the high jump passed away,&rdquo; said Amelie Oudea-Castera, France&rsquo;s minister of sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games. &ldquo;Dick Fosbury had revolutionised the practice of this sport with his sublime audacity. Thoughts to his loved ones.&rdquo;
World Athletics

Dick Fosbury, 1947-2023

High jump pioneer Fosbury dies

Following the successful defence of his 1500m title at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Istanbul, Norway&rsquo;s 22-year-old Jakob Ingebrigtsen was asked to describe his ambition.
&ldquo;My main goal is to become the best runner that ever existed,&rdquo; said the athlete who has already accrued Olympic, world and multiple European gold medals as well as a world indoor 1500m record. &ldquo;To do that, I will need to win more races and the next one is tomorrow.&rdquo;
Guess what? He won that race too, a 3000m heat. And the following day he won the next one, the 3000m final, to repeat the double he achieved at the 2021 edition of the championships in Torun.
Such is Ingebrigtsen&rsquo;s range of talent &ndash; he already has many global and continental medals at distances ranging from 1500m to 5000m as well as successive European cross-country titles &ndash; that such a statement of intent is something to be taken very seriously. As seriously, indeed, as this prodigious young talent takes his athletics.
There is no false modesty in Ingebrigtsen&rsquo;s statements &ndash; nor unseemly pride.
His achievements have already been extraordinary since he emerged as one of the sport&rsquo;s most startling talents aged 16, becoming the youngest man in history to run a mile in less than four minutes and also setting a European U20 record of 8:26.81 in the 3000m steeplechase in his first attempt at the distance.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/640f5ec1480f9b231eee68fc.jpg" alt="Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the 3000m steeplechase at the 2017 European U20 Championships" />
Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the 3000m steeplechase at the 2017 European U20 Championships (&copy; Getty Images)
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His latest flourishes may have taken place on the grey track of the Atakoy Arena but the victories were rooted in an earlier contest &ndash; the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Lievin on 15 February.
There Ingebrigtsen, having missed more than a month of training due to a viral infection, put himself through the single test that would tell him whether he would be best to defend his European indoor titles in Turkey or give them a miss and concentrate on the outdoor season &ndash; where he will seek to win a first world 1500m title in Budapest and, perhaps, defend his 5000m title.
And after winning in 3:32.38, the fastest time in the world this year, the Norwegian went away with a glint in his eye. It was all he needed. He knew he was ready.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/63ed67f678366e95e18346bd.jpg" alt="Jakob Ingebrigtsen on his way to 1500m victory in Lievin" />
Jakob Ingebrigtsen on his way to 1500m victory in Lievin (&copy; Dan Vernon)
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And so it proved as he held off the challenge round the final bend of Britain&rsquo;s Neil Gourley &ndash; who set a British record of 3:32.48 this season &ndash; to win his second European indoor 1500m title in a championship record of 3:33.95 before outclassing the field to win his third indoor 3000m gold in a Norwegian record of 7:40.32.
Before the 3000m final Spain&rsquo;s Adel Mechaal, who won this event in 2017, essayed the hope that if Ingebrigtsen was going to prove to have a weakness after missing so much training, it would be most evident in his fourth race in as many days.
But there was no weakness. Ingebrigtsen led virtually from gun to tape. And he reflected afterwards with characteristic honesty.
&ldquo;I was feeling like I raced myself today,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Maybe it was expected. I would love to get some more competition but maybe that is just me, expecting too much, I am not sure.
&ldquo;I am thankful for today. I guess the other runners tried to get a good race for themselves and not fight for second place. I wanted to be at this position and to race with the other guys &ndash; it is just a great evening.
&ldquo;But I am not happy with my indoor season. Not at all. I had a good October, November and December going to the European Cross Country Championships. After that, I have been doing nothing. But the last couple of weeks have been good. I am really looking forward to getting some good training.&rdquo;
Speaking in Lievin, Ingebrigtsen rejected the idea that what took place earlier this year was a case of his body telling him to slow down.
&ldquo;No,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Because my tempo training is not that brutal. We always try to find the balance between rest and training and after a lot of years with the same amount of activity your body adapts and knows what it can handle.
&ldquo;I felt pretty good and I was in very good shape after Italy. But sometimes it&rsquo;s just too much with some people around. And in Norway in December everybody was sick. Everybody was struggling with a virus or coronavirus. My hands were tied. But with it lasting that long, it was very hard.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62ddf1abd022ee390696902c.jpg" alt="Jakob Ingebrigtsen celebrates his 5000m win at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22" />
Jakob Ingebrigtsen celebrates his 5000m win at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)
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Having done so much, so young, what &ndash; one wondered &ndash; does he use as continuing motivation? An outdoor world 1500m record, perhaps?
&ldquo;Yes, but those are more short-term goals,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;The main goal is just to see how fast I can run and to try to win as much as possible as often as I can, when I can. But the short-term goal always changes. It&rsquo;s always to win the next race or break that record or something.
&ldquo;But maybe with the mentality I have towards my career and running is that I want to explore how fast I can run, and I always want to improve. That&rsquo;s the goal, and that never ends &ndash; you can never lose motivation to see how fast you can run until you stop.&rdquo;
Notably, after winning his Olympic 1500m title in Tokyo, Ingebrigtsen spoke about the sense of anti-climax that assailed him. But he&rsquo;s got a handle on that, as he has on most things that come to bear upon his athletics career.
&ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s just a big part of competition and sports,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not going to affect anything in the long term, but in the short term, if you do several events in big competitions then you are going to have a down, obviously, either physically or mentally.
&ldquo;But I have been running and racing my whole life, so I&rsquo;m prepared to deal with what happens and that&rsquo;s also a good thing &ndash; what happens with my body but also in my head after races. So, it&rsquo;s all about collecting experience and using that to your advantage to perform even better.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6203c36a5073aea7af6f2e7a.jpg" alt="Josh Kerr, Timothy Cheruiyot and Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the Olympic 1500m final in Tokyo" />
Josh Kerr, Timothy Cheruiyot and Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the Olympic 1500m final in Tokyo (&copy; Getty Images)
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At last year&rsquo;s World Championships Ingebrigtsen was, for the first time, being coached with help from his elder brothers Henrik, the 2012 European 1500m champion, and Filip, the 2016 European 1500m champion, after their father Gjert stepped back from the role he had undertaken since all three were juniors.
Asked to assess the current set-up, Jakob responded: &ldquo;I would say that I am probably responsible for everything that I am doing, but with a lot of help obviously from Henrik and Filip. An example is maybe that I put up my programme towards competition, for three to four weeks, and I sent it to them and we discussed it.
&ldquo;All three of us are inputting &ndash; we are all doing the same thing for our training. Each of us is responsible for our programme and doing it 100% and following the plans. It&rsquo;s like a collective.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/640f5fc3480f9b231eee68ff.jpg" alt="Filip, Jakob and Henrik Ingebrigtsen at the 2019 World Championships in Doha" />
Filip, Jakob and Henrik Ingebrigtsen at the 2019 World Championships in Doha (&copy; Getty Images)
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So, what difference does the input from Henrik and Filip make?
&ldquo;The funny thing is that we come from same place, we have the same mindset, the same view, usually, and the same goals for most things in our lives,&rdquo; he said.
&ldquo;But we still have different points of view in certain situations. It&rsquo;s all based on the same philosophy, the same training regime and programme. But we still can have a little bit of tuning where the three of us can help each other in a positive way.
&ldquo;At times you can forget why you are here, why you are doing this, what you believe in. Collectively, we are more or less the same, but we still have a lot of areas where we can help each other.
&ldquo;I would say Henrik, struggling with his injuries &ndash; it might be difficult for him to see clear in his training, because he is emotionally attached to what he is doing and what he has done in the past. Then maybe we can bring some clarity. Minor details and small tweaks where we can help each other.&rdquo;
Being brothers, he feels, creates a unique vibe.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s so different,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Our training, our running, has been a group project almost since Henrik started running. There was really no one doing it for us.
&ldquo;But all of us &ndash; me not so much, but Henrik, Filip and our father &ndash; have been collectively creating something and putting something in the system, with the double threshold and the amount of mileage and intensity in training.
&ldquo;And it&rsquo;s still going. We are always trying to improve and to figure out how fast we can run with our philosophy.&rdquo;
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics

“My main goal is to become the best runner that ever existed”

Ingebrigtsen's eternal quest for improvement

World Athletics is deeply saddened to hear that Cesar Moreno Bravo, a World Athletics Council Member from 1991 to 2011 and former President of the Mexican athletics federation, died on Sunday (12) at the age of 88.
A passionate race walking advocate, Moreno Bravo dedicated his life to athletics. Director for the sport at the Mexico City Olympic Games in 1968, he went on to become Technical Delegate at numerous World Athletics Series events, was twice a member of the Technical Committee and was an honorary life member of World Masters Athletics.
&ldquo;Cesar was a seasoned IAAF Council Member by the time I joined the Council in 2003,&rdquo; said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe. &ldquo;I will always be grateful for his kindness to me as a rookie. His views were always pertinent, and he was fiercely protective of those values he felt the sport should be based on.
&ldquo;Long after leaving the Council, he still worked hard for the sport he loved and I learned that just a few weeks ago he was on a Zoom call with our HQ road running team about the need for more World Athletics accredited course measurers in Mexico, a country with over 1000 FMAA sanctioned road races. He is also the inspiration behind the course measurement seminar we will be holding later this year.&rdquo;
Born on 29 March 1934, Moreno Bravo&rsquo;s own athletics career saw him start out as a 400m runner in 1952 and he moved into coaching in the late 1950s. A physical education teacher, he became Director of the National School of Physical Education in 1964.
He then spent three years as Vice President of the Mexican athletics federation between 1966 and 1969, a position he would hold again from 1989 to 1997. Director for athletics at the Mexico City Olympics, he also became a member of the World Athletics Technical Committee in 1968 &ndash; holding that role until 1976 and then again for another decade from 1981 to 1991.
Moreno Bravo was Technical Director of the World University Games in 1979, the Mexican Sports Confederation from 1981 to 1983 and the Central American and Caribbean Games in 1990. He also shared his great knowledge and experience as a member and chairperson of multiple working groups over the course of more than two decades and was World Athletics Technical Delegate at events including the World Athletics Championships in Stuttgart in 1993, Athens in 1997, Seville in 1999, Edmonton in 2001, Helsinki in 2005 and Daegu in 2011, as well as the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008.
An International Technical Official from 1985 to 2001, Moreno Bravo was also organiser of the 1993 World Race Walking Cup in Monterrey, and was World Athletics Organisational Delegate for the World Half Marathon Championships in Veracruz in 2000 and in Rio de Janeiro in 2008.
World Athletics

Cesar Moreno Bravo, 1934-2023

Former World Athletics Council Member Moreno Bravo dies

World Athletics is today (13) launching a process to appoint its host broadcasting partner for the World Athletics Series events for five years, from 2025 to 2029, a period which will include three editions of its marquee World Athletics Championships, an event which regularly draws a viewing audience of one billion people around the globe.
The partnership will be effective from 1 January 2025 and will include, most notably, the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in the first year, as we celebrate the return of world-class athletics to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic stadium, this time with the full crowd that was not possible during the Olympic Games due to the pandemic.
The first phase of the search process being launched today is a Request for Information (&ldquo;RFI&rdquo;) to identify media companies who have the capability, advanced technology, personnel and experience required, and the appetite for innovation to deliver a world class production to the satisfaction of a global slate of rights-holding broadcasters.
This will be followed by a Request for Proposal phase, and a decision phase, with the successful candidate to be appointed before the end of this year.
World Athletics CEO Jon Ridgeon said: &ldquo;We launched our current partnership with ITN in 2017 and they have been a great partner, helping to elevate the quality of our host broadcast production and delivering more value to our rights holding broadcasters &ndash; and we want to thank them for their excellent work so far.&nbsp; As we look to step up our efforts in this area, now feels like the right time to review the future and we look forward to receiving some exciting proposals for how to continue to grow our sport.
&ldquo;Broadcast is a fast-moving industry and has advanced substantially in the last five years. It is in the best commercial interests of our sport to understand the market again and make sure that we have the ideal production partner to take us forward to the end of the decade. Innovation is what we are striving for, and we are looking for a partner who has that same vision and can provide ground-breaking coverage of our major championships.&rdquo;
Potential partners can acknowledge their interest by emailing a response to <a href="mailto:HBRFIresponse@worldathletics.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="mailto:HBRFIresponse@worldathletics.org">HBRFIresponse@worldathletics.org</a> by 20 March 2023.
World Athletics will provide a unique log in and password to access the portal where interested parties will find all documents needed for completion of the bidding process.
We will also send instructions on how to use the portal to submit the required documents.
The Expression of Interest phase will run through to 28 April 2023. Successful candidates will be sent a scope of work to respond to in early May with final tenders due by 23 June 2023.
World Athletics

World Athletics is today (13) launching a process to appoint its host broadcasting partner for the World Athletics Series events for five years, from 2025 to 2029

World Athletics seeks host broadcasting partner

In February of this year, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone&nbsp;appeared in an ESPN &lsquo;This is SportsCenter&rsquo; commercial in the United States. ESPN, the US cable sports channel that reaches around 76 million households, began this commercial series in 1994 with sports stars at the forefront. Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps, Roger Federer and Lebron James are a few athletes that have been profiled.
And now Olympic champion, world champion and world record-holder in the 400m hurdles, McLaughlin-Levrone, has been added to the series roster. This, for good reason, caught the attention of athletics fans. Seldom do track and field athletes make it into the mainstream in US media and it is even more rare that women have been given such opportunities. But after McLaughlin-Levrone&rsquo;s sensational performance at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, and with this year&rsquo;s global event in Budapest on the horizon, her mainstream marketability has been realised in a big way.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/640dff964e13bf6a9fb3ca96.jpg" alt="Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone after her world 400m hurdles record performance in Oregon" />
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone after her world 400m hurdles record performance in Oregon (&copy; Getty Images)
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This, however, has not always been the case.
Since the first World Athletics Championships 40 years ago, a range of structural, institutional and cultural barriers that hamstrung marketing opportunities for women athletes have shifted, and it is worth looking back on the ways some athletes have pushed boundaries to create more marketing opportunities for women over the years.
<h2>Pre-professional era</h2>
1935 &ndash; Babe Didrikson Zaharias&nbsp;
Long before the constraints of amateurism unraveled, Babe Didrikson Zaharias proved herself to be more than a sensational athlete, but a master entertainer. Born &ldquo;Mildred&rdquo; to Norwegian immigrants in Texas, the US athlete got the name &ldquo;Babe&rdquo; after hitting several homeruns in a baseball game during childhood.
Even as she continued to play a range of sports, she excelled in the sprints, jumps and field events in athletics. After winning two gold medals at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics and setting four world records, she traveled on the vaudeville circuit. In 1933, she transcended sport when the car company Dodge featured her in an advertisement for the Dodge 6 Salon Brougham. Then, in 1935, she appeared as the first female athlete to be featured on a Wheaties Box.
1948 &ndash; Fanny Blankers-Koen
The following decade, Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen swept a record four track and field gold medals at the 1948 London Olympics. The mother-of-two nicknamed the "Flying Housewife" returned to the city of Amsterdam and was gifted a bicycle upon her return.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60a434b4821ef10302b2955c.jpg" alt="Fanny Blankers-Koen in the 200m at the 1948 Olympic Games in London" />
Fanny Blankers-Koen in the 200m at the 1948 Olympic Games in London (&copy; Getty Images)
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1952 &ndash; Marjorie Jackson-Nelson
Australian Marjorie Jackson-Nelson soon became famous for dethroning Blankers-Koen. Growing up in the New South Wales town of Lithgow, she earned the nickname &ldquo;the Lithgow Flash&rdquo; and won two Olympic golds at the 1952 Helsinki Games. Although she did not profit from burgeoning endorsement deals, she leveraged her fame to become active in politics and philanthropy. When her husband, Olympic cyclist Peter Nelson, died from Leukemia in 1977, she started a foundation in his honour. At the 1994 Commonwealth Games, she was the first woman appointed to the position of General Team Manager, and in 2001, she was appointed Governor of South Australia.
1960 &ndash; Wilma Rudolph
US sprinter Wilma Rudolph would go on to dominate in the 1960s, paving the way for black women to star in athletics. Rudolph was born in Tennessee, and attended her first Olympics as a Tennessee State Tigerbelle as the youngest member of the US 1956 Olympic track and field team. At the 1960 Rome Olympic Games, and the first televised worldwide, Rudolph went on to win three gold medals, and that catapulted her into stardom. Many consider her the first role model for black female athletes, and an early pioneer in marrying political ideals with sport.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/94961941-7df7-4549-96de-cd799bf994e4.png" alt="Wilma Rudolph in the 4x100m at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome" />
Wilma Rudolph in the 4x100m at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
<h2>Women going the distance</h2>
Until the 1980s, women track and field athletes were largely confined to the sprints, jumps and field events, as few were allowed to compete in the longer distances. This gradually changed in the coming decades after women like Katherine Switzer ran the Boston Marathon in 1967 in defiance of official rules.
1978/1983 &ndash; Grete Waitz
In the late 1970s, New York City Marathon organiser Fred Lebow brought Norwegian distance runner Grete Waitz to run the marathon. Waitz would go on to win every year through 1986, and collected the first ever World Championships victory at the first global competition in Helsinki in 1983. Waitz had a close partnership with Adidas for the majority of her career, and also helped pave the way in connecting major marathons to women athletes. In fact, Adidas went on to make Waitz her own shoe.
1984 &ndash; Joan Benoit Samuelson
The following year, US marathon runner Joan Benoit Samuelson won the Olympic marathon in her home country when the Games were staged in Los Angeles. In 1979, Samuelson had won the Boston Marathon wearing a Red Sox cap and her college singlet. Her win at the LA Games introduced the fact that women were newly allowed to run the full distance.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/640e00d24e13bf6a9fb3ca99.jpg" alt="Joan Benoit Samuelson in LA in 1984" />
Joan Benoit Samuelson in LA in 1984 (&copy; Allsport / Getty Images)
</div>
1988 &ndash; Florence Delorez Griffith Joyner
By the 1980s, all traces of amateurism had evaporated. Winning Olympic and world medals in several events in the 1980s and 1990s, Florence Delorez Griffith Joyner, better known as &ldquo;Flo-Jo&rdquo;, opened opportunities in marketing and personality for track and field athletes worldwide. She quickly became known for not only winning, but winning in original and innovative speed suits. Flo-Jo graced the covers of magazines, signed a deal with a toy maker to make dolls her in likeness, designed an NBA basketball team uniform and more.&nbsp; &nbsp;
2000 &ndash; Cathy Freeman
By 2000, most top athletes had good shoe and apparel sponsorships, but as Cathy Freeman showed, athletes could be essential in releasing new innovative products. Freeman, the Aboriginal 400m runner, was famous for carrying both Aboriginal and Australian flags despite the former not being officially recognised. Moreover, at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, she wore and simultaneously marketed the swift suit Nike created with her in mind and would become the normal gear for speed skating.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/95d8d40f-37d3-4d81-86d9-87337308a5aa.jpg" alt="Cathy Freeman wins the 400m at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney" />
Cathy Freeman wins the 400m at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
2012 &ndash; Jessica Ennis-Hill
As was the case with Freeman, being a hometown hero at one&rsquo;s Olympics &ndash; and delivering &ndash; would prove to enable some of the biggest paydays. Ahead of the 2012 London Olympics, British heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill was in many ways the women&rsquo;s face of the Games. Before she went on to win, she struck deals with Adidas, Powerade, Olay, and others. She was also featured on a Royal Mail postage stamp and had a post box on the corner of her hometown street in Sheffield painted gold.
<h2>2016 and beyond</h2>
In more recent years, a slew of iconic female athletes have found new marketing opportunities on the global stage, and within their countries, after global championship success.
In 2013, Bahamian sprinter Shaunae Miller-Uibo landed a deal with Bahamas Telecommunications Company. A few years later, ahead of the 2016 Games, Dutch sprinter Daphne Schippers landed endorsement deals with various Dutch companies like the dairy giant Campina and the country&rsquo;s railway system. Two years after Ethiopia&rsquo;s Almaz Ayana won the Olympic 10,000m title and broke the world record, she became the face of Aqua Safe in Ethiopia &ndash; a major drinking water company &ndash; and her image was plastered around Addis Ababa and on countless commercials.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/7cef2ae5-0d7c-45b9-aeaa-47f4db4e1883.jpg" alt="Shaunae Miller-Uibo celebrates 200m medal at London IAAF World Championships" />
Shaunae Miller-Uibo celebrates her 200m medal at the London World Championships (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
Athletes like Allyson Felix have not only struck up incredibly lucrative endorsement deals but have gone as far as starting their own apparel company. After setting a world record and winning the World Championships 100m hurdles final in Oregon, Nigerian sprinter Tobi Amusan signed deals with Premium Trust Bank, Nigeria, and telecommunications giant GLO. Many have recently branched into the fashion world, with Dalilah Muhammad walking the runway for Louis Vuitton and Athing Mu appearing on the cover of Real Woman magazine.
There is still a long way to go. There could be more endorsements. Studies also show that black women and women of colour, especially in the United States, receive far less magazine coverage than white athletes. Around the world, male athletes still often get paid more for sponsorship deals regardless of sport or accolades. But seeing a black track and field sprinter on a SportsCenter commercial even just 10 years ago may have been unthinkable.
Although this list is by no means exhaustive, it gives a glimpse into the incremental but vital shifts made through the years.
Hannah Borenstein for World Athletics

A look back on the ways some athletes have pushed boundaries to create more marketing opportunities for women over the years

The rise of the female athlete and evolution of marketability

Jessica Hull and Zoe Hobbs both set Oceania records while Fred Kerley closed his Australian tour with a 400m win at the Sydney Track Classic, a World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger event, on Saturday (11).
Hull won the Australian 3000m title in 8:31.81 to improve Kim Smith&rsquo;s Oceania record of 8:35.31 set in Monaco in 2007. The 26-year-old had built a 70-metre gap with three and a half laps to go and went on to win by 19 seconds ahead of Rose Davies (8:50.90) and 17-year-old Amy Bunnage (8:51.90).
Hobbs, meanwhile, broke 11 seconds for 100m with a legal wind for the first time, improving the Oceania record and Australian all-comers&rsquo; record with a dominant 10.97 (0.5m/s) run. The mark takes a tenth of a second off her previous PB and she won ahead of 18-year-old Torrie Lewis who ran a PB of 11.23.
USA&rsquo;s world 100m champion&nbsp;Kerley opened his season with a 20.32 200m to win at the Maurie Plant Meet, a Continental Tour Gold event, in Melbourne last month and this time in Sydney he clocked 44.65 to take the 400m.
&ldquo;I think this was a good campaign,&rdquo; he told Athletics Australia. &ldquo;I feel like it&rsquo;s a good set up going through the season.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/640de023c15b06715b1fb8c4.jpg" alt="Fred Kerley on his way to a 400m win at the Sydney Track Classic" />
Fred Kerley on his way to a 400m win at the Sydney Track Classic (&copy; Getty Images)
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Rohan Browning won the men&rsquo;s 100m in 10.14, while Abbey Caldwell captured the women&rsquo;s 800m crown in 1:58.62 and Michelle Jenneke won the 100m hurdles in 12.70.
Olympic silver medallist Nicola Olyslagers cleared 1.94m to win the women&rsquo;s high jump by 10cm.
Jude Thomas beat Ben Buckingham to the men&rsquo;s Australian 3000m title, 7:48.25 to 7:48.99.
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-continental-tour/calendar-results/7190299/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Results</a> 
<h2>Ceh throws&nbsp;68.30m in&nbsp;Leiria</h2>
Slovenia's world champion Kristjan Ceh provided one of the highlights on the first day of the European Throwing Cup in Leiria, Portugal, on Saturday (11), throwing 68.30m to win the discus title by more than four metres.
Germany&rsquo;s Steven Richter won the U23 competition with a PB throw of 64.23m.
European champion Elina Tzengko of Greece triumphed in the women's javelin, throwing&nbsp;63.65m, while Hungary's Bence Halasz claimed the men's hammer crown, launching the implement 74.65m. The high-quality U23 contest was won by Ukraine's Mykhaylo Kokhan, who threw 75.80m.
On Sunday, Germany's multiple European bronze medallist Shanice Craft threw&nbsp;64.88m in the first round of the women's discus competition and that proved enough for her to take the title, Portugal's Liliana Ca claiming the runner-up spot with 64.82m.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6414acff65704b69db38e0e7.jpg" alt="Shanice Craft competes in Leiria" />
Shanice Craft competes in Leiria (&copy; Luis Barreto for European Throwing Cup)
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Another European bronze medallist, Italy&rsquo;s Sara Fantini, topped the women's hammer with a mark of 73.26m, also from the first round.&nbsp;Romania's European champion Bianca Ghelber was second with&nbsp;71.52m. Ukraine's&nbsp;Roman Kokoshko took the men's shot put title ahead of&nbsp;Luxembourg&rsquo;s&nbsp;Bob Bertemes,&nbsp;21.52m to&nbsp;21.21m.&nbsp;
Ukraine's world U20 champion Artur Felfner claimed another victory, throwing 80.09m to win the U23 javelin title.
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/competition/calendar-results/results/7147642" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Results</a>

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