World Athletics
World Athletics has retained its position in the top tier, moving into first place, in the Sixth Review of International Federation Governance conducted by the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF).
World Athletics achieved the highest score of 228 out of a possible 240 – an increase from a score of 214 in the last edition – among the 36 international federations that participated in the review for 2025-26, with 14 of those federations featuring in the A1 band.
World Athletics’ position in the highest band has now been maintained for three consecutive reviews, following progression from the A2 band to A1 in 2022. This marks continued significant progress from the first 2016-17 review, when World Athletics was in the B band with a score of 113 out of a possible 200.
The moderated scores for all federations in 2025-26 ranged from 117 to the 228 achieved by World Athletics.
Results included in ASOIF’s latest review, published on Wednesday (10), demonstrate continuous improvements by its members across areas such as gender equality, safeguarding, election campaigning rules, whistleblowing procedures, integrity and open procurement.
The review was split into five sections for scoring: transparency, integrity, democracy, development and sustainability, and control mechanisms.
ASOIF’s analysis recognises that areas of improvement for World Athletics since the last review in 2023-24 include the federation’s revamped development programme and full implementation of the Athletics for a Better World Standard. It also highlights World Athletics’ further implementation of safeguarding policies and procedures.
Governance remains a core priority for World Athletics and its members. Best-in-class governance forms part of the federation’s ‘brilliant basics’ as outlined in the World Athletics Pioneering Change strategic plan 2024-2027.
A key priority last year was to approve and implement the ‘Better Governance Guidelines for all Member Federations and Area Associations’, continuing the path of reform that started in 2016.
A continued focus on transparency of decision making, policies, business plans and financial results led World Athletics to achieve maximum scores in this area with near maximum scores recorded across integrity and democracy. Going forward, our governance priority is running a transparent and robust electoral process in the lead-up to and during the 2027 World Athletics Congress, overseen by the independent Election Oversight Panel.
World Athletics’ progress since the first ASOIF review for 2016-17 follows the introduction of widespread reforms adopted by the World Athletics Congress at the end of 2016, led by Sebastian Coe when he became President of athletics' global governing body in 2015.
“We are delighted that World Athletics has once again been recognised by ASOIF for our world-class governance structures,” said World Athletics Senior Vice President and ASOIF Council Member Ximena Restrepo.
“We have worked tirelessly over the last decade to reform key areas such as transparency, gender equity, anti-doping, sustainability and integrity to bring our federation into the top tier among international federations. We are heartened to see so many other federations increasing their focus on good governance, too. ASOIF’s independent governance review is an important tool to help all sport manage and monitor their own progress and measure themselves against other Olympic summer sports so we can all learn and improve.”
World Athletics