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Fans online reacted to the launch of the World Athletics Ultimate Championships, which is set to become the highest-paying track and field event in history. With a prize pot of $10 million, the event will run biannually from 2026.
World Athletics' move comes amid declining coverage of track and field. Several world and Olympic champions have raised concerns over prize money in the sport as well. Last month, Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian, and Gabby Thomas launched the women's only 776 invitational as the highest-paying track meet in the world.
Now, the World Athletics Ultimate Championships has overtaken the women's only meet, as well as the Olympic Games, where it had announced an award of $50,000 to track and field gold medalists.
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World Athletics Ultimate Championships will offer $150,000 in prize money to the gold medalists. The prize money is expected to be the same for every event and gender.
The information regarding the prize money for silver and bronze medalists hasn't been released yet, but given the $10m pot, it's expected to be a considerable sum.
Fans online reacted ecstatically to the announcement of the new global league, with one of the fans humorously claiming that it was time to come out of retirement for him.
"Alright, I’m coming outta retirement," a fan wrote.
"Good things are happening in the sport I love," another fan expressed.
"More money for the athletes is always a good thing," a user expressed.
However, a few of the fans had concerns regarding the format of the Ultimate Championships.
"More money for athletes is a good thing, but how does the concept really differ from World championships other than the word 'ultimate'," a fan wrote.
"Useless ! They're trying to boost the sport but they're just modifying the shape. The situation will actually still be the same," another fan expressed.
"So smaller field sizes for every event? The world championship format was good as is," a user wrote.
What will be the format of the World Athletics Ultimate Championships?
The World Athletics Ultimate Championships will be played in Olympic format, with athletes representing their respective nations in the three-day event. There will be semifinals and finals for the track events. For the field events, finals will take place directly.
The first edition of the Ultimate Championships will be played in Budapest, Hungary from September 11-13 2026. The event will feature 8-16 of the world's top-ranked athletes per discipline primarily on World rankings. Nearly 400 athletes from 70 countries are expected to be part of the first edition in Budapest.
