In the sport of athletics, nothing compares to the World Athletics Championship. This biennial competition is the highest-level international outdoor track and field competition organized by the sport’s global governing body, the World Athletics Federation (WAF). Held alongside the Olympic Games, the championships cover all events in the Olympic programme for track and field, apart from the marathon and race walking, and are open to athletes from every country around the globe. At the 2023 edition in Budapest, American sprinter Noah Lyles became the first male athlete to win a 100m/200m double and also added a bronze medal in the 4x100m relay, while Kenyan duo Faith Kipyegon and Tiina Lillak each won golds in the 1500m and 5000m. The event also saw a number of other athletes achieve double wins in their individual races including Spanish duo Maria Perez and Alvaro Martin in the 20km and 35km race walks.
The inaugural World Athletics Championship took place in 1983, sandwiched between the heavily boycotted 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games. Sandwiched between the boycotted 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games, this event was a resounding success with Carl Lewis announcing himself as a global superstar with a 100m/long jump triple, and a series of impressive performances from European hurdlers Colin Jackson and Sally Gunnell. In the pole vault, Bulgaria’s Stefka Kostadinova and Russia’s Sergey Bubka both secured their first world titles.
There was a moment on the opening night of the championships when the bottled-up frustration at not having a full-fat Tokyo Olympics, with crowds and fun and unbridled joy, seemed to be unleashed. It came at the end of the women’s 10,000m, when the roar that could be heard on Mount Fuji was emitted as Beatrice Chebet ran past Italy’s Nadia Battocletti like Wile E Coyote chasing Roadrunner.