World track body creates biennial championships with bigger cash prizes as potential Olympics rival

Track and field announced a new global championships on Monday and promised $150,000 US in prizes — three times its recent cash pledge to champions at the Paris Olympics — for gold medallists.

World Athletics said the first Ultimate Championships will be hosted in Budapest from Sept. 11-13, 2026 showcasing Olympic, world and Diamond League champions over three evening sessions.

Eight or 16 athletes in each event will compete for a total prize fund of $10 million that is the sport's richest ever.

In what could directly challenge the Olympics, the Ultimate Championships are set to be staged every two years, dovetailing with world championships held every two years in odd-numbered years.

It sets up the second Ultimate edition to rival the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games held that July.

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"With only the best of the best on show and cutting straight to semifinals and finals, we will create an immediate pressure to perform for athletes aiming to claim the title of the ultimate champion," World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said in a statement.

The continued promises by World Athletics and Coe to better reward their athletes is likely to be viewed with some wariness by the International Olympic Committee.

The IOC and other Olympic sports leaders have pushed back on Coe's pledge in April to break with tradition and commit to pay $50,000 for each of the gold medals in 48 track and field events in Paris in August.

The $2.4 million fund for Paris is to come directly from the World Athletics share of the IOC's billions of dollars in revenue from the Summer Games. That amount was almost $40 million from the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021.

Now World Athletics wants to