A modern sport

After 100 years of athletics excellence, the International Association of Athletics Federations is embarking on its second century with drive and determination.

Athletics, a sport that was founded in antiquity, has continued to adapt through the centuries, offering a dynamic, life-enhancing sport which is ready for the exciting challenges of the next 100 years.

On the 17 July 1912 in Stockholm, Sweden, following the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in the Swedish capital, the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) was founded as the world governing body for the sport of track and field athletics.

During the 10 decades that followed, athletics underwent many changes which reflected the political and socio-economic evolution of the wider world. Even the IAAF’s name changed, in 2001 becoming the ‘International Association of Athletics Federations’ to reflect the growth of a professional sporting world which did not exist in 1912.

The IAAF was founded to fulfil the need for a world governing authority, for a competition programme, for standardised technical equipment and for a list of official world records. All of these requirements remain today.

Yet in an ever-changing world, international sport federations such as the IAAF need to be pro-active when trying to reach new audiences and find new hosts for their events. It is also fundamental that we fully understand that athletics is no longer just about high performance, gold medals and records, but also about “sport for all” and about ensuring that the maximum number of citizens are able to participate in athletics.

This means, of course, the thriving world of road running, which is where the majority of people actually connect directly with the world of athletics, but it is also athletics in schools, where the IAAF is keen to ensure that we reach the maximum number of children, all over the world, starting at the age of seven but also including youngsters in their teens, where the drop-off from sport is most acute.

Despite such inherent benefits, the IAAF recognises that athletics is competing for the public’s attention in an ever more varied and complex media and entertainment-driven world but also that we properly embrace matters touching on social responsibility, the environment and all matters that help advance athletics as a force to change the world for good.

Athletics disciplines are among the oldest of all sporting competitions known to mankind, with ‘run, jump, throw’ the natural and universal forms of human physical expression. The sport also offers broader values that help us deal with life’s challenges.

We are also adapting our competition programmes to reflect the increasing diversity of attractions from which the public can now choose. Attracting, and most importantly retaining, the young as both participant and spectator are essential if athletics is to retain its appeal. But we are also closely linked to the masters’ athletics movement as well as ultra-distance running and mountain racing.

The biennial IAAF World Championships is the jewel of our IAAF World Athletics Series of events which also includes indoor, junior, youth, cross country, race walking and road running during a four-year cycle of World Championships and/or Cup events for each of these types of competition.

Athletics also carries the mantle of being the Olympics Games’ leading sport. Athletics is the main spectator stadium sport of the Games, central to the success of each summer celebration. The histories of athletics and the Olympic Games are closely entwined and the IAAF is extremely proud of this association.

Both the IAAF World Championships and the Olympic Games continue to play to packed stadiums and attract TV audiences in their billions.

The marketing potential of each edition of the IAAF World Championships is excellent with only the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup bigger in terms of global reach and impact. It should be noted that the next three IAAF World Championships will be hosted in Beijing (2015), London (2017) and Doha (2019), and the most recent edition was in Moscow (2013), all major capital cities.

The wide variety in the type, size and scope of the rest of the IAAF World Athletics Series of competitions with their different demands in terms of logistics, budget and facilities also means that there are IAAF events available to fit the hosting ambitions and resources of cities, large and small, among most of the IAAF’s 213 national member federations.

Three IAAF World Athletics Series events, as well as the second edition of the IAAF World Relays, are on the calendar for 2015 and, emphasising the global nature of our sport, the host nations for these events are on four different continents.

Showing the IAAF’s ability to innovate and respond to changing demands, an exciting new competition, the IAAF World Relays, was staged for the first time in 2014 and it will return this year to The Bahamas.

This variety extends beyond championships.

In 2010 a new global one-day competition structure was unveiled. It remains headed by the IAAF Diamond League of 14 invitational track and field meetings in Asia, Europe, Middle East, and USA. The IAAF World Challenge, which includes meetings across all six IAAF areas, provides the second tier of elite international competition. All these play out to large stadium and TV audiences around the world.

To better engage with the millions of runners and joggers, the IAAF in 2014 launched a specific website for non-elite road running: WorldRunning.com.

This site aims to build an inspiring global community of amateur runners, and is committed to motivating and enabling members to achieve to the best of their ability and aims.

As the IAAF enters its second century of existence, our aim is to further enhance our vibrant sport to offer new and exciting prospects for athletes and spectators alike. We are working hard to ensure that every area of our sport is reviewed, tested and encouraged to strive for athletics excellence.

Lamine Diack
IAAF President