61,671 fans, three sold-out sessions, and 1.8 billion social-media impressions. That was the kind of impact the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship made in Budapest in 2026. After the successful first edition, fans have been waiting to see when the championship would return again. And now, World Athletics has confirmed that the next edition will be held after the Los Angeles Olympic Games.
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The second edition of the Ultimate Championship will be held in September 2028, with the host city yet to be announced. World Athletics began the procedure for selecting the host on August 20, 2025, and had previously said it expected to announce the 2028 host by the end of 2026. The timing, of course, brings up a question: will athletes have enough time to recover before they step out to compete for another major championship in September?
The reason for the timing is fairly simple. The Ultimate Championship is a biennial event, so after its first edition in Budapest in 2026, the next edition was set for 2028. The timing also fits into a busy stretch of the World Athletics calendar. Beijing will host the World Athletics Championships from September 10-19, 2027, before the sport moves to Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympics.
Interestingly, World Athletics has also already confirmed where the World Championships will go after that. The World Athletics Council awarded the 2029 World Championships to Nairobi and the 2031 edition to Munich in Budapest, with London and Rome also having submitted bids. Nairobi will make history as the first African host of the senior World Championships.
The city has also hosted the 2017 World U18 Championships, the 2021 World U20 Championships, and its 48,000-seat Kasarani Stadium is currently being refurbished in preparation for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations co-hosted with Tanzania and Uganda. Meanwhile, the World Championships will return to Germany for the first time since Berlin 2009 in Munich.
Explaining the decision to award the championships to Nairobi and Munich, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: “With this Council decision today, we continue to fulfil our mission of growing athletics worldwide with the hosting of our World Athletics Championships in Asia, Africa and Europe over its next three editions.”
But with the Olympics and World Athletics Championships already serving as the sport’s biggest global stages, another question naturally follows: why did World Athletics need to create the Ultimate Championship in the first place?
The Ultimate Championship’s purpose is clear, but its future format remains uncertain
The reason behind World Athletics’ decision to establish the Ultimate Championship is, at least partially, a result of the athletics calendar. The governing body believed that there was a void that needed to be filled, with the sport facing a four-year cycle that could go without either the Olympics or the World Championships. Therefore, the World Athletics chief executive, Jon Ridgeon, announced that the organization was intent on filling this void and providing athletics with a momentous occasion on the global stage each year with the Ultimate.
However, the Ultimate was not designed to be a copy of the Olympics or World Championships. World Athletics redesigned it to be shorter and quicker, with a focus on TV and younger viewers. At the first meeting in Budapest, three evening sessions were held, and in some of the field events, shortened formats were used; in some events, the athletes went directly to the semifinals and finals.
There is also a major financial difference. The Ultimate carries a $10 million prize fund, with individual champions receiving $150,000. However, the first edition also raised questions about what the Ultimate should actually include. The 2026 programme left out several established athletics events, including the 10,000m, 3,000m steeplechase, discus, women’s hammer and race walks.
That leaves another question hanging over the 2028 edition: will World Athletics keep the same formula, or will it change the programme after seeing how the inaugural championship was received? Only time will tell.