The Abbott World Marathon Majors has been awarded the President’s Award as part of the World Athletics Awards 2023.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe recently shared the news with Dawna Stone, CEO of Abbott World Marathon Majors.
The Abbott World Marathon Majors is a series of six of the largest and most renowned marathons in the world: Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York. Not only do they showcase the world’s best elite road runners, the series also caters to the masses with each race welcoming thousands of recreational runners every year.
Since 1970, the race directors of these six annual events have pioneered the mass running movement which has now become the No.1 recreational sport in the world. Their investment in anti-doping, sustainability and reviving community-based running coming out of the global pandemic has been inspirational.
“I am beyond honoured to accept the World Athletics President’s Award on behalf of Abbott World Marathon Majors, our six races and our six board members,” said Stone. “Thank you to Sebastian Coe and everyone at World Athletics for this prestigious award. We’re so delighted to accept it and so grateful for the recognition.”
In announcing the award, Coe outlined the impact the organisation has made on the sport.
“The contribution Abbott World Marathon Majors have made to one of our core pillars in the sport, namely participation – and those numbers are just indelible and frankly outstanding – have helped to make us the most accessible and most participated sport in the world,” said Coe. “This is a very modest token of my respect for everything the World Marathon Majors have done.”
The President’s Award, first awarded in 2016, recognises and honours exceptional service to athletics. Past winners of the award include the Ukrainian Athletics Association, British journalist Vikki Orvice, Swiss meeting director Andreas Brugger, Jamaican sprint superstar Usain Bolt, and 1968 men’s 200m medallists Tommie Smith, Peter Norman and John Carlos for their iconic moment on the podium in Mexico.
It is the fifth award announced as part of the World Athletics Awards 2023. Other winners already announced include Laurent Meuwly (Coaching Achievement Award), Falilatou Tchanile-Salifou (Woman of the Year), Mattia Ozbot (Photograph of the Year) and Athletics Australia (Member Federation Award). Further announcements will be made in the coming days, with the World Athletes of the Year and Rising Stars being revealed on Monday 11 December.
World Athletics
