The World Athletics Championships has provided some of the most iconic moments in the sport, so to mark 40 years since the inaugural edition in 1983, World Athletics will celebrate the past four decades of action across all of its platforms in 2023.
From Tiina Lillak’s memorable javelin victory on home soil at the first edition in Helsinki in 1983 and Haile Gebrselassie’s multiple 10,000m triumphs in the 1990s, through to Usain Bolt’s stunning sprint double in Berlin in 2009, and Mondo Duplantis’s world record pole vault triumph in Oregon in 2022 – all of the landmark achievements and legendary athletes that have graced the past 18 editions of the global event will be honoured in the coming months.
To that end, World Athletics has created a special logo to highlight the 40th anniversary content.
In the countdown to the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, the World Athletics website and social media channels will publish a whole range of content, including exclusive interviews with some of the sport’s biggest stars, highlights from the World Athletics archives, engaging discussion points on social media, plus insights and recollections from leading figures within track and field.
World Athletics is encouraging all followers of the sport to get involved in the celebrations. In the coming weeks, World Athletics will launch an opportunity for fans to decide on the 40 Greatest Moments of the World Championships via a public vote.
Choosing from a long list that will contain moments from all 18 editions of the championships, from 1983 through to 2022, fans will vote on their 10 favourite women’s moments and 10 favourite men’s moments. The overall top 40 moments will then be revealed later in the year, in the lead up to the World Championships in Budapest.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: “The launch of the World Championships in 1983 was a seminal moment in the modernisation of our sport as it created new opportunities for our athletes to build their names and become professional, for our sport to become truly global and to move towards gender equality. Over 40 years, we have grown as a sport in myriad ways and this is a perfect opportunity for us to reflect on and celebrate that history, while remaining focussed on the progress we still need to make to secure our future.”
Stay tuned to World Athletics’ digital platforms in the coming months as we celebrate four decades of global championship action. – WORLD ATHLETICS
