World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations, is the international governing body for the sport of athletics, covering track and field, cross country running, road running, race walking, mountain running, and ultra running. Included in its charge are the standardization of rules and regulations for the sports, certification of athletic facilities, recognition and management of world records, and the organisation and sanctioning of athletics competitions, including the World Athletics Championships. The organisation's president is Sebastian Coe of the United Kingdom, who was elected to the four-year position in 2015 and re-elected unopposed in 2019 for a second four-year term, and then again in 2023 for a third and final 4 years.
The IAAF Golden League was an annual series of outdoor track and field meetings organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Athletes who won specific events at all of the series meetings were awarded a jackpot prize, sometimes given in gold bars, which inspired the series name. The competition began with seven meetings and it lasted for twelve years as the IAAF's top tier of one-day meetings. Within the IAAF's global circuit, athletes received additional points for their performances at the Golden League for the IAAF Grand Prix (1998–2002), IAAF World Outdoor Meetings (2003–2005), then IAAF World Athletics Tour (2006–2009). The Golden League was replaced in 2010 by the Diamond League, which marked an expansion to fourteen seasonal meetings covering all track and field events except the hammer throw.
The IAAF World Athletics Final was an annual track and field competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It was inaugurated in 2003 to replace the IAAF Grand Prix Final. The competition was part of the IAAF World Athletics Series and was the seasonal culmination of the IAAF World Outdoor Meetings series from 2003 to 2005, then the IAAF World Athletics Tour from 2006 to 2009. Due to changes in the one-day meeting system introduced by the IAAF, the World Athletics Final was discontinued after the 2009 season.
Race walking, or racewalking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Race judges carefully assess that this is maintained throughout the race. Typically held on either roads or running tracks, common distances range from 3,000 metres (1.9 mi) up to 100 kilometres (62.1 mi).
The World Athletics Combined Events Tour is an annual series of combined track and field events meetings, organised since 1998 by World Athletics, with heptathlon for women and decathlon for men. The winners are decided by totalling the number of points that the athletes have scored in each of three combined events competitions during the season. Points scored are determined by the World Athletics combined events scoring tables. The series includes annual independent combined events meetings as well as championship level combined events competitions, such as the World Athletics Championships and Olympic Games. It is the premier seasonal competition for decathletes and heptathletes, as combined events are not held for the Diamond League.
The World Athletics Race Walking Tour is a racewalking series organised by World Athletics. Athletes accumulate points in specific race walk meetings during the season. Performances in 10 kilometres race walk, 20 kilometres race walk and 50 kilometres race walk count towards athlete's final scores. Since 2011, racewalking performances at the World Athletics Championships and Olympic Games count towards the series. Women have competed in the 50 km distance since 2018.
The IAAF World Cross Challenge was an annual global series of cross country running competitions organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Athletes accumulated points in the series' cross country meets during the season, which typically began in December and finished in March prior to the annual IAAF World Cross Country Championships. The series was based upon the IAAF Grand Prix track and field circuit and the IAAF hoped to similarly boost the sport of cross country running. The last series was held in 1999–2000, after which point it was replaced by the IAAF Cross Country Permit Meetings series which featured similar races but did not have a point scoring format.
Olga Nikolayevna Kaniskina is a Russian coach and former race walker. She won the silver medal in the 20 km walk at the 2006 European Championships, the gold medal at the 2007 World Championships, and the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She also won the 20 km walk at the 2008 IAAF World Race Walking Cup, setting a Championship record of 1:25:42. She was disqualified from several years of competition due to doping.
The Australian Athletics Tour, formerly the Athletics Grand Prix Series, is a series of annual Australian track and field competitions which is held from February to April. Australian athletes aiming to be selected for the Olympic Games, World Championships, or Commonwealth Games are usually required to compete in the meetings that form the series.
The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fifteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meeting competitions.
The IAAF World Athletics Tour was an annual global circuit of one day track and field competitions organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Formed in 2006, it comprised two separate levels of athletics meetings: the first level being the IAAF Golden League and IAAF Super Grand Prix events, and the second comprising IAAF Grand Prix events and area permit meetings. It replaced the IAAF World Outdoor Meetings series, which had only started three years earlier, and rendered the IAAF Grand Prix II series defunct.
The IAAF Grand Prix was an annual, global circuit of one-day outdoor track and field competitions organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It was created in 1985 as the IAAF's first seasonal track and field circuit and lasted until 2009. Athletes scored points based on their performances on the circuit and the top athletes were invited to the annual IAAF Grand Prix Final.
The African Combined Events Championships is an international athletics competition between African athletes in the disciplines of men's decathlon and women's heptathlon. It became part of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge circuit in 2011.
In 2015, the foremost athletics event was the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing. The two other major global level competitions in 2015 are the World Cross Country Championships and the IAAF World Relays.
The WMRA World Cup is an annual series of mountain running competitions organised by the World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) that runs from around May to October. Athletes are awarded points for each performance on the tour. Its predecessor was the Alpine Grand Prix, a 1997 formation including four European races in the Alps region. It formally became the WMRA Grand Prix in 1999 and subsequently expanded to six races in 2001. It reverted to four races in 2007 and from 2008 onwards began to vary between five and seven races. The competition took its current title World Cup in 2014.
The 2017 IAAF Diamond League was the eighth season of the annual series of outdoor track and field meetings, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It is the first to feature the new championship-style system in which overall event winners are determined only by the results of the final meet.
The 2019 IAAF World Indoor Tour was the fourth edition of the IAAF World Indoor Tour, the highest series of international track and field indoor meetings. It was designed to create an IAAF Diamond League-style circuit for indoor track and field events, to raise the profile of indoor track and field athletics.
The World Athletics Rankings are an individual athlete ranking system for the sport of athletics, managed by World Athletics. It is used to establish the number one athlete within an athletics event and to partially determine qualification into the World Athletics Championships and the athletics at the Summer Olympics. The rankings are published weekly by World Athletics on Wednesday. WA President Sebastian Coe said the goal of this system is so athletes and fans "have a clear understanding of the hierarchy of competitions from national through to area and up to global events, allowing them to follow a logical season-long path to the pinnacle of athletics' top two competitions".
The IAAF Race Walking Challenge Final was an annual racewalking competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It served as the culmination of the IAAF Race Walking Challenge series from 2007 to 2012. It featured a men's and a women's 20 kilometres race walk. Any athlete could compete at the final, though to be eligible for the series prize money pot of US$202,000 a minimum of four finishes at Race Walking Challenge meetings held that year was required. If the points winner of the Race Walking Challenge series did not compete at the final, their prize money was halved.
The World Athletics Cross Country Tour is an annual series of cross country running competitions which are recognised by the World Athletics. Athletes accumulate points in the series' cross country meets during the season, which typically begins in September and finishes in March, with top three performances counting towards the standings. The inaugural season was 2021–22. The Tour replaced the IAAF Cross Country Permit series, which was first held in 1999.
Jamaica 
USA 
Ethiopia 
Japan 
Netherlands 
China 
Australia 
Kenya 
Russia 
Eritrea 
Romania 
Sweden 
United States 
Estonia 
