World Athletics Ultimate Championship: Everything to know about the highest paying track and field event with $10 million prize pot

The World Athletics Ultimate Championship is the most recent addition to the roster of global tournaments organized by the global governing body IAAF (currently known as World Athletics). The event is set to be hosted for the first time in 2026 between September 11-13 in the Hungarian capital of Budapest.

The tournament is a major initiative by the World Athletics governing body towards the betterment of the economic status of athletes around the world. The tournament is reported to offer a humongous prize pool of $10 million. The first-position holders will bag around $150,000 while other participants in the competition will be awarded a substantial amount of player compensation fee.

Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics, said in a statement:

"With only the best of the best on show and cutting straight to semi-finals and finals, we will create an immediate pressure to perform for athletes aiming to claim the title of the ultimate champion."

He further added:

"The World Athletics Ultimate Championship will be high on action and excitement for fans, setting a new standard for track and field events. Featuring athletics’ biggest stars, it will be a must-watch global sports event and means track and field will host a major global championship in every single year."

The tournament is also facilitated to enhance the promotional rights and sponsors of the track and field athletes. Besides, Jon Rodgeon, CEO of World Athletics, also said in his statement that the World Athletics Ultimate Championship is aiming to improve the broadcasting numbers of the track and field discipline and also appeal to a much wider audience.

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World Athletics Ultimate Championship: All you need to know about the format of the biennial event

The first edition of the World Athletics Ultimate Championships will be organized in Budapest, Hungary, and will continue for three days. The proceedings of the tournament will majorly take place in the evening and are planned to give the fans an exclusive fast-track experience of the track and field events.

The participants of the competition will be determined based on the world rankings of the respective events. The number of athletes may vary from 8 to 16 for the individual disciplines while the combined number of athletes from all the events of the World Athletics Ultimate Championship may add up to 400.

For the track disciplines, the tournament will consist of semi-finals followed by the final while for the field events, the participants will directly qualify for the final without competing in the semis.