Beijing to host World Athletics Championships in 2027, Coe hails ‘massive opportunity’ to boost sport
- World Athletics president Sebastian Coe acknowledges commercial motivation behind decision
- Move comes on heels of Italian officials withdrawing Rome candidacy over US$92 million cost of putting on event
Beijing will host the 2027 World Athletics Championships, track and field’s governing body said on Wednesday.
China last hosted the event in 2015 and the mainland Chinese city of Nanjing will host next year’s World Athletics Indoor Championships.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said the choice of Beijing was partly commercially driven, stating that the country’s broadcast consumption of the elite Diamond League circuit in 2023 was top, at 368.9 million.
“With a population of more than 1.4 billion, China is one of the biggest sports markets in the world,” Coe said. “This poses a massive opportunity to grow our sport and fan base in one of the biggest commercial markets in the world.”
The decision comes on the heels of the Italian track federation announcing earlier in the day that it withdrew its candidacy to stage the 2027 worlds in Rome after the government refused to guarantee the US$92 million needed to host the event.
The 2025 world championships will be held in Tokyo. Last summer, track’s big event was staged in Budapest, Hungary, and the summer before in Eugene, Oregon.
“With the announcement of China as our next host,” Coe said, “our last four World Athletics Championships have now been awarded to the world’s four largest economies; the USA [Oregon], the EU [Budapest], Japan [Tokyo] and China [Beijing].”
