World Athletics Ultimate Championship

Athletics is evolving to stay relevant for fans, finances and geopolitics. The flag waving, the medal tables, the display of international power. For the people in the stadiums, staring at their screens or on the edge of their seats at home, athletics is instrumental to our lives, history and civilization.

That need to compete feels natural, inside us, originating as ancient human survival skills, way before the beautiful game was kicking around. It moved from amateur to professional to a modern global product that cities battle for the right to host. Drug cheats, technology, financial ruin and dictators cannot stop it.

Athletics wants to thrive not survive. The human eye and auto-rotation of the vertical and horizontal excitement depending on fast running, big jumps, long throws and commentators bringing the events to life.

It’s about moments, eyeballs and personalities, refusing to wait for the Olympics and World Athletics Championships. Showbiz dancing with sport to chase the money and build the brand. With attention spans shorter than the world records for 100 metres, the sports personalities are bringing the drama to track and field to give you memories to savour.

Are you not entertained? The inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship unfolded over a long September weekend in Budapest. A season-closing meet featuring top athletes with the winners being awarded US$150,000 each. Pocket money for elite footballers but a healthy sum for the men and women in spikes and synthetic performance fabrics. Although athletes run for their countries, there is no country medal table, fuelling the sponsor versus country funding debate.

I tuned in to discover there was no presenter or pundits in the studio, rather a trackside continuity announcer and an occasional American reporter who was cool and funky making me feel very old and socially awkward at home. The commentators were somewhere in the dark stadium that only lit up when the athletes were competing.

“The entire production has been rebuilt around storytelling, clarity and shared audience experience,” says Stefan Koch, senior director at HBS, which is host broadcaster of the new event along with Tata Communications.” It was a visual feast designed to look dramatic and hyper-focused on television and digital screens. There were no pacemakers for the middle-distance races, putting the pressure on the runners to execute their race strategies.

Athletics must be entertaining, but it is in danger of becoming a game show. I fear French and Saunders hitting the track for a comedy sketch. Lee Mack doing the pole vault. Ed Sheeran performing a duet with Armand Duplantis to replenish his fanbase while Sydney Sweeney goes full Lady Godiva on horseback to repent for her advert sexualising women in sport.

Back to the reality the ultimate champions for each event picked up a volcanic looking trophy as the mini fireworks erupted around them. The hang‑out zone was called the Ultimate Park with superstars like Noah Lyles and other cool athletes I did not recognise hanging around instead of competing. Their hollering and grandstanding reminded me of the brilliant Goldie Hawn American football film Wildcats.

I liked the predicted finish rankings and odds of winning for each athlete because it is all about data points these days. The flash interviews and promotional profiles drew you in making the stars more than just names and fast twitch limbs. Most of the athletes were on message eulogising about the inaugural event. It occasionally felt like a hyped-up business conference especially when Denise Lewis turned up to talk about London’s bid to host the 2029 World Athletics Championships, only to discover she was not invited to Noah Lyles’ party.

The big names turned up and the women’s 800 metres with Audrey Werro, Keely Hodgkinson and Femke Broeders-Bol is going to be amazing over the next two years in the build up to the 2028 LA Olympics. Jakob Ingebrigtsen returned to competing after fearing he may never run again. The long jumper Jazz Sawyers has the combination of athletic talent and personality to be a star. The academic badass Amy Hunt can compete with the best and the Olympics will be her stage to go for medals against the world’s best. I would not be surprised if Amy has a guest cameo as herself in the final series of Industry.

The best interview was with Josh Kerr who asked if the interview was live before he responded. I am guessing he thought it was a bit naff, although his main message was: "There is one last thing that I think we can get right, which is allowing the athletes to represent their own brands versus their country. I love my country and competing for them, but we don't make any money from that sadly. We don't have the pay cheques that other sports do yet. So that would be an opportunity to grow."

The Ultimate Championships was better than Athlos London, which despite its good intentions of being an all-female event, seemed more like a promotional junket for the athletes to wind down and show the world they know how to party. To show I care, let’s celebrate The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and European Athletics introducing "Raising the Bar: Guidelines for respectful media coverage in women's athletics" to prevent the sexualization of female athletes through intrusive camera work.

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