The World Athletics Ultimate Championships is an upcoming international biennial track and field sporting event to be held by World Athletics. The first edition will be held from 11 to 13 September from 2026.[1] [2]
The inaugural edition of the three evening event will have a prize fund of US$ 10 million, with winners receiving US$ 150,000, by far the largest prize money in the sport, and will be held in Budapest, Hungary.
The Ultimate Championships was devised by World Athletics to ensure that the sport had a global championships for elite athletes towards the end of every track year. Unlike the primary World Athletics Championships or Olympic Games, but similar to the Diamond League final, the event consists only of direct semi finals and finals with between 8 (for field events and relays) and 16 athletes (for individual track events) invited per event, with invitations decided by the world rankings, augmented by World and Olympic champions