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Track and field's newest — and richest — championship gets underway this week in Budapest, Hungary, as the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship brings together Olympic gold medalists, reigning world champions and top-ranked athletes from 19 nations for three days of finals-only competition at the National Athletics Centre, September 11-13.
Unlike the Olympics or the World Athletics Championships, the Ultimate Championship places no limit on how many athletes from a single country can compete in the same event. World Athletics designed the new biennial fixture specifically to let elite rivals from the same nation face off on the same start line, rather than being separated by national qualifying quotas — a format shift organizers hope will produce some of the most competitive fields ever assembled outside a global championship.
Twenty-eight events across men's, women's and mixed categories are on the program, with fields capped at 16 athletes in track events and 8 in field events, and a US$10 million prize purse on offer — among the largest in the sport's history.
The entry list reads like a track and field all-star roster. Noah Lyles headlines the American sprint contingent, while two-time Olympic pole vault champion Armand "Mondo" Duplantis returns to competition after recent injury concerns. Kenya's Beatrice Chebet lines up in the 5000m, and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone brings her dominant form in the 400m hurdles to the mixed international field.
Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen headlines a men's 1500m field notable for including all six winners from the previous cycle of global outdoor championships — an unusually stacked lineup for a single race. Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi competes in the high jump, while American hurdler Masai Russell, the world record holder in the 100m hurdles, arrives on a 12-meet winning streak. Also watching closely will be Gabby Thomas of the United States, back in the 200m after an Achilles injury kept her out of the 2025 World Championships.
The three-day program concentrates each session around a handful of headline finals:
In the United States, the championship will be shown across Peacock (all three days), NBCSN (Friday and Saturday), and NBC in Sunday primetime.
With qualification drawn from 2024 Olympic champions, 2025 World Championship winners, 2026 Diamond League final victors and world rankings, the Ultimate Championship is being watched closely as a test of whether a biennial, merit-based invitational can carve out a lasting place alongside the sport's traditional pillars. A strong showing in Budapest — in ratings, atmosphere and competitive drama — could determine whether the format returns on a permanent two-year cycle.
