Article by David Istrate – published Monday, September 22, 2025, 13:18 / Updated Monday, September 22, 2025 13:19
Sebastian Coe (68 years old), the president of the World Athletics Federation, said that, soon, discussions will need to change the competitive calendar, as a result of the excessive heat with which the athletes had to fight in recent years, to the various athletics competitions.
Between September 13-21, Tokyo hosted the World Athletics Championships, which were full of spectacular moments, remarkable performances and intense duels among the best athletes.
Sebastian Coe's plan: “A redesign of how the international calendar looks”
At the same time, the heat represented one of the factors that negatively influenced not only the performance of the athletes, but also their general states. According to BBC Sport, In Tokyo, temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius and humidity of over 90% were constantly registered.
Therefore, Sebastian Coe, the president of the World Athletics Federation, is thinking about changing the competitive calendar.
“Yes, I see this. It's not easy because we would go to autumn or early winter in cities where it is still very hot. But I think that probably will have to happen at a time and rather earlier than later”, Declared the double Olympic champion.
“Governments did not jump to the aid. I do not see beyond the inevitability of having a collective, as an Olympic movement and Olympic sports, a redesign of the way the international calendar looks,” he added.
According to Sebastian Coe, 70% of the athletes reported that climate change and heat affect their workouts and competition program.
“From the point of view of the World Athletics Federation, there will be some branding problems, But I am not sure we can ask some of our endurance athletes to compete during the time of the year in which the performance will be affected and who will put them at risk. This must be addressed, ”COE concluded.
At the same time, at the end of the 9 days of competition in Tokyo, the president of the World Athletics Federation was pleased with the state of athletics:
“I think our sport is in a very good form. We have a wider attractiveness and a higher level of followers than we had lately. We have athletes who perform as well as any other generation we have witnesses.”
