2022 dates confirmed for World Athletics Championships Oregon

Following the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games to 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, World Athletics has confirmed that is next World Championships will now be held at the University of Oregon in the USA from 15th to 24th July 2022.

The Oregon World Championships were originally scheduled for 6-15 August, 2021, but have been rescheduled to the following year to avoid a clash with the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The World Athletics Council approved the new dates this week after extensive discussions with the sport’s stakeholders including organisers of two other major championships due to take place in July and August 2022 - the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and the multisport European Championships in the German city of Munich.

The new schedule will prevent a direct conflict between any of these major events and, with careful programming, will ensure athletes can compete in up to three world-class competitions.

In what will potentially be an extraordinary international season for athletics, all three events will be held across through the northern hemisphere summer of 2022.

The World Championships will commence the season, followed by the Commonwealth Games and the European Athletics Championships as part of the European Championships.

Announcing the dates, World Athletics President, Sebastian Coe stated “this will be a bonanza for athletics fans around the world (who) will be treated to six weeks of absolutely first-class athletics.

“More than 70 of our member federations are part of the Commonwealth and more than 50 of our member federations are European so our guiding principle in rescheduling the World Championships was to ensure enough space was created around the centrepiece World Athletics Championship for athletes to choose other major events to compete in.

“We were also very mindful that we did not want to damage the other major championships in 2022, because they are also very important to our sport.

"We believe we have found a solution that will allow athletes who are eligible for the other two events to compete in them with the Commonwealth Games Federation planning to stage the athletics programme towards the end of their event. This will showcase our sport to its best advantage in the circumstances and we will continue collaborating with all competitions on the detailed programming.

“We would not have chosen to have three major championships back-to-back but it will give us a unique opportunity to promote our sport and its stars around the globe over a six-week period.”

Welcoming the new timing, Commonwealth Games Federation President, Louise Martin noted “I would like to thank the leadership of World Athletics for a hugely constructive approach to working with the CGF.

“Our collective objective has been to ensure that, in this unprecedented time of global upheaval in all our lives, as well as its impact on the international sports calendar, the interests of athletes are at the centre of all decision-making. We will continue to work together to create space within our schedules to provide athletes with the opportunity to safely compete to the best of their abilities at multiple world class events."

While announcing the new dates its 2022 World Athletics Championships, World Athletics advised that the bidding processes for the event’s 2023 edition had been postponed.

With World Athletics unable to carry out assessments of candidate cities while much of the world remains under lockdown conditions, the bidding processes for the 2023 World Athletics Cross Country Championships and the 2023 World Athletics Relays have been suspended, and will now open in November of this year.

In the longer term, World Athletics has announced plans to become a carbon neutral organisation by 2030. The governing body has outlined a target of reducing its carbon footprint by 10 per cent a year for the next decade by cutting travel and relying more on local expertise on the operational side of events.

All events sanctioned by World Athletics will have to commit to carbon neutrality targets.

Images: The University of Oregon's Hayward Field will host the next World Athletics Championships (top) and World Athletics President, Sebastian Coe (below). Images courtesy of World Athletics.