World Athletics has reported its strongest financial and commercial performance to date, underpinned by the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, but questions remain over whether the sport can sustain its current momentum beyond the Games cycle.
The federation’s 2024 Annual Report shows revenues of $99.3m, a sharp uplift on the previous year, driven largely by the $39.6m Olympic dividend received from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Excluding this one-off contribution, like-for-like revenues rose 10.5% to $59.8m, reflecting new sponsorships and broadcast contracts. Expenditure increased 12% to $78.7m, with more than half directed to competitions and prize money.
The governing body also ended the year with cash reserves of $40m, positioning itself more comfortably than in the years immediately following the pandemic. However, the reliance on the IOC dividend – which accounts for nearly 40% of total income – underscores the structural challenge of ensuring financial independence outside the Olympic cycle.
“Athletics is currently a hot commodity and people want to be a part of it. But we need to adapt to new and changing realities and keep new generations of fans engaged with our sport,” said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe in the report’s opening message.
“One important way is to continue to focus on innovating our sport and the product, which is embedded in our new four-year strategic plan, Pioneering Change (2024-2027), and supported by a dedicated innovation team developing data driven strategies.”
Commercial partners and broadcast boost
New partnerships with Honda, Sony, Deloitte, Morinaga, Pocari Sweat and Corpay contributed to the uplift, alongside an expanded broadcast contract with the European Broadcasting Union. Athletics also benefitted from the mainstream crossover success of Netflix’s SPRINT series, which helped push its social following to 14 million and its fan database past 1.2 million registered users, beating its annual target.
The federation proudly cited its 1.2 billion Olympic viewership, the highest of any sport in Paris, and a rise in broadcast hours from 5,477 in Tokyo 2020 to 7,426. Yet, as with the finances, critics may argue this reflects the halo effect of the Olympics rather than a guarantee of consistent year-round engagement.
Innovation or overreach?
World Athletics’ flagship announcement in 2024 was the World Athletics Ultimate Championship, a $10m prize-money event to debut in Budapest in 2026. Marketed as “made for TV” and designed to fill the gap in non-Olympic years, the format has raised expectations but also some doubts. With no heats and straight finals compressed into three days, the event is a gamble on modernising athletics without alienating traditional audiences.
This sits alongside broader reforms, including a reconfigured calendar, new out-of-stadium growth strategies and changes to field event disciplines aimed at speeding up competition. While the federation has been commended for innovation, there are concerns that its heavy reliance on broadcast-led products could risk sidelining grassroots development if not carefully balanced.
“The strength and increased popularity and profile of our sport is clear from the new investment that we are seeing others pour into our sport through new events, new formats and new partnerships. I welcome this. We have an extraordinary opportunity, right now, to make a strong and growing sport stronger and even more popular,” said Coe.
Governance credibility
The report also highlights governance progress. World Athletics retained a place in the highest governance band in ASOIF’s review of Olympic federations, recognised for transparency, gender balance, and safeguarding. Audits of the Athletics Integrity Unit confirmed compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code, though the sport continues to wrestle with reputational damage from past scandals and ongoing doping cases in several countries.
On sustainability, the federation was named International Organisation of the Year at the BBC Green Sport Awards, with its Athletics for a Better World standard now applied across more than 100 events. Almost 40% of new referees and 25% of new coaches in 2024 were women — a notable advance in gender representation.
The challenge ahead
World Athletics has positioned itself as the No. 1 Olympic sport, but the critical test lies in maintaining relevance between Olympic cycles. Sponsorship growth is encouraging, but the extent to which it is tied to Olympic exposure will become clearer in 2025 and 2026.
The launch of the Ultimate Championship offers an opportunity to reshape the sport’s commercial proposition, though the scale of its ambition could also stretch resources.
In short, 2024 was a year of record reach and renewed financial stability. The question for Sebastian Coe’s leadership team is whether these achievements represent a genuine step change for the sport or a temporary Olympic bounce.
