2023 World Athletics Championships

Athletics competition in Budapest, Hungary

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The 2023 World Athletics Championships (Hungarian: 2023-as atlétikai világbajnokság), the nineteenth edition of the World Athletics Championships, were held from 19 to 27 August 2023 at the National Athletics Centre, in Budapest, Hungary. The tournament returned to its usual two-year cycle after the previous event in Eugene, Oregon, United States was postponed to 2022, held 13 months earlier due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

These are the first World Athletics Championships in Hungary. The city of Budapest had previously stated an interest in hosting the 2007 World Championships, but withdrew and it was eventually held in Osaka.

Schedule

Venue

The championships were held in the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, which was specially built for this event, and has a provisional capacity of 36,000.

Mascot

The official mascot of the event is a Racka, called Youhuu.

Entry standards

World Athletics announced that athletes would qualify by their World Athletics Rankings position, wild card (reigning world champion or 2022 Diamond League winner) or by achieving the entry standard.

To qualify as a Wild Card required fulfilling one of the following conditions:

Reigning World Outdoor Champion
Winner of the 2022 Diamond League
By finishing position at designated competitions (Area competitions)
Leader (as at closing date of the qualification period):
- Hammer Throw 2022 World Athletics Continental Tour
- World Athletics Challenge - Race Walking aka World Race Walking Tour
- World Athletics Challenge - Combined Events aka World Combined Events Tour

Countries who had no male and/or no female athletes who had achieved the Entry Standard or considered as having achieved the entry standard or a qualified relay team, could enter one unqualified male athlete OR one unqualified female athlete in one event of the championships (except the road events and field events, combined events, 10,000 m and 3000 m steeplechase).

Since the postponement of the 2023 World Relays to 2024 Nassau, for Covid-pandemic reasons, a modified qualification system has been available for relay teams.

Target numbers

At the end of the qualification period, the 2023 World Athletics Rankings were published. They were used to invite additional athletes to the World Championships where the target number of athletes had not been achieved for that event through other methods of qualification.

The maximum of three athletes per country in individual events was not affected by this rule. Member federations retained the right to confirm or reject athlete selections through this method.

Where the highest ranked athletes were from a country that already had three entrants for the event, or where member federations had rejected an entrant, the next highest ranked athlete became eligible for entry via the world rankings.

Medal table

* Host nation (Hungary)

Medal summary

Men

* Indicates the athletes only competed in the preliminary heats and received medals

Women

* Indicates the athletes only competed in the preliminary heats and received medals

Mixed

* Indicates the athletes only competed in the preliminary heats and received medals.

Participating nations

According to an unofficial count there were 2001 athletes from 195 nations competing at the Championships out of 2187 athletes from 202 nations who had been originally entered.

Media coverage

In the United States, television rights to the championships belong to NBC Sports.

Eurovision Sport and ESPN jointly hold and distribute World Athletics media rights in Europe and Africa for 2023. Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed with World Athletics rights-holders Eurovision Sport and ESPN to broadcast the nine-day event on its channels – Eurosport 1, Eurosport 2 and Eurosport App – including its platform Discovery+ on a non-exclusive basis in more than 45 countries across Europe, excluding the Nordics region – Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden. Streaming is available on Discovery+ in Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, UK and Ireland.

In India, live streaming is available on JioCinema.