by Larry Eder
Welcome to the World Champs 2023 Preview, Day 1.
For the next 45 days, RunBlogRun will be posting a story a day on the buildup to the World Athletics Outdoor Championships, to be held in Budapest, Hungary, from August 19-August 27, 2023.
The World Athletics Outdoor Championships began in 1983. They were the dream of many, and many did not think that then I.A.A.F. could host championships independent of the Olympic Games.
This writer remembers Helsinki in 1983. In the United States, we stayed up all night, watching the World Championships Live, from 2 am to 5 am each morning. It was so exciting to see the World’s best track & field athletes compete against the world’s best over nine or ten days. What was so unusual for fans was that we were able to watch track & field and just track & field for ten straight days. Seeing Grete Waitz and Rob de Castella win the inaugural WC Marathons was amazing, and the two 1,500-meter races were exhilarating, with Steve Cram of Great Britain and Mary Slaney of the US taking each title in the very last meters!
When this writer visited his first World Championships, it was in Goteborg, Sweden, in 1995. Watching Jonathan Edwards break the World record for the triple jump two times. The first was 18.16 meters, and Edwards looked so relaxed! In his second WR, his 18.29m made him the first man to triple jump over sixty feet! Jonathan beamed from one side of his face to another! Michael Johnson won the 200m and 400m in Goteborg. One of the most amazing performances was with Kim Batten and Tonja Buford-Bailey, with Batten going 52.61 under the previous WR! I loved each and every event at the World Championships!
The 2023 World Athletics Outdoor Championships will be held in the historic city of Budapest, Hungary, in August 2023. The World Championships, the first in Central Europe in 14 years. This World Championships will have stars from Europe, North America, South America, Asia, and Africa competing over nine days. 14 sessions will be held in the stadium, and six will be held in the city center of Budapest. Check here for the timetable.
This writer has been to 13 World Championships, and I can not wait to go to Hungary. So, over the next 45 days we will discover more about Budapest, and about Hungary, and athletes from Europe, Africa, Asia, and North and South America.
Our schedule:
Monday, Introducing Budapest World Champs
Tuesday, introducing Hungary
Wednesday, introducing Budapest
Thursday, Athletes from Europe (special notes on Hungary)
Friday, Athletes from Africa
Saturday, Athletes from Asia
Sunday, Athletes from North America
Please click here to learn more about tickets for the World Athletics Outdoor Championships in 2023, please click here.
