The World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 have been hailed as the most impactful edition in history, with a record 53 nations making the medal table across nine days of competition. The previous best was 46, set in Osaka 2007 and matched in Budapest 2023.
According to the World’s Athletics Federation( WAF), the championships produced one world record, nine championship records and nine area records.
Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis stole the show by raising the pole vault world record to 6.30m, while the United States’ Melissa Jefferson-Wooden completed a historic sprint treble in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m.
There were double golds for Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet in distance running and Spain’s Maria Perez in race walking, while Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone stormed to a championship record 47.78 in the 400m – the second-fastest time in history. Canada’s Ethan Katzberg threw 84.70m in the hammer, the longest mark seen for two decades.
Tokyo also delivered a series of firsts. Samoa, Saint Lucia and Uruguay won their first ever World Championships medals, and Alphonce Felix Simbu claimed Tanzania’s first gold.
In total, 1992 athletes from 193 countries and the Athlete Refugee Team took part.
Off the track, the championships drew a record 619,288 spectators, with sell-out evening sessions and huge TV audiences. In Japan, more than 12 million tuned in on the opening day, while Swedish broadcaster SVT captured three-quarters of the national audience for Duplantis’s record vault.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe called the event “a championships for the ages”, praising Tokyo’s fans for delivering noise and atmosphere four years on from the empty stands of the Olympic Games.
Local Organising Committee president Mitsugi Ogata said the slogan “Every second, Sugoi” had been fulfilled: “There was never a quiet moment in the stadium. Over the past nine days, we have witnessed so many unforgettable moments.”
The World Championships now move on to Budapest in 2026 for the first World Athletics Ultimate World Championships.
1 championship decathlon best:
Leo Neugebauer (GER) decathlon discus, 56.15m
62 national records
22 world-leading performances
210 personal bests
20 countries won gold medals
28 countries won silver medals
34 countries won bronze medals
53 countries won medals
74 countries finished in top 8
Countries from 5 areas won gold medals:
Africa – 10 golds from 3 countries
Europe – 12 golds from 8 countries
NACAC – 22 golds from 5 countries
Oceania – 3 golds from 2 countries
South America – 2 golds from 2 countries
