Time For An African Worlds

I just read an interesting article about the Oregon22 World Championships.  It was talking about the financials and the economic impact on Oregon.  But it also mentioned the TV demographics, which were really fascinating.  More specifically, the region that spent the most time watching the meet.  It wasn't Europe or North America.  It was Africa.

Nearly 40 percent of the worldwide viewing audience came from Africa or the Middle East.  The top five individual countries in viewership?  Japan, China, Great Britain, Nigeria and the United States.  That's right.  Nigeria was fourth.  Despite the fact that Western Africa is five hours ahead of the East coast and eight hours ahead of Oregon, meaning the evening sessions started at 2 a.m. local time in Nigeria!

What all of this illustrates very clearly is that now is the time for World Athletics to bring a World Championships to Africa.  It's no secret that they want to have a World Championships in Africa.  Just like it was no secret that they wanted a World Championships in the United States, which is one of the primary reasons Eugene was picked to host last year.  So, it's reasonable to think World Athletics will go to Africa at the next available opportunity, which is in 2027.

This year's World Championships will be held in Budapest, with the 2025 edition scheduled for Tokyo.  There was a lot of speculation that the 2025 Worlds would go to an African city, most likely Nairobi, but they ultimately chose Tokyo because its Olympic facilities wouldn't need any renovation work.  Besides, it was a goodwill gesture to the city after all that they went through with the Olympics and building that beautiful new National Stadium, only to be forced to leave it empty during the Olympics.

By picking Tokyo for 2025, World Athletics was actually doing Nairobi a bit of a favor, too.  They essentially gave them two years to make stadium improvements in preparation for hosting in 2027.  That hasn't officially been announced, of course.  And there are plenty of other cities and countries that would be interested in hosting (Poland, for example, has never hosted Worlds).  But it seems they're Nairobi's to lose.  Which would finally bring elite, senior-level international competition to Africa for the first time.

The biggest major international sporting event ever to take place on the African continent was the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.  That was, in part, due to a FIFA directive put in place after South Africa lost the bidding for 2006 to Germany.  After that, they put in a continental rotation and only accepted African bidders for 2010.  South Africa ended up being the winner and hosted an incredibly successful World Cup!  South Africa has also hosted the Rugby World Cup once, in 1995, a tournament that will be forever celebrated for the hometown Springboks' victory and immortalized in the Morgan Freeman/Matt Damon movie Invictus.

Africa is the only continent to have never hosted an Olympics, something the IOC is very aware of and would like to rectify.  The first-ever Olympic event in Africa, the Youth Olympic Games, was originally set to take place last year in Dakar, Senegal.  However, after the Tokyo Games were delayed and they ended up having the Summer and Winter Olympics essentially back-to-back, the decision was made to delay the 2022 Youth Olympics until 2026.  Which could actually be a pretty good prelude to a 2027 World Athletics Championships in Nairobi.

Nairobi is the logical choice for an African World Championships for a number of reasons.  First and foremost, they already have the stadium and it's already hosted World Athletics events.  Both the 2017 World U18 Championships and 2021 World U20 Championships were held in Nairobi at the Moi International Sports Centre.  This is presumably the stadium that would be used for the senior World Championships.  All that would be required is some renovation work.

Kenya has also become one of the most well-rounded track & field nations.  The country is obviously best known for its distance runners, but Kenya had a World champion in the javelin and has been developing world-class jumpers, hurdlers and longer sprinters in recent years.  In fact, Kenya finished fourth in the team trophy standings at Oregon22, just two points behind rival Ethiopia for a place on the podium alongside the United States and Jamaica.

So, it's not like going to Nairobi would be a token trip to Africa, either.  Kenya has the competitive pedigree and has also shown the ability to successfully pull off hosting duties.  If there's any place in Africa that's capable, Nairobi is it.  And just imagine how much it would mean to the legions of track & field fans in that part of the world!

It took forever for Africa to get a Diamond League meet, but there's been one in Rabat, Morocco for a few years now.  The World Cross Country Championships were also in Uganda in 2017, and I've already mentioned the two age-group World Championships previously held in Nairobi.  So, holding a world-class track & field meet in Africa isn't a completely foreign idea.  And it's only natural to assume that the main World Athletics Championships will eventually make their way to Africa.

Is Nairobi the only place in Africa capable of hosting the World Championships?  Probably not.  There are National Stadiums in Abuja, Nigeria and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (they're actually currently building a new one in Addis Ababa), and Rabat hosts the Diamond League meet.  But Nairobi, with its previous hosting experience and Kenya's history of success, is the safest and best option.

To me, it's the natural choice.  I thought it was the natural choice for 2025, as well, but I get why World Athletics decided to go with Tokyo.  For 2027, though, there's no reason not to go to Nairobi.  Which would actually be the perfect place for the first World Athletics Championships in Africa.

Sooner or later, the World Athletics Championships are coming to Africa.  It's just a question of when?  My vote is the next available meet in 2027.  That's "only" four years from now.  Which seems like both a lot of time and not enough.  Give Nairobi the option, though.  Let them decide whether they want to host in 2027 or 2029.  If they'd rather wait, a European city (Bydgoszcz, Poland?) could easily sweep in for 2027.  But if Nairobi wants 2027, bring the World to Africa then.  It's time.