President of World Athletics Sebastian Coe says he is optimistic than ever about the future of the sport. (Scroll down to watch full interview)
He said this in his address to reporters prior to the commencement of the 2026 African Senior Athletics Championships in Accra, Ghana.
This year’s competition takes place at the University of Ghana Stadium from May 12 to May 17 with top athletes including world record holder in the Women’s 100 Metre Hurdles, Tobi Amusan, set to compete.
Ghana’s contingent is headlined by national 100 Metre record holder Abdul Rasheed Saminu and highlighting the influx of young talents like Noah Lyles and Mondo Duplantis, Sebastian Coe sounded confident about athletics’ future.
“I’m more optimistic about the future of the sport than I’ve ever been.”
“I’m optimistic because…I was at the world junior athletic championships not long ago; we’ve got the most extraordinarily talented athletes from all over the world coming through at that level.”
“If you look at Paris, Tokyo (Olympics), many of our medalists were under the age of 25…so it’s a stronger group of athletes than we’ve ever had” Coe said.
🎥 “People used to ask me what we would do if Usain Bolt left the sport. Now we have Noah Lyles and Mondo Duplantis, so the breadth of talent is widely distributed across all disciplines.”— Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics.#CitiSports pic.twitter.com/nfZRqRrEWl
— Citi Sports (@CitiSportsGHA) May 11, 2026
