The World Athletics Championships is headed to Tokyo in 2025, and more than 2,000 athletes from approximately 200 countries will converge on Japan for nine days of competition from Sept. 13-21.

Tokyo first hosted the biennial track and field meet in 1991, and the competition returned to Japan in 2007 with a visit to Osaka. 

From its inaugural edition in 1983 through the 1991 event, the World Athletics Championships was held every four years. It since has been held in the odd years, with the 2023 event taking place in Budapest, Hungary. 

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Tokyo was selected as the host for the 2025 World Athletics Championships in 2022, and the upcoming edition will be the 20th in history. Tokyo also hosted the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games (which were delayed to 2021 due to COVID-19).

Because of a rise in COVID cases in Japan leading up to the Olympics, a state of emergency was declared, and fans were not allowed to attend the events that were held within the city. 

For the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25, set to be the biggest sporting event of the calendar year, there will be 700,000 tickets available for spectators from around the globe to enjoy the action in person.

The main venue for the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 will be the Japan National Stadium, and the nine days of competition will include 49 disciplines – 24 women’s, 24 men’s and one mixed event. 

In Budapest in 2023, Japanese athletes earned two medals – one gold (Haruka Kitaguchi in women’s javelin) and one bronze (Masatora Kawano in the men’s 35-kilometer walk). 

The United States topped the medal table in 2023 with 29 medals – 12 gold, eight silver and nine bronze.

How To Watch The World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25

In the United States, the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 will be broadcast on the NBC family of networks. That includes NBC’s streaming platform, Peacock.

How Do Athletes Qualify For The World Athletics Championships?

There are two ways for athletes to qualify for the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25.

Half of the competitors will qualify through the year’s pre-determined entry standards, and the other half will qualify through the world rankings. The qualifying period is Aug. 1, 2024 through Aug. 24, 2025.

This online tracking tool was designed to help fans understand the process and follow the progress of their favorite athletes. 

About Japan National Stadium

The latest iteration of the Japan National Stadium was the centerpiece of the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games. 

The first venue in the area was the Meiji Jingu Gaien Stadium, Japan’s first full-scale athletic field, circa 1924.

That facility was demolished to make room for the original National Stadium, which welcomed the Asian Games in 1958 and the Summer Olympics in 1964.

The first National Stadium closed in 2014 and was torn down and rebuilt for the 2020 festivities, officially being completed on Nov. 30, 2019 at a cost of approximately $1.4 billion USD. It features a blend of modern and traditional Japanese architecture. 

The stadium, which can seat nearly 68,000 spectators, now is used for athletics, soccer, rugby and variety of other sporting and cultural events. 

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