Togo's application drew attention to the work it had done linked to Kids' Athletics
The work of Member Federations in 2021 has been recognised through the Member Federation Challenge Award, with three winners selected by the World Athletics Development Commission for their focus on delivering five key goals throughout the year.
At the start of 2021, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe outlined a series of priorities for Member Federations, aligned to the World Athletics Strategy for Growth:
- More participation
- More people
- More fans
- More partnerships
- Promoting athlete engagement with local schools
The ‘more participation’ element involved increasing participation at either grassroots or elite level, or both, while ‘more people’ involved doubling the number of individuals taking coaching and officiating courses.
Member Federations were also asked to participate in at least two World Athletics campaigns during 2021, to secure a meaningful partnership, and take their athletes attending the Tokyo Olympic Games, or other elite high-performance athletes, into schools.
The Member Federation 2021 Challenge Award was split into three categories to reflect the diversity of the membership.
Following a period of evaluation, the Development Commission announced the following winners:
- Togo
- Switzerland
- Great Britain and Northern Ireland
As part of Togo’s application, the Member Federation drew attention to the work it had done linked to Kids’ Athletics. The rewriting of the country’s physical education curriculum took content from the grassroots development programme into account and funding from the award win will go towards supporting athletics projects in schools. As part of World Athletics’ #WeGrowAthletics campaign, there was an increase in the number of women participating in coaching and officiating training in Togo in 2021.
The Swiss Member Federation identified its strength in supporting organisers to deliver covid-safe competitions, including mass participation road races, with an increase on 2020 in the number of licenced athletes, competition results and road race finishers. The federation also launched courses for running and trail running coaches in 2021 and continued its grassroots schools projects.
For Great Britain and Northern Ireland, key actions included developing a strategic partnership with The Daily Mile to introduce every child in every primary school to athletics. Data showed an increase in grassroots athletics participation across the UK, while the Member Federation delivered a significant increase in coaching and officials courses.
In acknowledgement of Member Federations’ efforts to achieve the five strategic goals, World Athletics announced a USD 50,000 award to be divided across the three winning Member Federations.
World Athletics
