The IAAF Golden League was an annual series of outdoor

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

meetings organised by the

International Association of Athletics Federations World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international governing body for the sport of athletics, coverin ...

(IAAF). Athletes who won specific events at all of the series meetings were awarded a jackpot prize, sometimes given in

gold bar A gold bar, also known as gold bullion or a gold ingot, is a quantity of refined metallic gold that can be shaped in various forms, produced under standardized conditions of manufacture, labeling, and record-keeping. Larger varieties of gold ...

s, which inspired the series name. The competition began with seven meetings and it lasted for twelve years as the IAAF's top tier of one-day meetings. Within the IAAF's global circuit, athletes received additional points for their performances at the Golden League for the IAAF Grand Prix (1998–2002), IAAF World Outdoor Meetings (2003–2005), then IAAF World Athletics Tour (2006–2009). The Golden League was replaced in 2010 by the

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fifteen invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meet competitions. The inaugural season was ...

, which marked an expansion to fourteen seasonal meetings covering all track and field events except the

hammer throw The hammer throw (HT for short) is one of the four throwing events in regular outdoor track-and-field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and Javelin throw, javelin. The hammer used in this sport is not like any of the tools a ...

The origins of the Golden League trace back to the Golden Four series that ran from 1993 to 1997, comprising four top level European meetings on the IAAF Grand Prix circuit (

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, and

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

). The first Golden League was held as the new top tier of the 1998 IAAF Grand Prix and consisted of the former Golden Four meetings, plus

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

, and the 1998 IAAF Grand Prix Final in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

.IAAF Ericsson $1 million dollar jackpot for Golden League
IAAF (1998-07-08). Retrieved 2019-10-01. From the 1999 IAAF Golden League onwards, the Meeting Gaz de France in

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was added and the Grand Prix Final dropped. That year all meetings were scheduled for Wednesday evenings in order to improve the sport's television coverage. When the IAAF Grand Prix was succeeded by the IAAF World Outdoor Meetings series in 2003, the Monaco meeting was removed from the Golden League series and made host of the

IAAF World Athletics Final The IAAF World Athletics Final was an annual track and field competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It was inaugurated in 2003 to replace the IAAF Grand Prix Final. The competition was part of the ...

instead.6 Golden League Meetings from 2003-2005
IAAF (2002-09-13). Retrieved 2019-10-01. The Golden League meetings remained unchanged from 2003 to 2009. The series had three

title sponsor Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...

s in its history, starting with

Ericsson (), commonly known as Ericsson (), is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Ericsson has been a major contributor to the development of the telecommunications industry and is one ...

in 1998,

TDK is a Japanese multinational electronics corporation that manufactures electronic components and recording and data-storage media. Its motto is "Contribute to culture and industry through creativity". "TDK" is an initialism of the original Ja ...

in 2004 and 2005, then ÅF in 2008 and 2009.

Editions

Meetings

*In 2004, the

Bislett Games The Bislett Games is an annual track and field meeting at the Bislett Stadium in Oslo, Norway. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now part of the Diamond League. History The first international athletics meeting at Bislett ...

were moved from Oslo to the Fana Stadion in

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

due to the redevelopment of the

Bislett Stadium Bislett Stadium () is a sports stadium in Oslo, Norway. Bislett is Norway's most well known sports arena internationally, with 15 speed skating world records and more than 50 track and field world records having been set here. The original stadi ...

. The renovation was a requirement to its maintaining Golden League status. IAAF Golden League venues 2003 2005-2009

Jackpot

Rules

The jackpot and its eligibility rules changed through the competition's history. Each year, a number of men's and women's events were made eligible for the Golden League jackpot if an athlete won their event at all Golden League meetings. This ranged from five to eight men's events and five to six women's events for each year. In the first two years, jackpot winners shared in a

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

1 million prize. In 2000 and 2001, this was changed to 50 kg of gold bars and athletes only had to win at 5 out of 7 meetings to qualify for the jackpot. In 2003, the prize structure reverted to US$1 million for athletes winning at all the meets only, and a new stipulation was that athletes also had to compete at the

.The TDK Golden League – Past and Present
IAAF (2004-03-29). Retrieved 2019-10-01. From 2006 onwards, the jackpot events were set to five men's events and five women's events, ensuring

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality, gender egalitarianism, or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, an ...

. The award structure was also changed in 2006 so that athletes who won any five of the six events shared in a purse of US$250,000, while the remaining US$750,000 would be divided among athletes who won all six meetings. This was to a response to the fact that only four athletes shared in the jackpot in the three previous seasons.Ramsak, Bob (2006-09-03)
The Jackpot Story - IAAF Golden League
IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-01. From 2007 onwards, the jackpot was again only shared amongst athletes who won at all six meetings.‘6 out of 6’ required for $1 Million IAAF Golden League Jackpot in 2007
IAAF (2006-12-06). Retrieved 2019-10-01. Hurdles Bislett Games 2008

Events

Winners

*The 2006 series had a split prize pot, with US$250,000 shared between the athletes who won at five meetings, and US$750,000 being shared among athletes who won at all six meetings.

Events by year

References

External links

* {{defunct athletics competitions Golden League Defunct athletics competitions Golden League IAAF World Athletics Tour Golden League Golden League Recurring sporting events established in 1998 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2009