World Athletics to replace indoor events terminology with short track events

This move is to enable greater flexibility for 200m track competitions to be held outdoors.

World Athletics intends to introduce the new term 'short track' to replace the current term 'indoor' to describe events and performances that are set on a 200m track, traditionally staged indoors.

The World Athletics Council is supporting the concept of 'short track' competition to allow more flexibility in the setting of 200m tracks, which may, in the future, be constructed outdoors or in temporary city locations, rather than in a traditional indoor arena. Performances set on outdoor or temporary 200m tracks could therefore be recognised as official results for the purpose of records and rankings.

For more than 150 years, athletics has been divided between 'outdoor' competition, staged on a standard 400m oval track, and 'indoor' competition, which developed in cold climates to provide athletes from those countries with an indoor venue, typically a 200m oval track, to train and compete during the winter season.

Because these events were conducted in a different environment, with the closed indoor facility protected from any weather interference, the performances were not regarded as comparable with outdoor marks.

Consequently, World Athletics and the National Federations have always maintained separate lists of indoor and outdoor events and performances for statistical and records purposes.

However, with the advent of modern athletics and the development of hybrid competition venues – city squares, shopping malls, train stations – it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the separation between outdoor and indoor athletics.

In some field events, the separation has been eliminated altogether for world record purposes.

This evolution has prompted World Athletics to redefine the boundaries of outdoor and indoor athletics, so they relate to the competition facility rather than to the environment.

Sebastian Coe speaks up on the change

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: “This change is designed to remove an unintentional barrier to competition innovation, by offering organisers the chance to explore solutions and opportunities which the current rules may discourage. Under this new concept, the 200m short track will no longer be confined to the indoor environment, and a world of opportunities will open up for meeting organisers to stage official competition in whatever facilities they have available, either indoors or outdoors, using 200m or 400m tracks. This change will allow and actively encourage the possibility for 200m tracks to move to an outdoor environment and will provide a more affordable option to cities, especially where space is in short supply, while stimulating the growth of the sport through investment in new infrastructure.”

Indoor championships (whether at national, area or world level) would continue to exist but, in those regions / areas where there are no or very limited indoor facilities, short track championships could be held, which would be the equivalent of the indoor championships, and could be used as qualifying competitions for major indoor championships.

Events held in temporary facilities (whether part of an event-specific competition or within the frame of a larger competition), could also find a place in the official competition structure as well as in statistics and record books regardless of the environment in which they are conducted.

The World Athletics Council unanimously supports the move towards short track and the detailed rule changes required to initiate this innovation will be formally approved at its August meeting in Budapest.

These will be published in the new edition of the Competition and Technical Rule Book, coming into effect 1 November 2023.

Proposed new world record list

Proposed list of officially recognised events for world record purposes (not including road).sh = short track

Running	50m	Field events	High jump
	60m		Pole vault
	100m		Long jump
	200m		Triple jump
	200m sh		Shot put
	400m		Discus
	400m sh		Hammer
	800m		Javelin
	800m sh	Combined events	Pentathlon sh
	1000m		Heptathlon sh
	1000m sh		Heptathlon
	1500m		Decathlon
	1500m sh	Race walking	3000m sh
	1 Mile		5000m sh
	1 Mile sh		10,000m
	2000m		20,000m
	3000m		35,000m
	3000m sh		50,000m
	5000m	Relays	4x100m
	5000m sh		4x200m
	10,000m		4x200m sh
	1 hour		4x400m
	3000m SC		4x400m sh
Hurdles	50m hurdles		4x400m mixed
	60m hurdles		4x400m mixed sh
	100m hurdles		4x800m
	110m hurdles		4x800m sh
	400m hurdles		4x1500m
			Distance medley