USA Track and Field announced the formation of USATF Tour on Tuesday, which is a move to standardize events, unify schedules and improve a set of best practices during the season.
“The USATF Tour represents a collective investment in the future of our sport,” USATF CEO Max Siegel said in a statement. “It addresses some of the key challenges facing track and field in the United States including fragmented scheduling, overlapping events, and dispersed media coverage. Together with dedicated meet organizers from across the country, we can deliver stronger competition, a better fan experience, and greater value for athletes, partners, and communities.”
USATF hopes to address a need to raise what meets the criteria of a quality event by mandating a unified circuit, raise the fan experience, expand media reach, get official World Athletics ranking status and lend operational support.
According to the organization, in 2026 it plans on improving a consistent fan experience by ensuring that events classified by World Athletics deliver an established level of quality. World Athletics labels races and events under four standards: Platinum Label, Gold, Elite, and general Label classification. Platinum has the most stringent requirements, but all categories come with minimum guidelines to ensure consistency.
With USATF Tour, the aim is conformity and to make sure that smaller meets operate well while others actually happen.
Last year, USATF notes that in the United States there were 19 World Athletics certified Continental Tour meets along with the inaugural season of Grand Slam Track and the Prefontaine Classic that all occurred within a 15-week time frame.
Still, despite the busy outdoor calendar, there were notable issues.
The final Grand Slam Track event scheduled for Los Angeles in late June was canceled amid major financial issues that were later exposed as rumors swirled. The USATF-branded Los Angeles Grand Prix was slated for early June and that meet was also canceled. And another June event, the New York Grand Prix was also scratched from the calendar with USATF only saying that it was not the organizer and was “disappointed” that it would not be held.
USATF has not revealed if any of these events that were canceled this year would return in 2026 or if it would position itself to assist bigger budget meets like Grand Slam Track.
