The World Athletics Championships began on Saturday, September 13, 2025, in Tokyo, Japan, with tens of thousands of spectators filling the city’s National Stadium for the opening events.
The championships, running through September 21, mark Tokyo’s biggest global sporting event since the delayed 2020 Olympics, which took place without fans due to COVID-19 restrictions.
This time, around 35,000 spectators attended the opening day, half the stadium’s capacity, with later sessions already sold out.
The men’s 35-kilometer race walk opened the competition, won by Canada’s Evan Dunfee, followed by Spain’s defending champion Maria Perez. Japan’s Hayato Katsuki delighted home fans with a bronze medal.
The event is overshadowed by World Athletics’ decision to reintroduce mandatory gender testing for female competitors.
The federation confirmed Friday that about 95% of women athletes had completed the SRY gene test, which detects the presence of a Y chromosome.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe defended the policy as a measure to protect the “integrity of women’s sport.”
But critics argue the test is scientifically unreliable, since women can carry a Y chromosome without gaining a male physiological advantage.
The move has sparked controversy, with some countries, including France, forcing athletes to undergo testing abroad due to domestic bans on nonmedical genetic screening.
It remains unclear if any athletes have been ruled ineligible for women’s events.
The policy has reignited debate over transgender and intersex inclusion in women’s sports, with opponents calling the screening part of broader cultural and political battles.
Despite the controversy, Coe described the Tokyo event as “the largest sporting event of the year by some distance,” as athletes from across the world gather to compete in track, field, and endurance disciplines.