IAAF Golden League

The IAAF Golden League was an annual series of track and field meetings organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The 2009 Golden League was the last under the Golden League format and it was replaced by a new annual series known as the IAAF Diamond League.

The series was formed to increase the profile of the leading athletics competitions and it was part of the World Athletics Tour. Athletes (in selected events) who win their event at all six meetings take a share of a USD$ 1 million jackpot. In addition, events at Golden League meetings scored more Grand Prix points than other Grand Prix meetings.

Over its twelve years of competition, it was sponsored by TDK, Ericsson, and finally ÅF.

History

Hurdles at the Bislett Games, one of the meets comprising the Golden League since 1998.

The Golden League developed from the group of prestigious athletics meetings which became known as the Golden Four in the 1990s, comprising Oslo, Zurich, Brussels and Berlin.[1]

The first Golden League season was held in 1998, consisting of the meetings of Oslo, Rome, Monaco, Zurich, Brussels and Berlin.

In 1999 a seventh event, Meeting Gaz de France, at St-Denis, Paris was added.

In 2000 and 2001, the US$ 1 million was reduced 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 50 kg of gold bars was reverted to USD 1 million and Monaco was dropped from the league after it was awarded the IAAF World Athletics Final.

In 2004, the Bislett Games were moved from Oslo to Bergen due to the redevelopment of the Bislett stadion.

For the 2006 Golden League, the total prize pool remained at USD 1 million, but the award structure had been changed:

• Athletes who won any five of the six events would share in a purse of USD 250,000.
• The remaining USD 750,000 would be divided among athletes who won all six meetings.

In 2007, the Jackpot of USD 1 million were only to be shared amongst those athletes who won at all six meetings. In case no athlete had managed to win all six meetings, USD 500,000 would have been shared amongst those who won at five of the six meetings.[2]

In 2008 IAAF signed a two-year agreement with the Swedish company ÅF for title sponsorship, thus renaming IAAF Golden League to ÅF Golden League.

Various rules changed through the years of competition. The list of events which qualify for the jackpot was different each year, but there were usually six men's events and six (four for 2008) women's. For the year 2008, the disciplines were:

• Men: 100 m, 400 m, 1500 m, 400 m Hurdles, Long Jump, Javelin Throw.
• Women: 200 m, 800 m, 100 m Hurdles, High Jump.

For 2009, the disciplines were:

• Men: 100 m, 400 m, 3000/5000 m, 110 m Hurdles, Javelin Throw.
• Women: 100 m, 400 m, 100 m Hurdles, High Jump, Pole Vault.

Jackpot winners

Year	Winners	Event(s)	Prize
1998 Details	Hicham El Guerrouj (1)	1500 m/mile	$333,333
	Haile Gebreselassie	5000 m/10000 m
	Marion Jones	100 m
1999 Details	Wilson Kipketer	800 m	$500,000
	Gabriela Szabo	3000 m/5000 m
2000 Details	Hicham El Guerrouj (2)	1500 m/mile	12.5 kg gold bar
	Maurice Greene	100 m
	Trine Hattestad	Javelin
	Tatyana Kotova	Long jump
2001 Details	André Bucher	800 m	8.33 kg Gold Bar
	Hicham El Guerrouj (3)	1500 m/mile/2000 m
	Allen Johnson	110 m hurdles
	Marion Jones (2)	100 m
	Violeta Szekely	1500 m
	Olga Yegorova	3000 m/5000 m
2002 Details	Hicham El Guerrouj (4)	1500 m	12.5 kg Gold Bar
	Ana Guevara	400 m
	Marion Jones (3)	100 m
	Félix Sánchez	400 m hurdles
2003 Details	Maria de Lurdes Mutola	800 m	$1,000,000
2004 Details	Christian Olsson	Triple jump	$500,000
	Tonique Williams-Darling	400 m
2005 Details	Tatyana Lebedeva	Triple jump	$1,000,000
2006 Details	Asafa Powell	100 m	$249,999*
	Jeremy Wariner	400 m
	Sanya Richards	400 m
	Kenenisa Bekele	5000 m	$83,333*
	Tirunesh Dibaba	5000 m
	Irving Saladino	Long jump
2007 Details	Yelena Isinbayeva	Pole vault	$500,000
	Sanya Richards (2)	400 m
2008 Details	Pamela Jelimo	800 m	$1,000,000
2009 Details	Sanya Richards (3)	400 m	$333,333
	Yelena Isinbayeva (2)	Pole vault
	Kenenisa Bekele (2)	3000 m/5000 m
2010	succeeded by IAAF Diamond League

Meetings

Meetings and dates for the final series in 2009:

Date	Meet	Stadium	City	Country
14 June	Internationales Stadionfest	Olympiastadion	Berlin	Germany
3 July	Bislett Games	Bislett Stadion	Oslo	Norway
10 July	Golden Gala	Stadio Olimpico	Rome	Italy
17 July	Meeting Areva	Stade de France	Saint-Denis	France
28 August	Weltklasse Zürich	Letzigrund	Zurich	Switzerland
4 September	Memorial van Damme	King Baudouin Stadium	Brussels	Belgium

• The Paris meeting was part of the series from 1999 onwards, after the first edition
• Prior to 2003, a seventh meet, Herculis, was held in Monaco
• For the inaugural series in 1998, the 1998 IAAF Grand Prix Final served as the seventh and last meeting of the circuit

See also

• IAAF Diamond League

External links

• IAAF Golden League 2009 Official Site
• Golden Gala Official Site
• Memorial van Damme Official Site
• ISTAF Official site