The IAAF Golden League was an annual series of outdoor track and field meetings organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Athletes who won specific events at all of the series meetings were awarded a jackpot prize, sometimes given in gold bars, 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, which marked an expansion to fourteen seasonal meetings covering all track and field events except the hammer throw.
The IAAF Grand Prix Final was an athletics competition featuring track and field events staged by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was first held in 1985 and replaced in 2003 by the IAAF World Athletics Final. For the most part of its history, the events were staged in early September in European major cities which also played host to prominent annual athletics meetings. Fukuoka City became the first non-European host in 1997. Doha followed in 2000 and Melbourne was that last non-European host before the final edition of the competition was held in Paris in 2002.
John Bryan Bronson is an American 400-meter hurdler, who won the bronze medal at the 1997 World Championships in Athens. He also represented his country at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He won three consecutive titles at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships from 1996 to 1998.
The IAAF World Athletics Tour was an annual global circuit of one day track and field competitions organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Formed in 2006, it comprised two separate levels of athletics meetings: the first level being the IAAF Golden League and IAAF Super Grand Prix events, and the second comprising IAAF Grand Prix events and area permit meetings. It replaced the IAAF World Outdoor Meetings series, which had only started three years earlier, and rendered the IAAF Grand Prix II series defunct.
The 1997 IAAF Grand Prix Final was the thirteenth edition of the season-ending competition for the IAAF Grand Prix track and field circuit, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held on 13 September at the Hakatanomori Athletic Stadium in Fukuoka City, Japan.
The 1999 IAAF Grand Prix Final was the fifteenth edition of the season-ending competition for the IAAF Grand Prix track and field circuit, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held on 11 September at the Olympic Stadium in Munich, Germany.
The 2000 IAAF Grand Prix Final was the sixteenth edition of the season-ending competition for the IAAF Grand Prix track and field circuit, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held on 5 October at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar. It was the first and only time that the event was held outside of September, due in part to Qatar's hot desert climate.
The 2001 IAAF Grand Prix Final was the seventeenth edition of the season-ending competition for the IAAF Grand Prix track and field circuit, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held on 9 September at the Olympic Park Stadium in Melbourne, Australia. It was the first and only time that the event was held in the southern hemisphere.
The 2002 IAAF Grand Prix Final was the eighteenth edition of the season-ending competition for the IAAF Grand Prix track and field circuit, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held on 14 September at the Stade Sébastien Charléty in Paris, France. Paris became the third city to host the event for a second time, following Rome and Fontvieille.
The 1996 IAAF Grand Prix Final was the twelfth edition of the season-ending competition for the IAAF Grand Prix track and field circuit, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held on 7 September at the Arena Civica in Milan, Italy.
The 1995 IAAF Grand Prix Final was the eleventh edition of the season-ending competition for the IAAF Grand Prix track and field circuit, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held on 9 September at the Stade Louis II in Fontvieille, Monaco.
The IAAF Grand Prix was an annual, global circuit of one-day outdoor track and field competitions organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It was created in 1985 as the IAAF's first seasonal track and field circuit and lasted until 2009. Athletes scored points based on their performances on the circuit and the top athletes were invited to the annual IAAF Grand Prix Final.
The 1998 IAAF Golden League was the first edition of the annual international track and field meeting series, held from 9 July to 5 September. It was contested at six European meetings: the Bislett Games, Golden Gala, Herculis, Weltklasse Zürich, Memorial Van Damme and the Internationales Stadionfest (ISTAF). The series tied in with the 1998 IAAF Grand Prix Final, with the jackpot of US$1,000,000 being decided at that competition. The million-dollar prize represented the single largest prize pot ever in athletics at that point.
The 1989 IAAF Grand Prix Final was the fifth edition of the season-ending competition for the IAAF Grand Prix track and field circuit, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held on 1 September at the Stade Louis II in Fontvieille, Monaco. Saïd Aouita and Paula Ivan were the overall points winners of the tournament, both repeating their victories from the previous year's competition. Ivan became the first woman to win the series twice. This was also Aouita's third career win at the completion – a feat which never went matched in the event's history.
The 1990 IAAF Grand Prix Final was the sixth edition of the season-ending competition for the IAAF Grand Prix track and field circuit, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held on 7 September at the Olympic Stadium (Athens) in Athens, Greece. Leroy Burrell and Merlene Ottey were the overall points winners of the tournament. This was Ottey's second series win and made her the second woman to win the honour twice, after Paula Ivan. The number of athletics events in the programme reached eighteen for the first time, with ten for men and eight for women.
The 1992 IAAF Grand Prix Final was the eighth edition of the season-ending competition for the IAAF Grand Prix track and field circuit, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held on 4 September at the Stadio Olimpico di Torino in Turin, Italy. Kevin Young and Heike Drechsler were the overall points winners of the tournament. A total of 17 athletics events were contested, nine for men and eight for women.
The 1993 IAAF Grand Prix Final was the ninth edition of the season-ending competition for the IAAF Grand Prix track and field circuit, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held on 10 September at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London, United Kingdom.
The 1994 IAAF Grand Prix Final was the tenth edition of the season-ending competition for the IAAF Grand Prix track and field circuit, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held on 3 September at the Stade Sébastien Charléty in Paris, France.
The IAAF Golden Events were a sporadic series of twelve athletics events organised by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) from 1978 to 1982. Aside from the inaugural event in Tokyo, the contests were held in Europe and were attached to independent track and field meetings. The purpose of the events was to raise the profile of the sport outside of Olympic competition. Marking the growing professionalism in athletics, a significant prize pot was given to the winner of the event – a move designed to attract the sport's top athletes to compete against each other at the same meeting. The inaugural prize was an 18-carat gold trophy worth 9,500 US dollars. All twelve events were for men, reflecting their position as the most prominent sex during that period.
Lyubov Kremlyova is a Russian former middle- and long-distance runner who competed internationally both for the Soviet Union and Russia. She had her greatest success indoors, winning medals at the 1991 IAAF World Indoor Championships and 1992 European Athletics Indoor Championships. She was stripped of a second World Indoor medal in 1995 after a positive test for steroids.
Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR)
Haile Gebrselassie (ETH)
Bryan Bronson (USA)
Frankie Fredericks (NAM)
Obadele Thompson (BAR)
Mark Richardson (GBR)
Laban Rotich (KEN)
Stéphane Diagana (FRA)
Dinsdale Morgan (JAM)
Samuel Matete (ZAM)
Javier Sotomayor (CUB)
Staffan Strand (SWE)
Maksim Tarasov (RUS)
Danny Ecker (GER)
Aleksandr Glavatskiy (BLR)
Yuriy Bilonog (UKR)
Tibor Gécsek (HUN)
Andrey Abduvaliyev (UZB)
Falilat Ogunkoya (NGR)
Savatheda Fynes (BAH)
Carla Sacramento (POR)
Fiona May (ITA)
Nicoleta Grasu (ROM)
Trine Hattestad (NOR)