For the second time in six years, a major world sporting event has been stripped from San Diego in what one observer called “another gaping wound to elite athletics in the U.S.”
Monaco-based World Athletics announced early Wednesday that its September World Road Running Championships would be moved from San Diego to a locale still to be decided.
“World Athletics is currently talking to other potential hosts and expects to announce another location shortly,” its news release said of the 25th edition of the event. “We would like to thank the San Diego 25 team for their work over the last few months and hope we are able to find another opportunity to host a World Athletics event in San Diego in the future.”
A source with knowledge of the matter who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record told Times of San Diego that “San Diego isn’t the problem. (It’s) more the model doesn’t work, same for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. These governing bodies — USATF, WA —want the host cities to cover all the expenses to the tune of millions of dollars and don’t want to help.”
Paul Greer, president of the USA Track and Field association in San Diego, said via email that despite the San Diego organizing committee having secured a $3 million title sponsor, “it appears this alone was not enough to keep these World Championships here in San Diego.”
He added: “Most of all, I feel very sad for my friend Tracy Sundlun who always shares his own time, talents and treasure back to this great sport of ours. Although today is a setback, we will move forward with optimism and promise.”
In a statement, event CEO Sundlun said: “We really looked forward to welcoming the running world to San Diego this September, but sadly it is not to be at this time. For now, all of us here on Team San Diego will do everything in our power to assist World Athletics in the seamless transition of the 2025 Championships to a new venue.”
After working full-time on the event since the summer of 2023, what was Sundlun’s reaction to the change of fortune?
“Well, I am pleased that there were no sharp objects around the house,” he joked from his Santee home.
He told me in a phone chat that he informed his event team of the move by email and phone beginning Tuesday. (USATF’s Greer said more than 150 were sent notes.)
Contrary to social media speculation, World Athletics isn’t punishing America for electing Donald Trump.
Sundlun said: “Trump‘s election and behavior were never brought up in any conversation I had except as a joke and sympathy for me.”
Sundlun helped pioneer the Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon Series in San Diego.
In December 2023, Sundlun said the Road Running Championships Sept. 26-28, 2025, could be a major windfall for the local economy — rivaling the $165 million brought in by Comic-Con.
A mile race, 5K road race and half-marathon were to be contested in and around Balboa Park, with other “peoples” races for all age groups and abilities.
“We are anticipating about 50,000 entrants over the three events, expecting 67% of the participants to be from outside San Diego,” said a 1,700-word draft overview. The event was scheduled for the weekend after the World Track & Field Championships in Tokyo.
In a statement to Times of San Diego, Mark Neville, the CEO of Sports San Diego, said his nonprofit group was disappointed.
“Organizer Tracy Sundlun and his team are to be commended for the incredible effort they put forth these last couple years to assemble what surely would have been a tremendous world championship. They did it for the love of their sport; they did it for the love of this community.”
Bob Babbitt, co-founder of Competitor Magazine and the Challenged Athletes Foundation, said he’s had conversations for months with Sundlun about how to incorporate his runners — including wheelchair racers, visually impaired and amputee athletes — into the September event.
Sundlun “wanted to make sure there was prize money for our athletes,” Babbitt said in a phone interview. “He was like, OK, we need to bring a bigger spotlight to that for our event here. … Tracy was doing really, really good stuff to make that a major part of the event.”
On X, formerly Twitter, David Monti of Race Results Weekly posted a note from USATF’s Long Distance Running Committee that said: “Our … committees just recently became aware that World Athletics was conducting a routine audit of the [local organizing committee] to ensure it remained on track to host [the world road running meet], including reviewing their status of event readiness and financial preparedness.
“As of last week, the information we were provided was that WA had not completed this step, and that no decisions had been made to change the direction of the championship from being hosted in San Diego.”
But that information changed Wednesday morning, the USATF group said.
“USATF LDR will work to inform athletes and stakeholders as soon as possible of new information,” it added. “We are optimistic that the championship will go on at a different location, and TBD date later in 2025. There are no other changes at this time, including to our upcoming USATF Championships and selection events.”
But Monti also revealed that the USATF 10-kilometer road championships would not be held as part of the Boston 10K on June 22 as previously announced.
“@BAA and USATF were not able to agree on terms,” he reported.
Athletes were no less dismayed, among them masters age-group record-setters Pete Magill and Dan King.
Said Magill: “Dang it! Was really looking forward to traveling back to SoCal for this event!” King said he was signed up.
Hearth-attack survivor Craig Godwin of Oregon, a distance runner in his late 50s, said on Facebook: “I had planned my whole year around this event.”
In May 2019, San Diego organizers announced that America’s Finest City had lost the inaugural World Beach Games set for mid-October of that year.
Financial issues were flagged there as well.
Vincent Mudd, chairman of the Beach Games-organizing San Diego Exploratory Foundation, told The San Diego Union-Tribune: “We were never looking for government funding, because in the U.S., you don’t have governments funding these games, so we needed these inaugural games to stand on their own by finding corporate sponsorships. And what we were unable to do was identify that corporate sponsor to fully fund the games.
“The issue was the companies wanted to see the games happen first and then jump on board for maybe the second edition. It’s not like we didn’t find corporate sponsors with $500,000 to give, but we needed capital to fund the entire games.”
Money problems also killed plans to host the 2025 USATF Masters National Outdoor Championships set for Mount San Antonio College in July.
Mt. SAC’s Brian Yokoyama — director of athletic special events at the Walnut community college — told me that that it wouldn’t stage the 2025 meet unless USATF agreed to modify its demands.
Specifically, Mt. SAC wanted USATF to bear all financial responsibility for the meet — which could cost $100,000.
“Basicially, they’d have to rent our stadium,” he said of USATF. “We want to help, but we can’t do it to lose money.”
The meet was reassigned to Milton Frank Stadium in Huntsville , Alabama.
World Athletics, meanwhile, has taken down its website page devoted to the world road running meet, with information on how to enter the elite and peoples miles Sept. 26, 5Ks on Sept. 27 and half-marathons on Sept. 28.
“Looks like we’ve lost direction,” the 404 page now says.
Updated at 2:59 p.m. March 6, 2025
