Cash reserves exceed $50 million as World Athletics learns to “dance in the rain”

World Athletics received $39.5 million for track and field’s contribution to Tokyo 2020 

The dividend from Tokyo 2020 has helped World Athletics to boost cash reserves after a year characterised by President Sebastian Coe as a time when the sport learnt how to dance in the rain.

Reported revenue for the out-of-sequence Olympic year of 2021 bounded ahead to $82.9 million (£71.5 million/€82.6 million), from $44.3 million (£38.2 million/€44.2 million), and propelled profit to $29.8 million (£25.7 million/€29.7 million) from just $2.1 million (£1.8 million/€2.1 million) in 2020.

Approaching half of the overall revenue figure – some $39.5 million (£34.1 million/€39.3 million) – was the product of the payment made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for track and field’s contribution to the last Summer Games.

A smaller $6.3 million (£5.4 million/€6.3 million) IOC dividend tranche will be accounted for in 2022.

Nonetheless, it should be remembered that the frequency of Summer Olympic Games makes this essentially a quadrennial payment, not an annual one.

At $52.6 million (£45.4 million/€52.4 million), 2021 expenses exceeded the $43.4 million (£37.5 million/€43.2 million) of revenue that was not attributable to Tokyo 2020.

Even so, year-end cash bounced up to a tidy $53.6 million (£46.3 million/€53.4 million), against $40 million (£34.5 million/€39.8 million) 12 months earlier.

The revenue breakdown showed that income from sources other than the IOC dividend was essentially flat compared with 2020 levels.

Exceptions to this were “value in kind”, which pushed on from $1.4 million (£1.2 million/€1.4 million) to $3.4 million (£2.9 million/€3.4 million), and “Diamond League” which contributed close to $1.4 million (£1,2 million/€1.4 million), up from nil.

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning how to dance in the rain” is a quote World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said “sums up 2021” ©Getty Images

On the expense side, the mounting volume of meets after the passing of the COVID-19 shock resulted in an increase in competition and event costs from $15 million (£12.9 million/€15 million) to $23.5 million (£20.3 million/€23.4 million).

Grants and development spending edged up to $9.1 million (£7.9 million/€9 million).

At $8.8 million (£7.6 million/€8.8 million), the Athletics Integrity Unit absorbed nearly as much, though the accounts indicated that this figure included some $1.5 million (£1.3 million/€1.5 million) that was actually reimbursed for “legal and task force related costs arising from the suspension of the Russian Athletics Federation”.

A review to assess whether the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, or resultant sanctions imposed on Russia, would have consequences on World Athletics’ financial statements was said to have concluded that there were “no material impacts”.

In his President’s report, Coe alluded to a quotation by author Vivien Greene which he said “sums up 2021 for me”.

Greene wrote: “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.”

Claimed Coe: “Across the sport we did just that.”

By David Owen