Eugene to Host 2021 World Track & Field Championships

The city of Eugene lost out on the 2019 World Championships, but in a surprising move the IAAF awarded Oregon the 2021 World Track & Field Championships at a meeting Thursday in Beijing.

As Reuters notes, the move bypassed the normal bidding process, but the IAAF Council was apparently im pressed by submissions from the Governor of Oregon, the USOC, and NBC pushing for the Championships to take place in the USA.

With the non-traditional process, there are obviously a few upset parties, as Ken Goe notes in his piece, with criticism of the announcement from the European Athletics Federation.

Now it's time to get to work in Eugene, whose small size will make hosting the World Championships a considerable challenge. But despite these challenges, this will be the biggest international sporting event to take place in the US since the Salt Lake City Olympics of 2002. Track Town USA has hosted some big events lately, and they'll have 5 years to prepare for the biggest they'll have seen yet.