What does 2026 hold for female athletics?

This year has already had the UK Athletics Indoor Championship, with the UK Athletics Championships to come in June 2026 and the European Championships in August 2026.

Success in this early athletics event came in the form of Keely Hodgkinson, reigning 800m Olympic Champion. She broke the long-standing 800m indoor record, set by Slovenia’s Jolanda Ceplak on the day Hodgkinson was born, almost 24 years ago.

She crossed the line almost one second quicker than Ceplak’s time (55.82s), setting a new world record of 54.87s. She is now setting her sights on the women’s 800m outdoor record, 53.28s set by Jarmila Kratochvilova in 1983, the longest-standing record in world athletics.

Two of highest achieving women in athletics, USA’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, 2025 World Athlete of the Year, and Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet, double gold-medallist in 5000m and 10,000m in 2024 Olympics and 2025 World Athletics Championships, have slightly different goals for 2026.

Both announced in January that they were pregnant with their first child, taking this season away from the track to focus on family.

Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, 200m World Athletics, Champion, also sets out to defend her Prefontaine Classics 100m title in July, making 2026 a year to watch for female athletics.

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