^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

World Athletics

WA

image by Zoltan Horvath, 5 April 2024

Current name and flag (2019)
IAAF flag
Flag at the London 2012 Olympics
IAAF previous flags
IAAF World Championships in Athletics Paris 2003 Saint-Denis
World Junior Track & Field Championships 2014

See also:

Current name and flag (2019)

World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF), is the international governing body for the sport of athletics, covering track and field, cross country running, road running, race walking, mountain running, and ultra-running. Included in its charge are the standardization of rules and regulations for the sports, certification of athletic facilities, recognition and management of world records, and the organization and sanctioning of athletics competitions, including the World Athletics Championships. World Athletics adopted a new logo and flag in 2019, You can read an article about unveiling its new logo.
Zoltan Horvath, 5 April 2024

IAAF flag

image by Zoltan Horvath, 5 July, 2010

The new flag of IAAF (International Association of Athletic Federations), based on the flag used during closing ceremony in Doha, Qatar.
http://www.doha2010wic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/flag-ceremony.jpg
Zoltan Horvath, 5 July 2010

IAAF flag, observed this week at the World Junior Track and Field Championships.
Dave Fowler, 25 July 2014

Flag at the London 2012 Olympics

The protocol manual for the London 2012 Olympics (Flags and Anthems Manual London 2012 [loc12]) provides recommendations for flag designs. Each international federation and international paralympics federation was sent an image of the flag, including the PMS shades, for their approval by LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced a 60 x 90 cm version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specs may not be the official version of each flag, they are certainly what the international federation and international paralympics federation believed the flag to be.
For IAAF: PMS 116 yellow, 158 orange, 1805 red, 1815 dark red and black. The vertical flag is simply the horizontal version in 5:3.
Ian Sumner, 10 October 2012

IAAF previous flags

image by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, 14 March, 2010
based on photo from Yahoo!News, August, 2005.

The flag shown here was also depicted and detailed in the "Flag Manual" by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, 2008. It is depicted 2 x 3 (horizontal) and 3 x 2 (vertical).
Colors (PMS): Blue 293; Reflex Blue
Remarks: The flag was used from 2005 to 2009, a new emblem was introduced in September of 2009.
Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, 14 March, 2010

image by Luis Miguel Arias Pérez, as appeared in Gaceta de Banderas, May 2004.
Redrawn by: Santiago Dotor, May 13, 2004.

This is the flag of the International Association of Athletics Federations as it appeared in Gaceta de Banderas, May 2004 issue, drawn by Luis Miguel Arias Pérez and exported to a FOTW GIF by myself.
Santiago Dotor, May 13, 2004.

IAAF World Championships in Athletics Paris 2003 Saint-Denis

The official name of the event which took place in Stade de France from 23 to 31 August 2003 is: IAAF World Championships in Athletics Paris 2003 Saint-Denis.

Paris is the city welcoming the event, but the Stade de France was built in the neighbouring municipality of Saint-Denis, a few kilometers north of Paris, near the basilica where most kings of France were buried. To associate both cities into the event, the marathon races started in front of the city hall of Paris, crossed Paris and finished in the Stade de France. Usually, the marathons in international championships start and finish in the stadium.

Inside the stadium, there were three poles with the flags of the International Olympic Committee, France, and most probably IAAF. On most days, there was so little wind that these three flags were to large to fly properly.

The flags of the participating nations were hoisted vertically from the roof all around the stadium, both outside and inside. The flags were arranged the same way the nations entered the stadium during the opening ceremony, i.e. according to the French alphabetical order of names, with some oddities [already pointed out by Olivier].

There were three main mistakes in hoisting, two of them being the same during the opening ceremony:

Comoros: the current flag was used during the opening ceremony, but the former flag, green with the crescent and the stars, was hung in the stadium.
Nepal: both during the opening ceremony and in the stadium, the flag was rectangular, with a white field "filling" the normally empty part of the rectangle.
Rwanda: both during the opening ceremony and in the stadium, the former tricolor flag with the black R in the middle was used.

There were 210 participating nations, the only missing member of the IAAF being Iraq. Therefore, there should have been 210 flags hung but only 209 seem to have been used. French Polynesia marched under the French tricolor flag and not the territory flag. That flag could have been hung between Poland [Pologne] and Puerto Rico [Porto Rico] but it was not there [yesterday, I sat 'just' below Puerto Rico and Portugal, so that I could not have missed the Polynesian flag]. The French tricolor flag was not hung probably to avoid a duplication of the national flag. Note that the Polynesian flag was hung in Athens, four years ago, and maybe in Edmonton, two years ago.

Making a lap of honour with the national flag after a victory (and also after a second or third place, in certain cases) seems to be now an established practice. It would be interesting to know when and where it started.

The medal ceremony involved as usual rising the colours of the three medalists. The flags were risen "by hand" by 80 students of the "Ecole Interamree des Sports", who performed a remarkable job. First, the three flags were attached to the ropes and placed at the same horizontal level. This was prepared in advance, long before the official announcement of the ceremony, for the pleasure of vexillologists who could guess what would happened before the lesser mortals. This also allowed correction, as it happened yesterday. I was really worried because of a possible diplomatic incident because the Russian and Turkish flag were inverted before the ceremony of the women's 1,500 m. Fortunately, the mistake was noticed and the flags were quickly swapped short before the ceremony.

The rising was rather unusual because the silver and bronze medalist's flags were not risen at the same horizontal level, as it is most often the case. Similarly, the star podium had unequal steps for the second and third. This seems to be logical since there is a difference between the second and the third place.

On TV images, the flags hung vertically between the camera (the white globe sliding over the stadium on a cable, which could be seen only by the stadium spectators) received unexpected attention because they were "collaterally" seen during each ceremony. Those happy flags were Netherlands Antilles (Antilles Neerlandaises), Saudi Arabia (Arabie Seoudite), Argentina [Argentine], Armenia [Armenie] and Aruba [Aruba].
Ivan Sache, August 2003.

Allow me to tell you that the in formation Mr. Sache provides on Paris 2003 Championships is very interesting. But let me remark some small details:

According to my sources the number of participating countries was of 203, out of the 211 IAAF members.
The last country to join IAAF was Timor-Leste who did in the few days before Championships. In the las IAAF Congress.
he IAAF members who did not take place were:
- Aruba,
- Bermuda,
- Bhutan,
- Cambodia,
- Iraq,
- Liechtenstein,
- Montserrat,
- Norfolk Island.
Thus, Africa and South-America had 100% of participation.
Well, the cases of Aruba, Bermuda, Liechtenstein, and Cambodia are estranges, those countries usually are deep participating.
On Iraq may be the current state of the country from the US-led invasion avoided to send athletes.
About French Polynesia, it is all correct. I saw the territorial flag (R-W-R with Arms) in Seville, Edmonton and Athens, but I am afraid that even the flag was hoisted, the country (territory) did not attend. If this is true, the case is funny since, the first time French Polynesia participates (a woman in the marathon) it is not able to use its flag.

Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, August 2003.

World Junior Track & Field Championships 2014

The IAAF's World Junior Track & Field Championships was held in Eugene, Oregon from July 22-27, 2014. This was my first major international sporting event. Athletes from 169 IAAF member states were listed as participating. There was a large flag display with the participating states' flags on one side of the field (less the United States). The US and IAAF flags were on the other side of the field.
As has been detailed on the FOTW Facebook site there were a number of hoisting errors (Egypt & Cuba upside down, an erroneous Dominica flag). I also went and cataloged the display, and found a few missing flags, as well as flags of IAAF nations not participating. Additionally, there was some alphabetization mistakes, and creative ordering of some nations (Commonwealth of Dominica was under 'C'.)
Interestingly, in some earlier newspaper photos, there were apparently some practice runs on the flags, showing some flags that were not in the final display (Bosnia, Burundi, Cameroon, Haiti, Honduras, Lebanon). There were also several unofficial flag displays around the University of Oregon campus that featured non-participating nation flags (Palau, Tajikistan, Tuvalu) and non-sanctioned flags (Taiwan).
Source: http://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-world-junior-championships
In summary:
212 IAAF nations, plus two associate members
169 were participating in the event
164 had their flags displayed
5 participating nations did not have their flags displayed
3 non-participating nations did have their flags displayed
40 IAAF nations, plus two associate members both did not participate and did not have their flags displayed.

In detail:
Flags hoisted (in order on the field):
Algeria
American Samoa
Andorra
Angola
Anguilla
Antigua & Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Bermuda
Bolivia
Botswana
Brazil
British Virgin Islands
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Canada
Cabo Verde
Cayman Islands
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
Chinese Taipei
Colombia
Commonwealth of Dominica
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Djibouti
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Fiji
Finland
France
French Polynesia
Gabon
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Gibraltar
Great Britain
Greece
Guam
Guatemala
Guyana
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iraq
Ireland
Islamic Republic of Iran
Israel
Italy
Côte d'Ivoire
Jamaica
Japan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kirghyzstan
Kiribati
Korea, South
Kuwait
Laos
Latvia
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Malta
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia
Moldova
Monaco
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palestine
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
People's Republic of China
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Saint Kitts & Nevis
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Sweden
Switzerland
Thailand
Tonga
Trinidad & Tobago
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Turks & Caicos Islands
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Venezuela
Virgin Islands (US)
Zambia
Zimbabwe

Flags hoisted (But no athletes participating):
Benin
Cambodia
Mali

Flags NOT hoisted (But athletes WERE participating):
Afghanistan
Guinea-Bissau
Swaziland
Syria
Togo

IAAF members not participating, no flags hoisted:
Albania
Belize
Bhutan
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Brunei
Burundi
Cameroon
Comoros
Congo
Equatorial Guinea
Gambia
Grenada
Guinea
Haiti
Honduras
Jordan
Lebanon
Liechtenstein
Korea, North
Mongolia
Montserrat
Myanmar
Nauru
Nepal
Niger
Norfolk Island
Northern Mariana Islands
Palau
Rwanda
Saint Lucia
Sao Tome & Principe
Solomon Islands
Somalia
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Timor-Leste
Tunisia
Tuvalu
Vietnam
Yemen
New Caledonia
Niue

Dave Fowler, 31 July 2014