The IAAF Golden League (known as the ÅF Golden League for sponsorship reasons) is an annual series of athletics meetings organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It is part of the World Athletics Tour. The series was formed to increase the profile of the leading athletics competitions. Athletes (in selected events) who win their event at all six meetings take a share of a USD 1 million jackpot. In addition, events at Golden League meetings scored more Grand Prix points than other Grand Prix meetings. The 2009 Golden League will be the last under the Golden League format. From 2010 onwards, the IAAF will organize a new annual series known as the IAAF Diamond League. [1]

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History

thumb at the Bislett Games, one of the meets comprising the Golden League since 1998. The first Golden League season was held in 1998, consisting of the meetings of Oslo, Rome, Monaco, Zürich, Brussels and Berlin.

In 1999 a seventh event, Meeting Gaz de France, at St-Denis, Paris was added.

In 2000 and 2001, the USD 1 million was reduced to 50 kg of gold bars and athletes only had to win at 5 out of 7 meetings to qualify for the jackpot.

In 2003, the 50 kg of gold bars was reverted back to USD 1 million and Monaco was dropped from the league after it was awarded the IAAF World Athletics Final.

In 2004, the Bislett Games were moved from Oslo to Bergen due to the redevelopment of the Bislett stadion.

For the 2006 Golden League, the total prize pool remained at USD 1 million, but the award structure had been changed:

• Athletes who won any five of the six events would share in a purse of USD 500,000.
• The remaining USD 500,000 would be divided among athletes who won all six meetings.

In 2007, the Jackpot of USD 1 million were only to be shared amongst those athletes who won at all six meetings. In case no athlete had managed to win all six meetings, USD 500,000 would have been shared amongst those who won at five of the six meetings. In 2008 IAAF signed a two year agreement with the Swedish company ÅF for title sponsorship, thus renaming IAAF Golden League to ÅF Golden League .

Various rules have changed as the new competition finds its feet. The list of events which qualify for the jackpot is different each year, but there are usually six men's events and six (four for 2008) women's. For the year 2008, the disciplines were:

• Men: 100 m, 400 m, 1500 m, 400 m Hurdles, Long Jump, Javelin Throw.
• Women: 200 m, 800 m, 100 m Hurdles, High Jump.

For 2009, the disciplines are:

• Men: 100 m, 400 m, 3000/5000 m, 110 m Hurdles, Javelin Throw.
• Women: 100 m, 400 m, 100 m Hurdles, High Jump, Pole Vault.

Jackpot winners

Year	Winners	Event(s)	Prize
1998 Details	Hicham El Guerrouj (1)	1500 m/mile	$ 333,333
	Haile Gebreselassie	5000 m/10000 m
	Marion Jones	100 m
1999	Wilson Kipketer	800 m	$ 500,000
	Gabriela Szabo	3000 m/5000 m
2000 Details	Hicham El Guerrouj (2)	1500 m/mile	12.5 kg Gold Bar
	Maurice Greene	100 m
	Trine Hattestad	javelin
	Tatyana Kotova	long jump
2001 Details	André Bucher	800 m	8.33 kg Gold Bar
	Hicham El Guerrouj (3)	1500 m/mile/2000 m
	Allen Johnson	110 m hurdles
	Marion Jones (2)	100 m
	Violeta Szekely	1500 m
	Olga Yegorova	3000 m/5000 m
2002 Details	Hicham El Guerrouj (4)	1500 m	12.5 kg Gold Bar
	Ana Guevara	400 m
	Marion Jones (3)	100 m
	Felix Sánchez	400 m hurdles
2003 Details	Maria de Lurdes Mutola	800 m	$ 1,000,000
2004 Details	Christian Olsson	triple jump	$ 500,000
	Tonique Williams-Darling	400 m
2005 Details	Tatyana Lebedeva	triple jump	$ 1,000,000
2006 Details	Asafa Powell	100 m	$ 249,999*
	Jeremy Wariner	400 m
	Sanya Richards	400 m
	Kenenisa Bekele	5,000 m	$ 83,333*
	Tirunesh Dibaba	5,000 m
	Irving Saladino	Long Jump
2007 Details	Yelena Isinbayeva	pole vault	$ 500,000
	Sanya Richards (2)	400 m
2008 Details	Pamela Jelimo	800 m	$ 1,000,000
2009 Details	Ongoing

Meetings

Current meetings for 2009

Date	Meet	Stadium	City	Country
14th June	Internationales Stadionfest	Olympiastadion	Berlin	Germany
3th July	Bislett Games	Bislett stadion	Oslo	Norway
10th July	Golden Gala	Stadio Olimpico	Rome	Italy
17th July	Meeting Areva	Stade de France	Saint-Denis	France
28th August	Weltklasse Zürich	Letzigrund	Zürich	Switzerland
4th September	Memorial van Damme	King Baudouin Stadium	Brussels	Belgium

Prior to 2003, a seventh meet, Herculis, was held in Monaco

References

1. IAAF to launch global Diamond League of 1 Day Meetings