Posted: August 5, 2005

Athletics: 32 Individual Athens Olympic Champions Set To Compete In Helsinki

Helsinki, Finland - A very impressive gathering of 32 individual Athens Olympic champions (16 men and 16 women) will compete in the 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Helsinki, Finland (6 – 14 August) which start on Saturday in the refurbished 1952 Olympic stadium.

All post-Olympic years are greeted by more than the usual number of athlete retirements or the news that some performers are taking a sabbatical from competition, and 2005 has been no different with some major names absent from the circuit.

However, this summer’s World Championships, which have returned to their inaugural home of 1983, boast a start list of exceptional quality, in many respects bucking the usual post Olympic trend.

With the withdrawal of both ‘double’ Athens track champions, Kelly Holmes and Hicham El Guerrouj, and the retirement of the all-time greatest race walker Robert Korzeniowski, we have reached the latest stage of the major generational change which has been ongoing since the last World Championships in Paris.

In their stead in Finland we have young Olympic gold medal talents who are ready to grab more headlines - Justin Gatlin (100m), Jeremy Wariner (400m), Yuriy Borzakovskiy (800m), Kenenisa Bekele (10,000m), Ezekiel Kemboi (3000m St) Liu Xiang (110mH), Andreas Thorkildsen (JT), Veronica Campbell (200m), Meseret Defar (5000m), Huina Xing (10,000m), Yelena Slesarenko (HJ), Yelena Isinbayeva (PV), and Carolina Klüft (Hep) and Antanasia Tsoumeleka (20km W), who are quickly establishing themselves as world names.

Joining them in pursuit of further honours are older established names who also triumphed in Athens last summer – Shawn Crawford (200m gold but running 100m and relay here), Stefano Baldini (Mar), Felix Sanchez (400mH), Stefan Holm (HJ), Dwight Phillips (LJ), Yuriy Bilonoh (SP), Virgilius Alekna (DT), Roman Sebrle (Dec), Ivan Brugnetti (20km W), Yuliya Nesterenko (100m), Tonique Williams-Darling (400m), Joanna Hayes (100mH), Tatyana Lebedeva (TJ), Francoise Mbango Etone (TJ), Yumileidi Cumba (SP), Natalya Sadova (DT), Olga Kuzenkova (HT), Osleidys Menendez (JT).

10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics,Helsinki, Finland (6 – 14 August)

Click on the link below for ‘Event by Event’ Previews:
IAAF.org as provided by the Helsinki 2005 local organizing committee media team.

Helsinki in figures:

Athletes:
Member Federations entered:      196
Male athletes entered:                1050
Female athletes entered:              842
Total athletes:                             1892