This year, for almost an entire season, many track and field events saw an empty stadium. Take this year’s Grand Slam Track’s inaugural meet, for example. Staged in Kingston, Jamaica, in June, the event was tagged as one of the “poorly-attended,” athletics events. Following this, the question that took the spotlight was whether the presence of athletes like Gabby Thomas and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and races like the men’s 1500 and women’s 400 are enough to push track events into the mainstream. However, the 2025 Tokyo World Athletics Championships gave a halt to those questions as it drew 619,288 spectators across nine days, marking a full return of fans to the National Stadium.
Earlier this season, athletes, including Noah Lyles, reported that empty stands affected motivation and performance. But this time in Tokyo, stars like Lyles, Mondo Duplantis, and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone managed to keep the hype high. The event began with an attendance of 32,739 people in the morning session of the first day. The total attendance – a whopping 89,558, making it the highest number in the nine days. Days four and five witnessed a dip, with only 37,463 and 35,975 fans, respectively. But at the end of the ninth day, the total attendance amounted to 82,298. And the highest viewership came from pole vault and sprint events.
The numbers are still higher for the Tokyo World Championships than for the past few events. At the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, around 341,555 attendees were reported. At Eugene for the 2022 World Championships, only 150,000 people attended the event. But the most disappointing one was at Doha in 2019. On the first day, only 12,000 people attended the athletics event in 2019. It’s certainly a massive jump from the last time a major event was hosted in Tokyo.
By contrast, athletics at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were capped at 50% of venue capacity, up to 10,000 spectators per venue. And several sessions had no fans under COVID restrictions. At the Tokyo Olympics, the COVID-19 pandemic created quite a ruckus with the fans’ attendance. With overseas spectators banned and the maximum audience capped at 10,000, the attendance was far below the total capacity. Do you know what Lyles and others had to say about that?
What did Noah Lyles and Mondo Duplantis have to say about the crowd at Tokyo 2025?
We all know that Noah Lyles thrives on crowds. He’s an athlete who performs great when there’s a massive crowd backing him up. Talking about the crowd at Tokyo this year, the 200m world champion stated, “I don’t have good memories from Tokyo in 2021. At that time I was depressed, but this time I am energized. I love what I do and I am happy. I have the best support staff and the best crowd I could have ever asked for. My face is blasted everywhere over Tokyo. This is amazing and such a joyous moment I am going to keep with me forever. Now I want to win the gold medal in the relay.”
Duplantis had a similar view. He set a new world record with 6.30m in the pole vault. And the credit? It all went to the crowd. Following the big win, he claimed, “I think that the difference maker was being able to have the spectators and have the full energy of the crowd, because it was one of the best stadiums and atmospheres and experiences that I’ve ever had… The crowd was giving me a lot of really good energy. It exceeded my wildest dreams and expectations of what it would be like jumping in this stadium with a with a full crowd.”
Well, Tokyo 2025 marked a triumphant return of fans, reigniting the spirit of live athletics. For athletes like Noah Lyles, the roaring crowd wasn’t just background noise. It was fuel, redemption, and a reminder of sport’s true energy.
