By Red Tape Florida
This weekend, Tallahassee is hosting something truly historic: the World Athletics Cross Country Championships at Apalachee Regional Park, bringing the world’s best distance runners — and thousands of spectators — to our community. This isn’t just another local race or collegiate meet. This is a global sporting event that lifts Tallahassee onto the international stage and embodies exactly what sports tourism should look like.
The 46th edition of the championships marks the first time the event has returned to the United States in more than 30 years. Apalachee Regional Park will be filled with elite runners representing more than 50 countries, competing across five championship races that will be broadcast around the world.
This week, world-class athletes and Olympians from nations like Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Spain and Great Britain arrived in Tallahassee, and spectators have descended on our community to watch them compete. Organizers are expecting more than 450 of the world’s top runners, with economic impact estimates in the millions as visitors fill hotel rooms, dine in local restaurants, and experience our city’s unique hospitality.
What’s happening here is the culmination of years of strategic thinking and community investment. Tallahassee and Leon County didn’t stumble into this opportunity. Like any successful sports tourism destination, they built it. Apalachee Regional Park has hosted high-profile events for years — from NCAA championships to national meets — and that track record was essential to winning the bid for these world championships.
At the center of that long game has been county leadership, especially Leon County Administrator Vince Long. Back when the county first set its sights on hosting major cross countryevents, few could have predicted that those efforts would culminate in a world championship. But it was exactly that kind of long-term vision — of recognizing sports as an economic engine and leveraging it — that put Tallahassee in a position to win a global event of this caliber.
Under Long’s leadership, local officials, tourism partners, and community stakeholders worked together to elevate Apalachee Regional Park from a respected regional venue to a world-class site worthy of hosting the top names in athletics. That collaboration is the essence of effective sports tourism strategy: build quality facilities, cultivate experience hosting big events, and then leverage that to bring bigger opportunities home.
This weekend, as champions chase medals and cameras broadcast our city to millions, Tallahassee isn’t just hosting a race. It’s showing what sports tourism looks like when you back a plan with persistence, partnership and leadership.
Thanks to Vince Long and the team he’s helped steer, the world has a front-row seat — and Tallahassee is finally in the spotlight it’s long deserved.