The Penn Relays will bring back marquee U.S. and world track stars next year

The last such races were held in 2019. Next year’s event will come three months before the Olympics in Paris, track and field's biggest event of all.

Next year's Penn Relays will feature the first marquee international race since 2019.Read moreTIM TAI / Staff Photographer

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Dec. 5, 2023, 11:35 a.m. ET

For the first time since the pandemic helped end the Penn Relays USA vs. the World races, next year’s carnival at Franklin Field will have marquee international events.

Relays officials announced Tuesday that the 2024 meet will include the Global Relays, men’s and women’s 4x100- and 4x400-meter relay events with athletes from around the world.

The last such races were held in 2019. Next year’s event will come at an opportune time, and surely not a coincidental one: the Olympics in Paris kick off three months after the Relays in late April.

So the event here will not only be good publicity for track and field but good practice for the athletes. (As veteran Relays fans know too well, American men have a long history of dropping the baton at Franklin Field and elsewhere.)

The USA vs. the World series started in 2000, and all kinds of big names came to town for it over the years: Michael Johnson, Marion Jones, Justin Gatlin, Allyson Felix, Asafa Powell, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and, most famously, Usain Bolt. When he ran here in 2010, a crowd of 54,310 jammed into every spare inch of Franklin Field.

Notably, the new event will come with the blessing of World Athletics, global track and field’s governing body. That should help bring a new era of stars to town. So will the fact that next year’s Penn Relays, set for April 25-27, are a week before the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas — an event that serves as Olympics qualifying.

The Relays’ announcement Tuesday said that over 12 nations have already shown interest in participating.

“We are honored to build on the rich history by providing an opportunity for international relay teams and individuals to compete as they prepare for the World Relays and Olympic Games this year,” Penn Relays director Steve Dolan said in a statement.

World Athletics’ head of competition management, Pierce O’Callaghan, said the event will be “a win-win for everyone. The teams get to fine-tune their baton changing and teamwork at the oldest relay meeting in the world in a high-pressure environment in front of 40,000 fans at the historic Franklin Field on Saturday afternoon.”

Ticket sales will start Dec. 15 with renewals for previous buyers, then expand to the general public on Jan. 29.