MainAthlet International – The Track & Field Podcast

In the latest episode of Mainathlet International, we look ahead to the World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships 2027 in Gainesville, Florida. Michelle Lieberman, County Manager for Alachua County, together with Steven Rodriguez and Jolene Kentori Miller from the local organizing team, explain what they learned from the 2025 championships and what improvements athletes, their families, and the...

What happens when a 35+ sprinter runs 10.40 seconds, athletes compete at more than 100 years old, and temperatures climb towards 37°C? In this episode of the MainAthlet International Podcast, Benjamin and Boyke look back at the 2026 World Masters Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea – twelve intense days full of world-class performances, world records, extreme weather conditions and unfor...

WMA Daegu 2026 is delivering performances that challenge almost everything we think we know about ageing, speed and competitive sport. In this episode of MainAthlet International, Benjamin and Boyke look back at some of the most remarkable moments from the World Masters Athletics Championships in Daegu — from brutal weather conditions in the decathlon to world-class sprinting, incredible relay tea...

The World Masters Athletics Championships in Daegu keep delivering incredible stories. In part two of our Daegu series, Benjamin Brömme catches up with Jan Boyke Seemann directly from South Korea. One of our Masters Athletics videos has now reached more than one million people , showing just how much potential there is around the stories, personalities and performances in Masters sport.  We a...

The World Masters Athletics Championships 2026 are underway in Daegu – and this event is about much more than medals and results. In this episode of the MainAthlet International Podcast, Boyke reports directly from South Korea after the first days of competition. More than 100 nations have come together in Daegu, while around 20,000 spectators turned the opening ceremony into a spectacular show wi...

Most master athletes think they need less food as they age — the opposite is true. Sports nutritionist Camila Parentes Santos joins MainAthlet International to break down what really changes in the body after 35: why protein needs go up, why the low-carb trend online is doing more harm than good, and how to stay properly hydrated when racing in extreme heat. A practical, evidence-based conversatio...

Colleen Barney (WMA Treasurer & Legal/Finance Committee Chair) joins the show just weeks before Daegu 2026 to talk about what's really happening behind the scenes of World Masters Athletics — why the organization's reach is still tiny compared to individual athletes, why almost nobody wants to bid to host a World Championship anymore, what it actually costs to run one, and why communication mi...

He found two future Olympic finalists standing in his own driveway — before either of them owned a pair of spikes. Alan Sims has spent 50 years in track and field: as a 9-year-old who fell in love with the sport by accident, a high school record holder, a coach who's sent over 500 athletes to college, and now a 60-year-old masters sprinter and long jumper still competing at a world-class leve...

Angela Bickel is a firefighter, a world champion in the weight throw — and the newest inductee into the USATF Masters Athletics Hall of Fame. In this episode, we celebrate her 2026 Hall of Fame honor and revisit our conversation with Angela from the World Masters Athletics Championships, where she took W50 gold in the weight throw. Her path to the top was anything but straight: gymnast turned hurd...

World Masters Athletics Championships Daegu 2026 – August 22 to September 3. In this episode, a representative from the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) joins Boyke to give international athletes the inside track on everything that matters: competition venues, shuttle buses, free transport cards for all participants, training facilities, accommodation booking, medical and physiotherapy services, a...

Amanda Bisk is a former elite pole vaulter who represented Australia at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. After being diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome in 2011, she was forced to step away from competitive athletics entirely – and build something new. What followed was a complete reinvention: yoga instructor, Pilates coach, personal trainer, CrossFit coach, and founder of a fitness a...

Damian Maxwell grew up in a town of 6,000 people in Jamaica.  Today he teaches mathematics at a US college, coaches sprinters,  pursues a PhD – and competes at masters athletics level on three  continents. In this episode of the MainAthlet International Podcast, Damian  talks about the road from being a parish champion in Jamaica to  winning bronze at the World Masters Gam...

In this episode , we speak with Beatrice Puiu , a Romanian masters heptathlete who continues to compete at an exceptionally high level and is now chasing a major goal in masters track and field : the W40 heptathlon world record . This conversation goes far beyond competition results. It is about performance, identity, motherhood, longevity, recovery, and what it takes to stay strong, focused, and...

In this English episode , we sit down with  Valery Zhumadilov , one of the most fascinating figures in  Masters athletics right now. Born in Kazakhstan, trained through Estonia, and now helping build the future of  Masters track and field in Kazakhstan , Valery shares how he went from road running and fitness training to becoming a competitive  Masters sprinter  with serio...

The 15th European Indoor Masters Championships in Torun, Poland – and once again, the city delivered. Over 3,500 athletes from more than 15 countries gathered at one of Europe's fastest indoor tracks for a championship that has become a landmark event on the Masters Athletics calendar. Eight new world records. Nine European records. And a field so large that restaurants, bars and streets overflowe...

Zoe Doyle is 47 years old, runs the 800m in 2:14, and is a double World Champion (WMA Gainesville) – but her path there is anything but ordinary. At 35, she was hit by a car during a 10K race. The doctor said: it was a miracle she survived. Instead of stopping, she joined Belgrave Harriers – and began a career that now includes British records. Then came an autoimmune hepatitis that nearly cost he...

What does it take to build a career that peaks at 8.21 metres, lands you in an Olympic final alongside Carl Lewis — and then, two decades later, leads to Masters world records? In this episode of the MainAthlet Podcast, host Boyke sits down with Swedish long jump legend Mattias Sunneborn for a wide-ranging, candid conversation about elite athletics, the realities of ageing as a high-performance at...

What keeps people in track & field for a lifetime — not just for a season? In this episode of the  MainAthlet International – Masters Special , host  Boyke  sits down with  Margit Jungmann ,  President of World Masters Athletics (WMA) , for an inside look at what makes  Masters Track & Field  so unique — and why it’s growing into a truly global movement....

In this exciting podcast episode, we welcome Alexis Holmes, the inspiring American professional athlete who transformed from a talented college runner into an Olympic gold medalist within just two years. Alexis shares her incredible journey, offering exclusive insights into her successful transition from collegiate athletics to the professional stage. The episode provides a deep dive into the spec...

From HSI’s legendary sprint group to the Netflix docuseries  Sprint , Ato Boldon has seen—and shaped—the sport’s evolution from every angle: Olympic medalist, world champion, and one of track & field’s most influential voices. In this episode, Ato opens up about the training culture that forged champions under coach John Smith, the “iron sharpens iron” reality of daily practice at UCLA, a...

Exclusive: Justin Gatlin on Mindset, Speed & the 2017 London Final What does it take to deliver the race of your life when a stadium is against you? In this in-depth conversation, Olympic champion and World 100m gold medalist  Justin Gatlin  opens up about the  2017 World Championships final in London , how he handled the “mental warfare” of deafening boos, and why believing in...

MainAthlet International – The Track & Field Podcast  is the English edition of MainAthlet. Hosts  Benjamin Brömme  and  Linn Kleine  talk to world-class athletes, coaches and legends about training, recovery, nutrition, mindset, biomechanics and race preparation—from sprints to distance, jumps, throws and combined events. Past guests include  Ato Boldon ,  J...