Leon County to host World Athletics Cross Country Championships at Apalachee Regional Park on Jan. 10, 2026

Leon County will host the 46th World Athletics Cross Country Championships at Apalachee Regional Park on Jan. 10, 2026, county officials said on the Voices of Leon podcast. Amanda Heidecker, director of Parks and Recreation, said Leon County won the bid in July 2022 after a multiyear effort to develop the facility.

“We started the bid process back in 2020 … and ultimately in July 2022, we were awarded the World Cross Country Championships,” Heidecker said, tracing the project’s origins to the park’s first race in 2009. Heidecker described the course as the product of years of community partnerships and incremental improvements that made the venue suitable for world-class competition.

Heidecker said the event will be a global field: “This is the Olympics of cross country … we’ll be welcoming over 60 countries here to be part of that.” Organizers plan to stage a theatrical, Florida-themed course that begins at a replica of the state capitol and moves through vignettes including a roller-coaster prop, white-sand beach sections, water features and a swamp simulation to recreate varied terrain and the classic mud-and-sand challenge of international cross-country racing.

Taylor Wheaton, senior sports manager for the Division of Tourism, said the county is pairing competitive racing with a festival atmosphere for spectators, including vendors, music, four video boards so fans can follow action at multiple points, a kids zone with passport-style activities, and a beer garden. Wheaton described a set of community runs to follow the championship awards ceremony: a free kids 2K (ages 12 and under), a community 2K, a high-school 4K and a community 4K; high schools may register teams and corporate teams are welcome.

“We surpassed over 500 volunteers within our first week of opening the volunteer portal,” Wheaton said, adding that volunteer positions are currently capped and that a waiting list has formed. Organizers urged residents who cannot volunteer to buy spectator tickets to support the event.

County staff said a portion of ticket and fun-run registration revenues will be directed to Leon County Schools to support track and cross-country programs. Heidecker framed that funding as part of the event’s legacy: money raised through registrations and ticketing will “go back to the school system and to those programs for kids to get involved.”

Community engagement also includes a children’s creative arts contest; winners’ work will be displayed in the event’s kids area. Local artist John Birch is creating large carved-log sculptures used as course features, organizers said.

Organizers encouraged the public to follow event updates and purchase tickets via the Visit Tallahassee event page for the World Cross Country Championships and to follow the competition’s social channels for the latest on registration, travel and volunteer information. The championships are scheduled for Jan. 10, 2026, at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee.

The county’s presentation on the podcast focused on event logistics, community opportunities and legacy goals; no formal policy actions or votes were discussed on the episode.