On 20 December 2023, World Athletics put out a press release announcing that “short track” terminology would be replacing “indoors”, along with a variety of other changes primarily affecting the statistical side of the sport. No word on if the “World Indoor Championships” will become the “World Short Track Championships.”
A short time after the release, a correction came out, saying that the release had not been approved yet and details would be coming.
The original release:
PRESS RELEASE
Short track introduced to World Athletics statistics
Statistics and calendar/results sections of the World Athletics website have been updated to reflect the introduction of the term ‘short track’ to replace ‘indoor’ when describing events and performances that are set on a 200m track, traditionally staged indoors.
The concept of ‘short track’ was officially introduced in November. At the heart of this evolution is a move towards competitions and results that relate to the athletics facility, rather than to the environment.
In practice, all events are considered equivalent if held on the same facility (a track, a field event site, etc.) irrelevant of whether there is a roof over the venue. Consequently, the most visible change in terms of labelling these performances is the disappearance of ‘indoor’ for results. In the case of the oval events held on a 200m track (including the combined events), this is replaced by the abbreviation sh. This has an impact on the way results are displayed in World Athletics statistics and, in particular, the top performance lists, records and athlete profiles, with all events now appearing in a unique list.
Further information on short track can be found here.
• World, area and national indoor records become short track records for oval events and, from now on, will no longer be recorded with the indoor attribute.
• The concept of outright world, area and national records remains for oval events (if the short track performance is quicker than the standard track performance).
• In straight races and field events, the leading times and records to beat become unique (and are the better between the current outdoor and indoor performances).
• Athlete profiles in terms of personal bests for field events lose ‘indoor’ (where applicable) and remain a single personal best.
These changes are reflected in general throughout the World Athletics Stats Zone and Calendar / Results section. Assistance in navigating the new Stats Zone can be requested by email.
Then, a short time later, a withdrawal of that statement:
UPDATE: Short track introduced to World Athletics statistics
While updates have been made to statistics and calendar/results sections of the World Athletics website to reflect the introduction of the term ‘short track’, further decisions are yet to be made as to abbreviations and language to be used.
The previous email titled ‘Short track introduced to World Athletics statistics’ had not been signed off by the Director of Communications or Director of Competitions and was sent in error. We apologise for any confusion.
Further information on short track will follow in the new year.