Muammar Al Khadafi

The 2018 Winter Olympics wasn't the only major international sporting event the Koreans grabbed.   Another one they successfully bid for and won was the 2011 IAAF World Championships that start in Daegu today and run through September 4.

Athletics is what the rest of the world calls track and field, and the Monaco based International Association of Athletics Federations is the governing body of the sport.  The championships are held biennially so they don't step on the prestige of the Olympics being the ultimate event in the sport of athletics. 

The next IAAF World Championships will take place in Moscow from August 10-18, 2013 and in Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium in 2015.

In the IAAF worlds all the sports we know and love from the sprint and distance races to the field events will be contested by men and women international teams in Daegu.

Yes, they'll be passing gold, silver and bronze medals out too.  They'll also be televised by many networks around the globe, including Universal cable here in the States which concentrates on Olympic and international sports.     

Speaking of the Olympics, since we are less than a year away from the 2012 London Games, by watching the championships being contested here,  we fans of the sport will get some of our things that make you go hmm questions answered leading up to the Olympic athletics competition next summer from August 3-12.

Who are the up and coming athletes in the sport?  What athletes that we have seen over the last few years that we thought were done are making comebacks?   Will the athletes who are having stellar seasons this year continue their winning ways and parlay that season long excellence into world championship medals?  

Conversely, will the athletes who were having a subpar year suddenly take inspiration from being on the big international sporting stage and put it together?  What athlete who wasn't on the world's horizons will have the breakthrough performance that makes them an international household name and a potential medal favorite in London? 

Is Jamaica's Usain Bolt still the world's fastest man?  Can Caster Semenya overcome the drama she's undergone since her surprise 800m championship win in Berlin in 2009 and defend her title?

In Caster's case, I sure hope so.

The answers to those sporting questing question will be revealed as the 2011 edition of the IAAF world championships gets started