 From the 1990s onwards , track and field became increasingly more professional and international , as the IAAF gained over two hundred member nations . The IAAF World Championships in Athletics became a fully professional competition with the introduction of prize money in 1997 , and in 1998 the IAAF Golden League — an annual series of major track and field meetings in Europe — provided a higher level of economic incentive in the form of a US $ 1 million <unk> . In 2010 , the series was replaced by the more lucrative IAAF Diamond League , a fourteen @-@ meeting series held in Europe , Asia , North America and the Middle East — the first ever worldwide annual series of track and field meetings . 
