TL;DR: The 2025 World Athletics Championships are available to live stream for free on BBC iPlayer or SBS on Demand. Access these free streaming services from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
The best athletes from every corner of the globe are descending upon Tokyo to compete in the World Athletics Championships. It's not the Olympics, but it's the next best thing.
Over 2,000 athletes from around 200 countries are expected to compete in these championships, with all eyes on huge stars like Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Faith Kipyegon, Noah Lyles, Femke Bol, and Mondo Duplantis. It's going to be a fascinating week of top-level competition, and you can follow everything without spending anything.
If you want to watch the 2025 World Athletics Championships for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
What is the World Athletics Championships?
The World Athletics Championships (or the IAAF World Championships) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics. The event ranks alongside the Olympic Games as the top level of outdoor competition for track, field, marathon, and race walk athletes.
When is the 2025 World Athletics Championships?
The 2025 World Athletics Championships is the 20th edition of the event. This year's championships are scheduled to take place from Sept. 13-21 in Tokyo, Japan.
How to watch the 2025 World Athletics Championships for free
The 2025 World Athletics Championships are available to live stream for free on BBC iPlayer or SBS on Demand.
BBC iPlayer and SBS on Demand are geo-restricted to the UK and Australia respectively, but anyone can access these free streaming platforms with a VPN. These handy tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the UK or Australia, meaning you can unblock BBC iPlayer or SBS on Demand from anywhere in the world.
Live stream the 2025 World Athletics Championships for free by following these simple steps:
Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)
Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
Open up the app and connect to a server in the UK or Australia
Visit BBC iPlayer or SBS on Demand
Live stream the 2025 World Athletics Championships for free from anywhere in the world
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but most do offer free trials or money-back guarantees. By taking advantage of these offers, you can watch the 2025 World Athletics Championships without actually spending anything. This obviously isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you plenty of time to watch every event for free.
If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming services from around the world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for live streaming is on sale for a limited time.
What is the best VPN for BBC iPlayer?
ExpressVPN is the top choice for live streaming on free sites like BBC iPlayer or SBS on Demand, for a number of reasons:
Servers in 105 countries including the UK and Australia
Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure
Fast connection speeds free from throttling
Up to eight simultaneous connections
30-day money-back guarantee
A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 61% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.95 (with money-back guarantee).
Live stream the 2025 World Athletics Championships for free with ExpressVPN.
Joseph Green is the Global Shopping Editor for Mashable. He covers VPNs, headphones, fitness gear, dating sites, streaming, and shopping events like Black Friday and Prime Day.
Joseph is also Executive Editor of Mashable's sister site, AskMen.
