INIT INDOOR MEETING stands for athletics at the highest level. Olympic and world champions have been presenting themselves in Karlsruhe at the beginning of each year for 40 years. Around 5,000 spectators experience legendary moments live, such as Haile Gebreselassie's world record run over 3,000 metres in 1998, Susanna Kallur's world record over 60 metres hurdles in 2008 or Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba's 1,500 metre indoor world record in 2014.

Since 2016, Karlsruhe has been part of the ‘World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold’ indoor athletics series founded by the International Association of Athletics Federations. Karlsruhe and the INIT INDOOR MEETING will be the fifth stop on the World Indoor Tour Gold on 7 February 2027. This means that Karlsruhe, as an athletics venue, will also be one of the nine meetings with Gold status in 2027 - the highest category in which an indoor meeting can be categorised.

In addition to the INIT INDOOR MEETING in Karlsruhe on February 7, 2027, athletes will compete in Belgrade, Serbia (January 27), Ostrava, Czech Republic (February 2), Madrid, Spain (February 4), Boston, USA (February 6), Liévin, France (February 11), New York, USA (February 11–13), and, to wrap up the tour, in Torun, Poland (February 14), competing for points toward the overall World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold title. The athletes with the most points in each scoring event will receive a prize of $10,000. They will also receive a wild card for the European Athletics Indoor Championships, to be held March 4–7, 2027, in Valencia, Spain.