IAAF World Championships in Athletics

The World Championships in Athletics is an event organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Originally, it was organised every four years, but this changed in 1991, and it has since been organised biennially.

History

The idea of having an Athletics World Championships was around well before the competitions first event in 1983. In 1913, the IAAF decided that the Olympic Games would serve as the World Championships for athletics. This was considered suitable for over 50 years until in the late 1960's the desire of many IAAF members to have their own World Championships began to grow. In 1976 at the IAAF Council Meeting in Puerto Rico an Athletics World Championships separate from the Olympic Games was approved.

Following bids from both Stuttgart, West Germany and Helsinki, Finland, the IAAF Council awarded the inaugural competition to Helsinki, to take place in 1983 and be held in the Helsinki Olympic Stadium (where the 1952 Summer Olympics were held).

Over the years the competition has grown in size. In 1983 an estimated 1,300 athletes from 154 countries participated. By the 2003 competition, in Paris, it had grown to 1,907 athletes from 203 countries with coverage being transmitted to 179 different countries.

There has also been a change in the schedule over the years, with several new events, mostly for women, being added. By 2005 the schedule for men and women was almost equal. The only differences being the men had the extra event of the 50 km Walk, while women competed in the 100 m Hurdles and Heptathlon compared to the men in the 110m Hurdles and Decathlon respectively.

The following shows when new events were added for the first time.

• 1987, women's 10,000 m and 10 km walk were added.
• 1993, women's triple jump was added.
• 1995, women's 5000 m was added, replacing the 3000 m race.
• 1999, women's pole vault and hammer were added and the women's 20 km walk replaced the 10 km walk.
• 2005, women's 3000 m Steeplechase was added.

Championships

Edition	Year	City	Country	Date	Venue	No. of Events	No. of Athletes
1st	1983 (details)	Helsinki	Finland	7 Aug – 14 Aug	Olympiastadion	41	1,355
2nd	1987 (details)	Rome	Italy	28 Aug – 6 Sept	Stadio Olimpico	43	1,451
3rd	1991 (details)	Tokyo	Japan	Aug 23 – Sept 1	National Olympic Stadium	43	1,517
4th	1993 (details)	Stuttgart	Germany	13 Aug – 22 Aug	Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion	44	1,689
5th	1995 (details)	Gothenburg	Sweden	5 Aug – 13 Aug	Ullevi	44	1,804
6th	1997 (details)	Athens	Greece	1 Aug – 10 Aug	Olympiako Stadio	44	1,882
7th	1999 (details)	Seville	Spain	20 Aug – 29 Aug	Estadio Olímpico de la Cartuja	46	1,821
8th	2001 (details)	Edmonton	Canada	3 Aug – 12 Aug	Commonwealth Stadium	46	1,677
9th	2003 (details)	Saint-Denis	France	23 Aug – 31 Aug	Stade de France	46	1,679
10th	2005 (details)	Helsinki	Finland	6 Aug – 14 Aug	Olympiastadion	47	1,688
11th	2007 (details)	Osaka	Japan	24 Aug – 2 Sept	Nagai Stadium	47	1,981
12th	2009 (details)	Berlin	Germany	15 Aug – 23 Aug	Olympiastadion	47	2,101
13th	2011 (details)	Daegu	South Korea	27 Aug – 4 Sept	Daegu Stadium
14th	2013 (details)	Moscow	Russia	10 Aug – 18 Aug	Luzhniki Stadium

Medal totals since 1983

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	120	66	64	250
2	Russia	37	52	43	133
3	Kenya	31	27	25	83
4	Germany	28	23	36	87
5	Soviet Union	22	25	28	75
6	Cuba	18	20	7	45
7	East Germany	18	18	15	51
8	Ethiopia	18	16	15	49
9	Great Britain and N.I.	16	25	28	69
10	Jamaica	14	36	30	80
11	Italy	11	14	12	37
12	Belarus	10	11	11	32
13	Morocco	10	11	6	27
14	Poland	10	8	13	31
15	Czech Republic	10	4	3	17
16	France	9	12	14	35
17	China	9	8	10	27
18	Australia	9	5	10	24
19	Ukraine	8	9	11	28
20	Spain	7	15	13	35
21	Finland	7	7	5	19
22	South Africa	7	4	1	12
23	Sweden	7	3	5	15
24	Norway	6	4	2	12
25	Algeria	6	0	3	9
26	Romania	5	8	9	22
27	Bahamas	5	7	5	17
28	Portugal	5	6	5	16
29	Bulgaria	5	3	7	15
30	Bahrain	5	1	1	7
31	Canada	4	8	5	17
32	Greece	4	5	10	19
33	Czechoslovakia	4	4	3	11
34	Switzerland	4	0	3	7
35	Japan	3	6	11	20
36	Mexico	3	1	7	11
37	Mozambique	3	1	1	5
38	Ecuador	3	1	0	4
39	New Zealand	3	0	1	4
39	Denmark	3	0	1	4
41	Estonia	2	3	1	6
42	Ireland	2	3	0	5
43	Lithuania	2	2	1	5
44	Dominican Republic	2	1	0	3
44	Qatar	2	1	1	4
46	Croatia	2	0	0	2
46	Tajikistan	2	0	0	2
48	Trinidad and Tobago	1	4	4	9
49	Namibia	1	4	0	5
50	Netherlands	1	3	3	7
51	Zambia	1	2	0	3
52	Slovenia	1	1	1	3
52	Uganda	1	1	1	3
54	Saint Kitts and Nevis	1	0	2	3
55	Somalia	1	0	1	2
55	Syria	1	0	1	2
55	Senegal	1	0	1	2
58	North Korea	1	0	0	1
58	Panama	1	1	0	2
60	Barbados	1	0	0	1
61	Brazil	0	5	5	10
62	Hungary	0	4	5	9
63	Nigeria	0	3	3	6
64	Kazakhstan	0	2	3	5
65	Turkey	0	2	1	3
66	Djibouti	0	2	0	2
66	Cameroon	0	2	0	2
68	Cyprus	0	1	1	2
68	Austria	0	1	1	2
68	Burundi	0	1	1	2
68	Suriname	0	1	1	2
68	Sri Lanka	0	1	1	2
68	Israel	0	1	1	2
68	Ghana	0	1	1	2
75	Bermuda	0	1	0	1
75	Eritrea	0	1	0	1
75	Puerto Rico	0	1	0	1
75	Tanzania	0	1	0	1
79	Belgium	0	0	3	3
79	Slovakia	0	0	3	3
81	Dominica	0	0	1	1
81	Saudi Arabia	0	0	1	1
81	American Samoa	0	0	1	1
81	Haiti	0	0	1	1
81	India	0	0	1	1
81	Tunisia	0	0	1	1
89	Total	538	542	535	1615

NOTE: Germany refers both to the former West Germany (1983-90) and the unified Federal Republic of Germany (1990-present).

Ceremonies

The opening and closing ceremonies of the 8th IAAF World Championships held in Edmonton in 2001 were broadcast live to over 200 countries. The event included the men's marathon, and featured a thousand voice choir and original music by The Second City alumni Jan Randall.

Other Athletics World Championship events

Prior to the inaugural IAAF World Championships in Helsinki in 1983 there had been several single events and races in the years leading up to them which were considered World Championships in those events. These consisted of non-Olympic events for which the Olympics didn't provide the opportunity for the holding of World Championships. Below are the medal winners from these events.

1976 (Malmö, Sweden)

Games	Gold		Silver		Bronze
50 km walk (Men)	Veniamin Soldatenko  USSR	3:54:40	Enrique Vera  Mexico	3:58:14	Reima Salonen  Finland	3:58:53

1980 (Sittard, Netherlands)

Games	Gold		Silver		Bronze
3000 m (Women)	Brigit Friedmann  West Germany	8:48.05	Karoline Nemetz  Sweden	8:50.22	Ingrid Kristiansen  Norway	8:58.80
400 m hurdles (Women)	Bärbel Broschat  East Germany	54.55	Ellen Neumann  East Germany	54.56	Petra Pfatt  East Germany	55.84

External links

• Results of past World Championships
• Official site of the 2007 World Championships in Osaka
• Official site of the 2009 World Championships in Berlin
• Official Site of the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Athletics - Daegu
• Track and Field Results Almanac
• Results and detailed statistics of past World Championships in Athletics

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