IAAF World Championships in Athletics
The
World Championships in Athletics is an event organized by the
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It is one of the largest sporting events in the world, and depending on how it is measured, possibly smaller only than the
Summer Olympic Games and the
FIFA World Cup. Originally, it was organised every four years, but this changed in 1991, and it has since been organized
biennially.
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 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 grow 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 the
2005 the schedule for men and women was all but 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.
Prior to the inaugral 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 mostly consisted of non-Olympic events for which the Olympics didn't provide the opportunity for the holding of World Championships. Below we have the medal winners from these events.
*
Results of past World Championships*
Official site of the 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics
