World Athletics Championships 11-19 Sep 2027

The World Athletics Championships are a biennial athletics competition organised by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations).

The competition was inaugurated in 1976 in response to the International Olympic Committee dropping the men's 50 km walk from the Olympic programme for the 1976 Montreal Olympics. The IAAF chose to host its own world championship event instead, a month and a half after the Olympics. It was the first World Championships that the IAAF had hosted separately from the Olympic Games (traditionally the main championship for the sport). Initially, the championships were then held every 4 years, until 1991, when they switched to a 2-year cycle.

Over the years the competition has grown in size in terms of disciplines and athletes involved, and today, becoming a world champion is widely acknowledged as a huge achievement.