World Orienteering Championships

The World Orienteering Championships (often abbreviated as WOC) is an international orienteering competition which has been organized by the International Orienteering Federation (IOF) since 1966. The World Orienteering Championships is considered to be the most prestigious competition in competitive orienteering. The races are contested between members of the IOF, which are each aligned to a National Olympic Committee.

The first world championships in orienteering was held in Fiskars, Finland from 1–2 October 1966, with two medal events being contested. The championships were held biennially up to 2003, with the exception of the 1978 and 1979 editions. From 2003 to 2021, all medal competitions were held annually, before an alternating biennial system between two different championship formats was implemented starting at the 2022 World Orienteering Championships.

In 1966, there were only two medal events, with one individual event and one team relay event. The world championships now include medal events for six formats, including four individual medal events and two team medal events.

History
The IOF was founded on 21 May 1961 at a Congress held in Copenhagen, Denmark by the orienteering national federations of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, Finland, Hungary, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. This led to the first official international orienteering competition under the IOF, the 1962 European Orienteering Championships in Løten, Norway. The competition consisted only of an individual race, but two years later at the 1964 European Championships (held in Le Brassus, Switzerland), a relay event was added to the competition program. These two European championships became the template for the first World Orienteering Championships in 1966.

11 different nations participated in the 1966 World Orienteering Championships, all of them from Europe, including all founding members of the IOF except for West Germany along with teams from Great Britain and Austria. The gold medal for the men's individual race went to Åge Hadler from Norway, and the women's winner was Ulla Lindkvist from Sweden.

At the 1968 World Orienteering Championships, Swedish Television (SVT) broadcast the individual competition live, which was the first TV broadcast of orienteering in Sweden and worldwide. The first ever competitor at the World Championships from outside of Europe was Robert Kaill from Canada, who participated at the 1970 World Orienteering Championships but was unable to complete the course.

In 1972, Sarolta Monspart from Hungary became the first person from outside of the Nordic countries to win a gold medal at the World Championships or the European Championships. In 1985, the championships were held outside of Europe for the first time, with the races being hosted by Australia; the championships have only been hosted outside of Europe three times, those times being Australia in 1985, the United States in 1993 and Japan in 2005.

In 1991, a short distance race (roughly 20–25 minutes) was added and a sprint race was added in 2001. The middle distance (roughly 30–35 minutes) replaced the short distance in 2003. In 2014, a sprint relay was added with two men and two women participating and with starting order woman-man-man-woman.

In 2019, the World Orienteering Championships was split into two events: Sprint WOC (even-numbered years) consisting of sprint events only, and Forest WOC (odd-numbered years) consisting of forest events only.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the first sprint only WOC 2020 was cancelled. Instead Sprint and Sprint Relay was added to the WOC program for 2021 following the old championship program, otherwise there would not have been sprint competitions in the world championships for four years (2019-2022). In 2022 the first sprint only WOC was organized in Denmark, and the new competition format Knockout Sprint made its debut.

Format
The competition format has changed several times. From the beginning in 1966, the World Championships consisted of only two competitions: an individual race and a relay. In 1991, a short distance race (roughly 20–25 minutes) was added and a sprint race was added in 2001. The middle distance (roughly 30–35 minutes) replaced the short distance in 2003. On IOF's 23rd congress in Lausanne in 2012, it was decided that a sprint relay event would be added in the 2014 World Championships in Italy. The sprint relay is competed in urban areas and consists of four-orienteer mixed-gender teams with starting order woman-man-man-woman.

Current competition format
The current championship events are:

Editions

 * 1966-2003: Biannual (1-21) except 1978 and 1979
 * 2004-Ongoing: Annual (22-Ongoing)
 * 2020: Not Held

Men
Boldface denotes active athletes and highest medal count among all athletes (including these who not included in these tables) per type. Updated after the 2024 World Orienteering Championships.

Women
Boldface denotes active athletes and highest medal count among all athletes (including these who not included in these tables) per type. Updated after 2024 World Orienteering Championships.

Mixed

 * Sprint Relay

All-time medal table
(Updated after WOC 2024)