On May 5, 2017, Coburn opened her outdoor season at the IAAF Diamond League 2017 Doha Qatar Athletic Super Grand Prix, racing the steeplechase in 9:14 to place 5th. She then took gold in the 2017 World Championships on August 11 in London. This championship made her the first American woman to win a gold medal in the steeplechase at either the World Championships or the Olympics. Four of the Kenyan-born women she beat in that race, including Olympic champion/world record holder Ruth Jebet had previously run faster than Coburn. Courtney Frerichs won a silver medal at the same event, thus making Coburn and Frerichs the first Americans to win the gold and silver medal in any individual World Championships or Olympics race longer than 400 meters since the 1912 Stockholm Games.