page_title: World Athletics Championships
section_title: All-time medal table
hierarchical_section_title: World Athletics Championships / All-time medal table
context_page_description: The World Athletics Championships are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics. The World Championships were started 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, despite its constant presence at the games since 1932. 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 separate from the Olympic Games. A second limited event was held in 1980, and the inaugural championships in 1983, with all the events, is considered the official start of the competition. Until 1980, the Olympic champions were considered as reigning World Champions. At their debut, these championships were then held every four years, until 1991, when they switched to a two-year cycle since.
context_section_description: Updated after the 2019 World Athletics Championships.
  Notes
   ANA is the name, under which Russian athletes competed in the 2017 and 2019 Championships. Their medals were not included in the official medal table.
caption: Proportional symbol map of the world showing medal totals by country since 1983 for the IAAF World Championships in Athletics