The World Athletics Championships are held every two years (they are a biennial event), typically in odd‑numbered years so they do not clash with the Olympic Games.

Quick Scoop

  • The championships started in 1983 and were originally every four years.
  • Since the 1991 edition in Tokyo, they have followed a biennial (every two years) schedule.
  • They are usually staged in odd years to sit neatly between Summer Olympics, which happen every four years in even-numbered years.
  • There have been rare exceptions, like the 2021 edition being moved to 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics.

Simple example timeline

  • 2017 – London
  • 2019 – Doha
  • 2022 – Eugene (shifted from 2021 because of Covid)
  • 2023 – Budapest
  • 2025 – Tokyo
  • 2027 – Beijing

All of these follow the modern “every two years” pattern, with the one-off 2022 adjustment caused by the pandemic.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.