World championship

A world championship is generally an international sports competition open to elite competitors from across the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport or contest.

The title is usually awarded through a combination of specific contests or, less commonly, ranking systems (e.g. the ICC Test Championship), or a combination of the two (e.g. World Triathlon Championships in Triathlon). This determines a 'world champion', who or which is commonly considered the best nation, team, individual (or other entity) in the world in a particular field, although the vagaries of sport ensure that the competitor recognised at the best in an event is not always the 'world champion' (see Underdog).

Certain sports do not have a world championship, instead they may organise a world cup competition, or they may organize both. Often, the use of the term cup or championship in this sense is just a choice of words. Some sports have multiple champions because of multiple organizations such as mixed martial arts, boxing and wrestling.

Certain sports do not have a world championship or a world cup as such, but may have one or several world champions. Professional boxing, for example, has several world champions at different weights, but each one of them is decided by a "title fight", not a tournament.

A certain number of sports hold world championships or world cups which are overshadowed, in terms of prestige, by the same events in the Olympic Games, the most prestigious multi-sports event.

Finally, certain professional sports do not have a world championship or world cup, but rather hold a series of events recognised as the elite level in their field (e.g. tennis has a series of four Grand Slam events recognised as the pinnacle of the game, in addition to key team events, world tour finals and the Olympic Games, but no world championship or world cup).

Sports

Most successful sportsperson in each sport

This table includes medals for both individual and team events. Currently active competitors are highlighted in pale green. Italics indicates achieved more than one titles in a single year.

Men

Category	Sport	Sportsperson	Born				Tot.	Ref.
Bicycle racing	Cycling (road)	Fabian Cancellara[1]	1981	4	0	2	6
		Óscar Freire	1976	3	0	1	4
		Eddy Merckx	1945
		Rik Van Steenbergen	1924-2003
		Alfredo Binda	1902-1986
	Cycling (track)	Arnaud Tournant	1978	14	3	2	19
	BMX racing	Randy Stumpfhauser	1977	4	5	3	12
	Mountain bike racing (XC)	Julien Absalon	1980	4	1	1	6
	Mountain bike racing (DH)	Nicolas Vouilloz	1976	10	0	0	10
Combat sports	Boxing	Félix Savón	1967	6	1	0	7
	Jiu-Jitsu	Roger Gracie	1981	10	5	0	15
	Judo	Ryoko Tani	1989	7	0	1	8
	Karate	Luca Valdesi	1976	6	2	4	12
	Sambo	Fedor Emelianenko	1976	4	0	1	5
	Taekwondo	Steven López	1978	5	0	0	5
	Wrestling	Aleksandr Karelin[2]	1967	9	0	0	9
Target sports	Archery	Hans Deutgen	1917-1989	4	1	0	5
	Darts	Phil Taylor	1960	16	4		20
	Shooting	Konrad Stäheli	1866-1931	41	17	10	67	[3]
Cue sports	Snooker	Joe Davis	1901-1978	15	0		15
	Billiards	Mike Russell	1969	11	8		19
Racquet sports	Badminton	Park Joo-bong	1964	5	0	2	7
	Table tennis	Viktor Barna	1911-1972	22	7	12	41
	Tennis[4]	John McEnroe	1959	10	1	0	11
	Tennis (team)	Roy Emerson	1936	8	1	0	9
Roller sports	Inline speed skating	Chad Hedrick	1977	50	14	4	68	[5]
	Roller artistic skating	Roberto Riva	1986	10	1	0	11	[6]
Water sports	Swimming	Michael Phelps	1985	26	6	1	33
	Diving	Dmitri Sautin	1974	5	1	3	9
	Canoe sprint	Ivan Patzaichin	1974	9	4	9	22
	Rowing	Daniele Gilardoni	1976	11	1	1	13	[7]
	Sailing	Paul Elvstrøm	1928	11	2	2	15	[8]
Winter sports	Alpine skiing	Kjetil André Aamodt	1971	5	4	3	12
	Biathlon	Ole Einar Bjørndalen	1974	19	12	9	40
	Bobsleigh	Eugenio Monti	1928-2003	9	1	0	10	[9]
	Skeleton	Gregor Stähli	1968	4	3	3	10
	Luge	Armin Zöggeler	1974	6	5	5	16
	Cross-country skiing	Bjørn Dæhlie	1967	10	5	4	19
	Ski jumping	Janne Ahonen	1977	5	3	2	10
	Nordic combined	Bjarte Engen Vik	1971	5	3	0	8	[10]
	Freestyle skiing	Edgar Grospiron	1969	3	0	0	3
	Snowboarding	Jasey Jay Anderson	1968	4	0	0	4
	Figure skating	Ulrich Salchow	1877-1949	11	3	0	14
	Speed skating	Sven Kramer	1986	16	1	2	19	[11]
	Short track speed skating	Ahn Hyun-Soo	1985	20	11	4	35	[11][12]
Olympic sports	Athletics	Usain Bolt	1986	11	2	0	13
	Artistic Gymnastics	Vitaly Scherbo	1972	12	7	4	23
	Fencing	Aladár Gerevich	1910-1991	14	1	3	18
	Triathlon	Simon Lessing	1971	4	2	1	7
	Weightlifting	Vasily Alekseyev	1967	8	0	0	8
Paralympic sports	Athletics	Marcel Hug	1986	7	8	0	15
Team sports	Baseball	Pedro Luis Lazo	1973	7	2	0	3
	Basketball	Krešimir Ćosić	1948-1995	2	2	0	4
	Beach volleyball	Emanuel Rego	1973	2	1	0	3
	Curling	Randy Ferbey	1959	4	1	0	5
	Field hockey	Akhtar Rasool	1954	3	1	0	4	[13]
	Football	Pelé	1940	3	0	0	3
	Football (club)	Víctor Valdés	1982	2	1	0	3
		Xavi	1980
	Handball	Didier Dinart	1977	3	0	2	5
	Ice Hockey	Vladislav Tretiak	1914-1992	10	1	2	13
	Volleyball	Marco Bracci Andrea Gardini Andrea Giani Ferdinando De Giorgi	1966 1965 1970 1961	3	0	0	3
	Waterpolo	Salvador Gómez Jesús Rollán	1968 1968-2006	2	2	0	4

Women

Category	Sport	Athlete	Born				Tot.	Ref.
Bicycle racing	Cycling (road)	Jeannie Longo	1958	9	3	2	14
	BMX racing	Gabriela Diaz	1981	4	2	1	7
	Mountain bike racing (XC)	Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå	1980	4	2	0	6
	Mountain bike racing (DH)	Anne-Caroline Chausson	1976	9	0	0	9
Olympic sports	Athletics	Allyson Felix	1985	9	3	1	13
	Tennis[14]	Martina Navratilova	1956	19	6		25
	Tennis (team)	Chris Evert	1954	7	1		8
Paralympic sports	Athletics	Tatyana McFadden	1989	12	1	1	12
Team sports	Beach volleyball	Misty May-Treanor	1977	3	1	0	4
		Kerri Walsh Jennings	1978
	Football
		Christie Rampone	1975	2	1	2	5
		Kristine Lilly	1971	2	0	3	5
		Brandi Chastain	1968	2	0	2	4
		Joy Fawcett	1968
		Julie Foudy	1971
		Mia Hamm	1972
		Michelle Akers	1966	2	0	1	3
		Birgit Prinz	1977	2	0	0	2
		Kerstin Stegemann	1977
		Martina Müller	1980
		Renate Lingor	1975
Water sports	Swimming	Missy Franklin	1995	11	2	3	16
	Diving	Guo Jingjing	1981	11	1	0	12
Winter sports	Figure skating	Sonja Henie	1912-1969	10	1	0	11

Open

Category	Sport	Athlete	Born				Tot.	Ref.
Motor sports	Formula One	Michael Schumacher	1969	7	2	3	12
	Grand Prix Motorcycle racing	Giacomo Agostini	1942	15	5	1	21
	Motorboat racing	Guido Cappellini	1959	10	2	2	14	[15]
	Air racing	Paul Bonhomme	1964	3	2	1	6
	Motorboat racing (offshore)	Steve Curtis	1964	8	5	4	17
	Speedway	Hans Nielsen	1959	22	11	8	41
	Motocross	Stefan Everts	1972	10	4	1	13	[16]
	Rallying	Sébastien Loeb	1974	9	1	0	10
	Radio-controlled aerobatics	Christophe Paysant-Le Roux	1969	8	2	1	11	[17][18]
	Radio controlled racing	Masami Hirosaka	1970	14	5	6	25	[19]
	Sports car & GT racing	Derek Bell	1941	2	1	1	4
		Jacky Ickx	1945	2	1	1	4
		Jean-Louis Schlesser	1948	2	1	0	3
	Sidecar racing	Steve Webster	1960	10	4	3	17
	Trials riding	Antoni Bou	1986	16	0	0	16
	(Production) Superbike racing	Carl Fogarty	1965	4	2	0	6
	Touring car racing	Yvan Muller	1969	4	2	1	7
Olympic sports	Equestrian	Reiner Klimke[20]	1936-1999	6	0	0	6	[21]

Mixed

Category	Sport	Athlete	Born				Tot.	Ref.
Winter sports	Figure skating	Irina Rodnina	1949	10	0	0	10
Olympic sports	Tennis	Serena Williams	1981	2	1	0	3
		Tommy Robredo	1982	2	1	0	3
		James Blake	1979	2	0	0	2
		Dominik Hrbatý	1978	2	0	0	2
		Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	1971	2	0	0	2

Games

A fuller list can be found on the List of world championships in mind sports page.

• World chess championship

Eating

• World Pie Eating Championship
• Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest

See also

• List of world championships

References

1. Time trial event.
2. Greco-Roman event.
3. "Multi-Medalists Top 15" (PDF). issf-sports.org. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
4. The master, which qualifies the tennis world ranking, is considered the World Championship of individual tennis.
5. "In-line skating". archive.org. Archived from the original on 2010-11-28. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
6. "Figure Skating Senior World Championships - Roll of Honour" (PDF). rollersports.org. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
7. Daniele Gilardon at WorldRowing.com from FISA
8. "Paul Elvstrøm - Results". sailing.org. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
9. Bobsleigh world championships multiple medallist
10. Nordic combined world championships multiple medallist
11. Are held three world championships.
12. "South Korean short track skater Ahn Hyun-Soo became the most successful skater in the short track at the World Championships" (PDF). Indiaenews.com. Retrieved 2014-08-20.
13. "WORLD CUP DISTINCTIONS". phf.com.pk. Archived from the original on January 1, 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
14. The master, which qualifies the tennis world ranking, is considered the World Championship of individual tennis.
15. "DAC Racing". class-1.com. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
16. ca:Stefan Everts
17. http://www.gbrcaa.org/Competition%20History/World%20and%20European.htm
18. http://www.ofremmi.info/f3a/History/WC/history_of_f3a_world_championshi.htm
19. "Hirosaka, Masami | IFMAR". Rcranking.net. Retrieved 2014-08-20.
20. Dressage event.
21. "Reiner Klimke - Results". the-sports.org. Retrieved 20 April 2012.

External links

• Sports results
• Sports history