The Soviet Union won one more medal than the East Germans and had six golds, although almost half of their podium finishers were bronze medalists.

During the early 1980s this was the top venue in which Soviet Bloc athletes competed against American athletes due to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and the retaliatory Soviet Bloc boycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Other prominent athletes included Marita Koch, who won the 200 m and both relay golds, as well as the 100 m silver medal.

Sergey Bubka won the first of his six consecutive World Championship gold medals in the pole vault.

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995 *   Host nation (Finland) Media related to 1983 World Championships in Athletics at Wikimedia Commons