Alongside Olympic Games, the championships represents the highest level of senior international outdoor athletics competition for track and field athletics globally, including marathon running and race walking.

The IAAF chose to host its own world championship event, a month and a half after the Olympics.

This was considered suitable for over 50 years until in the late 1960s the desire of many IAAF members to have their own World Championships began to grow.

In 1976 at the IAAF Council Meeting in Puerto Rico an Athletics World Championships separate from the Olympic Games was approved.

[13] * At the 1993 World Championships in Athletics in Stuttgart, Germany, Dragutin Topić competed as an Individual World Championship Participant (IWP) as Athletic Federation of Yugoslavia was suspended by IAAF due to United Nations sanctions stemming from the Yugoslav wars.

A total of 36 world records have been set or equalled at the competition: 18 by men, 15 by women, and 3 in the mixed relay.

The most recent world record was in the Mixed 4 × 400 metres relay in 2023, when the US team set a time of 3:08.80.

American athletes have been the most successful with fifteen world records, followed by Jamaica and Great Britain on four each.

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt has broken the most world records at the competition, at four, while American Carl Lewis set three.