[2] Preceded in 2001 by the IAU World 24 Hours Track Championships, as a track running event, this competition became the IAU World 24 Hours Challenge in 2003.
[3] The road running event was later upgraded to World Championships status after 2006.
[3] The annual schedule has twice been broken: first in 2011, with Brugg, Switzerland failing to proceed as host,[5] and again in 2014, with the agreed host (Plzeň, Czech Republic) being unable to hold the eleventh edition of the competition.
[6] The event has mainly been held in Europe: in 2006, Taipei became the first Asian city to hold the races and Drummondville, Quebec followed as the first North American host in 2007.
[5] New Championship records were set at the 2019 Championship, including 278.972 kilometres by Aleksandr Sorokin from Lithuania and 270.119 kilometres by Camille Herron[7] from the United States.