How it all began

As the Olympic Games and international athletics events developed, there was a need for an international organization to steer the athletics championships. The organization was required to establish an universal set of rules and regulations, as well as develop a certification system for the Olympic Games and World Records.

A conference was held two days after the closing ceremony of the Stockholm Olympic Games, which was attended by representatives from 17 countries, namely: U.S.A., Greece, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Russia, Belgium, Sweden, Australia, Austria, Egypt, England, Chile, Canada, Finland, France, and Hungary.

The International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) was thus founded.

According to the IAAF, the Stockholm Congress was recorded as the First Official Congress, as it was there that the foundations for all other congresses were established.

In 1913, the first edition of the IAAF Constitution was approved by the Berlin Congress in Germany, where 34 nations were registered as members of the IAAF. The Berlin Congress also elected J. Sigfried Edström (SWE) as the first President of the IAAF; Kristian Hellström (SWE) was elected as the Honorary Secretary/Treasurer.

In 1914, the Lyon Congress in France approved the first technical rules for international competitions and the inaugural list of official world records. Subsequent congresses laid out the foundations that helped propel the sport of athletics and the IAAF as we know today. Among the achievements were:

Over the years, the IAAF Headquarters had been situated in Sweden (1912-1946) and England (1946-1993). The IAAF Headquarters has been situated in its current location in Monaco since 1993.

Since 8 November 1999, the IAAF has been led by President Lamine Diack and Pierre Weiss is the General Secretary. The global membership of the IAAF now stands at 213 Member Federations.

• In 1913, the IAAF decided that the Olympic Games would serve as the official World Championships in Athletics, where the Olympic winners were also considered as world champions. That was, until the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980.

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In 1980, the IAAF selected Helsinki, Finland, as the host city of the inaugural World Championships in Athletics to be held in 1983. The 1983 World Championships drew 1,355 athletes from 153 nations.

The IAAF World Championships in Athletics was held every four years between 1983 and 1991, after which it was held biennial on every odd year (i.e. every two years).

The events in the IAAF World Championships in Athletics and television viewership have flourished over the years. For example, the opening ceremonies in the 2001 World Championships in Athletics were broadcast live from Edmonton, Canada to an estimated television audience of 4 billion people.

Since 2005, the World Championships in Athletics have comprised a total of 47 events. The IAAF World Championships Daegu 2011 will feature all 47 Events (24 Men's and 23 Women's).