Russia competed at every edition of the

IAAF World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...

1993 to the 2017 World Championships, from which its athletes have been banned from competing as Russian. In order for Russian nationals to compete at the World Athletics Championship (from 2017 on), they must be approved as authorised neutral athletes by the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

. Prior to 1993, Russian athletes competed for the Soviet Union. Russia has the second-highest medal total among nations at the competition (153), after the United States. At 47 gold medals, it holds the third-highest total after the United States and Kenya. It has had the most success in women's events and in field events. As a major nation in the

sport of athletics Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping, throwing sports, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and racewalking ...

, it typically sent a delegation numbering over 100 athletes. It topped the medal table at the 2001 tournament, overtaking the United States following the redistribution of medals due to doping cases. Russia also initially finished top of the medal table at the 2013 Moscow Championships, but lost this position due to doping disqualifications of its athletes. Russia's performance at the competition has been strongly affected by doping. Furthermore, the country's doping problems are distinct because in Russia doping is supplied to the athletes by the government. The country was banned from competing in 2017 due to the state-sponsored doping and Russians had to gain special dispensation to compete as

Authorised Neutral Athletes Authorised Neutral Athlete (ANA) is a capacity under which athletes can compete at international sporting competitions without representing their nations, as is standard convention under the Olympic Charter. As of August 2022, only Russian and B ...

. Various members of the Russian delegation have been banned for doping at every edition of the competition it has competed at, with the exceptions of 2003 and 2015 (though Russian medalists in both those years were subsequently banned). Russia's most successful athlete at the competition is horizontal jumps specialist

Tatyana Lebedeva Tatyana Romanovna Lebedeva (russian: Татьяна Романовна Лебедева, born 21 July 1976) is a Russian track and field athlete who competes in both the long jump and triple jump events. She is one of the most successful athle ...

, who between 2001 and 2009 won two triple jump gold medals, a long jump title, and two further silver medals. Women's pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva has also won three gold medals, in addition to a bronze. Yuliya Pechonkina, a

400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once a ...

and relay athlete, has won the most medals for Russia, with her total of seven. The most successful Russian man at the World Championships is

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

Yaroslav Rybakov Yaroslav Vladimirovich Rybakov (, born November 22, 1980, in Mogilyev, Belarusian SSR) is a retired Russian high jumper. He is the 2002 European Champion high jumper, and at the 2005 World Championships he shared the silver medal with Víct ...

, who won three high jump silvers before becoming champion in 2009.

Medal table

Medalists

Doping

References

IAAF Statistics Book – IAAF World Championships London 2017Kenya at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics
{{Russia at the World Championships in Athletics Russia World Championships in Athletics