The IAAF World Champs - A Retrospective, Part 1 - the 80's

Started in 1983, the IAAF's World Championships are the largest event for global track and field outside of the Olympic Games. Not only serving as the highlight of competition for athletics in between the Games, they often are looked upon as a specific Games preview. This especially holds true for the  Championships editions held the year right before an Olympics.

With that in mind, I take a look back at previous Championships to glimpse at how well Worlds medalists are able to finish on the podium at the following Olympics. Although Championships did start on a biennial schedule in 1993, with the first edition held after a Games, I'll focus more attention on those editions which occur right before.

Let's start in the 80's:

I - Helsinki, 1983

Stats

• 1,355 athletes from 153 nations
• 41 events

Medal Table

1. United States (24)
2. Soviet Union (23)
3. East Germany (22)

Highlights

• Marita Koch (GDR) wins three gold - 200m, 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay, and one silver - 100m
• Carl Lewis (USA) wins three golds - 100m, 4x100m relay, long jump
• Sergey Bubka (UKR) wins his first world championship in the pole vault
• World Records from Jarmila Kratochvolva (TCH) in the 400m (and also won the 800m), and the U.S. in the men's 4x100m relay.
• Mary Decker (USA) wins the 1,500m and the 3,000m

How the Olympic medal podiums the following year (1984 Los Angeles) compare
*Note, the Soviet Bloc boycott of the 1984 Games obviously prevented many from competing

• Carl Lewis (USA) repeated with gold in the 100m
• Joaquim Cruz (BRA) went from bronze to gold in the 800m
• Steve Cram (GBR) won silver in 1500m after gold in 1983
• Alberto Cova (ITA) repeated with gold in the 10,000m
• Greg Foster (USA) and Arto Bryggare (FIN) went from 1-2 to 2-3 in the 110m hurdles
• Edwin Moses (USA) and Harald Schmid (FRG) went from 1-2 after 1-3 in the 400m hurdles
• USA repeated with gold in the men's 4x100m relay
• GBR improved to silver after bronze in the men's 4x400m relay
• Ernesto Canto (MEX) won the 20km walk
• Carl Lewis (USA) repeated with gold in the long jump
• Zhu Jianhua (CHN) duplicated the bronze in the high jump
• Daley Thompson (GBR), Jurgen Hingsen (FRG), and Siegfried Wentz (FRG) went 1-2-3 in the decathlon
• Merlene Ottey (JAM) went from silver to bronze in the 200m
• Kathy Smallwood (GBR) went from 200m bronze to 400m bronze
• Grete Waitz (NOR) won silver after gold in the marathon
• GBR went from silver to bronze in the women's 4x400m relay
• Anisoara Cusmir (ROM) won gold after silver in the long jump
• Ulrike Meyfarth (FRG) won gold after silver in the high jump
• Tiina Lillak (FIN) and Fatima Whitbread (GBR) went 2-3 in javelin after having been 1-2
• USA (40), GBR (16), and FRG (11) were the top nations

​II - Rome, 1987

Stats

• 1,451 athletes from 159 nations
• 43 events (women's 10,000m and 10km walk added)

Medal Table

1. East Germany (31)
2. Soviet Union (25)
3. United States (20)

Highlights

• Carl Lewis (USA) duplicated his three golds from 1983, in the 100m, long jump, and 4x100m relay
• Stefka Kostadinova (BUL) set a world record of 2.09m in the high jump
• Silke Gladisch (GDR) won two golds (100m, 200m), as did Tetyana Samolenko (URS) (1500m, 3000m) 
• In all, 31 championship record were set across all events

How the Olympic medal podiums the following year (1988 Seoul) compare

• Carl Lewis (USA) and Linford Christie (GBR) went from 1-3 to 1-2 in the 100m
• Calvin Smith (USA) went from 200m gold to 100m bronze
• Butch Reynolds (USA) went from bronze to silver in the 400m
• Douglas Wakiihuri (KEN), Ahmed Hussein Salah (DJI), and Gelindo Bordin (ITA) went from 1-2-3 to 2-3-1 in the marathon
• Colin Jackson (GBR) went from bronze to silver in the 110m hurdles
• Edwin Moses (USA) went from gold to bronze in the 400m hurdles
• Maurizio Damilano (ITA) and Jozef Pribilinec (TCH) went from 1-2 to 3-1 in the 20km walk
• Hartwig Gauder (GDR), Ronald Weigel (GDR) and Vyacheslav Ivanenko (URS) went from 1-2-3 to 3-2-1 in the 50km walk
• URS went from silver to gold in the men's 4x100m relay
• USA repeated with gold in the men's 4x400m relay
• Carl Lewis (USA) and Larry Myricks (USA) went 1-3 again in the long jump
• Kristo Markov (BUL) won the triple jump
• Patrik Sjoberg (SWE) and Gennady Avdeyenko (URS) went from 1-2 to 1-3 in the high jump
• Sergey Bubka (URS) and Rodion Gataullin (URS) went from 1-3 to 1-2 in the pole vault
• Werner Gunthor (SUI) went from gold to bronze in the shot put
• Jurgen Schult (GDR) won gold in the discus throw again
• Sergey Litvinov (URS) and Yuri Tamm (URS) went from 1-2 to 1-3 in the hammer throw
• Seppo Raty (FIN) and Jan Zelezny (TCH) went from 1-3 to 2-3 in the javelin
• Torsten Voss (GDR) went from gold to silver in the decathlon
• Heike Dreschler (GDR) went from silver to bronze in the 100m
• Florence Griffith-Joyner (USA) went from silver to gold in the 200m
• Olga Bryzgina (URS) and Petra Muller (GDR) repeated as 1-2 in the 400m
• Sigrun Wodars (GDR) and Christine Wachtel (GDR) repeated as 1-2 in the 800m
• Tetyana Samolenko (URS) went from gold to bronze in the 1500m, but repeated gold in the 3000m
• Yelena Zhupiyeva (URS) went from silver to bronze in the 10,000m
• Rosa Mota (POR) repeated with gold in the marathon
• Gloria Siebert (GDR) repeated with silver in the 100m hurdles
• Debbie Flintoff (AUS) went from silver to gold in the 400m hurdles
• USA, GDR, URS repeated as 1-2-3 in the women's 4x100m relay
• GDR, URS, USA went from 1-2-3 to 3-1-2 in the women's 4x400m relay
• Jackie Joyner-Kersee (USA) and Heike Dreschler (GDR) went from 1-3 to 1-2 in the long jump
• Stefka Kostadinova (BUL) and Tamara Bykova (URS) went from 1-2 to 2-3 in the high jump
• Natalya Lisovskaya (URS) and Kathrin Muller (GDR) repeated as 1-2 in the shot put
• Martina Hellmann (GDR), Diana Gansky (GDR), and Tsvetanka Khristova (BUL) repeated as 1-2-3 in the discus throw
• Fatima Whitbread (GBR) and Petra Felke (GDR) went from 1-2 to 2-1 in the javelin
• Jackie Joyner-Kersee (USA) repeated with gold in the heptathlon 
• GDR (27), USA (26), and URS (26) were the top nations