World Orienteering Championships

World Orienteering Championships
Sprint event at WOC 2013 in Vuokatti, Finland
Status	active
Genre	sporting event
Date(s)	July–August
Frequency	annual
Location(s)	various
Inaugurated	1966
Previous event	2024
Next event	2025
Organised by	IOF

The World Orienteering Championships (often abbreviated as WOC) is an international orienteering competition which has been organized by the International Orienteering Federation (IOF) since 1966. The World Orienteering Championships is considered to be the most prestigious competition in competitive orienteering.^[1] The races are contested between members of the IOF, which are each aligned to a National Olympic Committee.

The first world championships in orienteering was held in Fiskars, Finland from 1–2 October 1966, with two medal events being contested. The championships were held biennially up to 2003, with the exception of the 1978 and 1979 editions. From 2003 to 2021, all medal competitions were held annually, before an alternating biennial system between two different championship formats was implemented starting at the 2022 World Orienteering Championships.

In 1966, there were only two medal events, with one individual event and one team relay event. The world championships now include medal events for six formats, including four individual medal events and two team medal events.