| Host city |  Zagreb, Croatia |
|---|---|
| Dates | August 2005 |
The 2005 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships were held in Zagreb, Croatia, in August 2005.
Men race as individuals, pairs and quads over 200m, 500m and 1000m in both Canoe (Canadian) (C) and Kayak (K) events, giving a total of 18 gold medals. Women compete for only 9 gold medals as they race in kayak events only.
This was the 34th championships in canoe sprint.
The undoubted stars of the Zagreb event were Natasa Janics and Katalin Kovács of Hungary who completed an unprecedented clean sweep of all three women's K-2 events.
In the men's events, the C-4 200 m final saw Maxim Opalev of Russia win the twelfth world championship gold of his career, thus equalling György Kolonics's record. Andreas Dittmer of Germany retained both the world titles he had won in Gainesville (C-1 500 m and 1000m). Ronald Rauhe and Tim Wieskötter of Germany won their fourth consecutive K-2 500 m title, whilst compatriots Christian Gille and Tomasz Wylenzek followed up their C-2 1000 m 2004 Athens Olympic success with two golds (C-2 500 m and 1000 m).
The championships also marked a change of generation as many stars had retired after the Olympics, especially in the women's events. Two-thirds of the winners at Zagreb were first-time gold medallists. Birgit Fischer won her last two of her record 38 medals, including a bronze in the K-2 200 m event with her niece, Fanny.
Germany topped the medal table, winning 10 of the 27 gold medals, followed by Hungary with six golds, then Spain and Russia with two golds each.
Non-Olympic classes
Non-Olympic classes
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Germany | 10 | 5 | 3 | 18 |
| 2 |  Hungary | 6 | 3 | 3 | 12 |
| 3 |  Spain | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 4 |  Russia | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 5 |  Poland | 1 | 5 | 4 | 10 |
| 6 |  Romania | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 7 |  Belarus | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 8 |  Australia | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
 Norway | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| 10 |  Serbia and Montenegro | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
 Ukraine | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 12 |  Canada | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| 13 |  Slovakia | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 14 |  Cuba | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 15 |  Lithuania | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 16 |  Austria | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Czech Republic | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 18 |  France | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 Italy | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Kazakhstan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Totals (20 entries) | 27 | 27 | 27 | 81 | |
Ben Fouhy is a New Zealand flatwater and marathon canoeist who has been competing since the early 2000s. Competing in three Summer Olympics, he won the silver in the K-1 1000 m event at Athens in 2004, as well as finishing fourth in the 2008 Olympics and ninth in the 2012 Olympics in the same event. He is the recipient of the 2003 Halberg Award for NZ Sportsman of the Year and a former world record holder in the K1 1000m event.
Adam Joseph van Koeverden is a Canadian sprint kayaker and politician. He is an Olympic gold medallist in the K-1 500m category (2004) and a two-time world champion in K-1 500 (2007) and K-1 1000 (2011), winning four Olympic and eight world championship medals. His home club is the Burloak Canoe Club in Oakville, Ontario.
Eirik Verås Larsen is a Norwegian sprint kayaker who has competed internationally since the early 1990s. He has participated in three Summer Olympics, and has won a complete set of medals.
Birgit Fischer is a German former kayaker, who has won eight gold medals over six different Olympic Games, a record she shares with Aladár Gerevich and Isabell Werth, spanning seven Olympiads: twice representing East Germany, then four times representing the reunited nation. After both the 1988 and 2000 games, she announced her retirement, only to return for the subsequent games. She has been both the youngest- and oldest-ever Olympic canoeing champion. In 2004, she was chosen as the German sportswoman of the year.
Martin Marinov is a Bulgarian-born Australian flatwater canoeist who competed from the late 1980s and the mid-2000s (decade). A former "Mr Bulgaria" he won two Olympic medals for that country in the Canadian canoeing 500 m events. Married for Darina Marinova from 07.05.1989. Kids: Georgi Marinov 08.05.1992 and Maria-Veronika Marinova 14.04.1997. Grandkids: Martin Marinov 27.01.2020
Zoltán Kammerer is a Hungarian sprint canoeist who has competed since the mid-1990s. Competing in five Summer Olympics, he won three gold medals and a silver medal.
Katalin Kovács is a Hungarian canoe sprinter. She competed in the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics and won eight medals, with three golds and five silvers.
Raman Ivanavich Piatrushenka or Roman Petrushenko is a Belarusian sprint canoeist who has competed since 2000. Competing in three Summer Olympics, he won four medals with one gold, one silver and two bronzes.
Jules Timothy Brabants MBE is a British sprint kayaker who has competed since the late 1990s. Competing in four Summer Olympics, he won three medals with one gold and two bronzes.
The ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships are an international event in canoe racing, one of two Summer Olympic sport events organized by the International Canoe Federation. The World Championships have taken place every non-Olympic year since 1970 and officially included paracanoe events since 2010; since 2012, paracanoe-specific editions of this event have been held in Summer Paralympic years.
Silviu Simioncencu is a Romanian sprint canoer and three-time world champion in the Canadian canoe events.
Roland Kökény is a Hungarian canoe sprinter who competed from the early 2000s in European and World Championships as well as the Olympic Games. A member of the Esztergom Kayak-Canoe club, he is 185 centimetres tall and weighs 82 kilograms.
Andrian Pavlov Dushev is a Bulgarian sprint canoer who competed from the 1989 to 2000.
Lutz Altepost is a German sprint canoeist who has competed since the late 1990s. Competing in two Summer Olympics, he won a bronze medal in the K-4 1000 m event at Beijing in 2008.
The 2006 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships were held in Szeged, Hungary, from August 17 to 20 2006. This was the second time the Hungarian city had hosted the championships, doing so previously in 1998.
Jörg Schmidt was an East German canoe sprinter who competed in the 1980s. He won a silver medal in the C-1 1000 m event at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. He was born in Berlin, East Germany.
Danuta Kozák is a Hungarian sprint canoeist. She has won one silver, one bronze and six Olympic gold medals, three of which in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, making her the only female to win K1, K2 and K4 at the same Olympics. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, she won a gold medal in Women's K-4 500 metres, and bronze medal in Women's K-2 500 metres.
György Mészáros was a Hungarian sprint canoeist who competed from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. Competing in two Summer Olympics, he won two silver medals at Rome in 1960, earning them in the K-1 4 × 500 m and the K-2 1000 m events.
Renn Crichlow is a Canadian sprint kayaker who competed from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. He won a complete set of medals at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships with gold, a silver, and a bronze.
Krisztina Fazekas-Zur is a Hungarian sprint canoer who has competed since the mid-2000s. She won nine medals at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships with four golds and five silvers.
| Editions |  | |
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| Medalists | ||
Years marked (para) were limited to paracanoe events only | ||