The World Orienteering Championships is an annual orienteering event organized by the International Orienteering Federation. The first World Championships was held in Fiskars, Finland in 1966. They were held biennially up to 2003. Since 2003, competitions have been held annually. Participating nations have to be members of the International Orienteering Federation (IOF).
Hilde Gjermundshaug Pedersen is a Norwegian cross-country skier. Her first Olympic medal was a silver 4 × 5 km relay at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, she took the bronze medal in the 10 km classical interval start event. Pedersen is the oldest woman ever to win a cross country skiing World Cup race, which she did at age 41 in January 2006 in Otepää, Estonia.
Thierry Gueorgiou is a French orienteer who holds the record for gold medals won at the World Orienteering Championships for a male athlete, with 14 gold medals between 2003 and 2017. Gueorgiou has won more than 20 gold medals in international competitions, including the World Orienteering Championships (WOC) middle distance event a record eight times: 2003–2005, 2007–2009, 2011 and 2017.
The Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) are an annual orienteering competition. They were first held in 1990. Entry is open to national teams aged 20 and below as of 31 December in the year of competition. Representative countries must be members of the International Orienteering Federation (IOF).
Matthias Merz is a Swiss orienteering competitor, winner of the 2007 World Orienteering Championships in Kyiv, Ukraine, Long distance, and also earned a silver medal on the Sprint distance in the same championship. He has a bronze medal from the 2005 Relay Championships in Aichi, Japan, as member of the Swiss winning team. When Merz won the bronze medal in the middle distance at the World Championships in Miskolc in 2009, he joined countryman Daniel Hubmann as the only two men to have ever medaled in all four orienteering disciplines at the World Championships.
Karolina Arewång-Höjsgaard is a Swedish orienteering competitor. She won the 2004 Long distance World Orienteering Championships, and has silver medals from 2003 and 2004 (Sprint). She is Relay World Champion from 2004, and has silver medals from 2003 and 2006, and a bronze medal from 2005, as member of the Swedish team.
Jenny Johansson is a Swedish orienteering competitor. She is Relay World Champion as a member of the Swedish winning team in 2004, as well as having silver medals from 2001, 2003 and 2006, and bronze medal from 2005. She obtained silver in the Short distance World Championship in 2001 and Middle distance in 2005, and bronze in the Sprint distance in 2003.
Valentin Yuryevich Novikov is a Russian orienteering competitor. He is the brother of Leonid Novikov.
Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg is a Norwegian orienteering competitor, World champion and European champion. She took the overall victory in the 2008 World Cup.
Niclas Jonasson is a Swedish orienteering competitor and world champion.
Daniel Hubmann is a Swiss orienteering competitor, world champion in all three individual disciplines and multiple winner of the overall Orienteering World Cup. He is the brother of Martin Hubmann. Daniel also has his own fan club which is run by New Zealand Orienteer Joseph Lynch.
Tatiana Ryabkina is a Russian orienteering competitor. She won the O-Ringen in 2012 and had international success.
Øystein Kvaal Østerbø is a Norwegian orienteering and ski-orienteering competitor. He finished overall third in the Orienteering World Cup in 2004, and won a silver medal in the relay in the 2004 World Ski Orienteering Championships. He has competed in all fifteen World Orienteering Championships since his debut in 2004 until 2018, obtaining his first two medals in Inverness in 2015; in the relay and mixed sprint relay, respectively. His best individual achievements are fourth places in the sprint in 2005 and 2010.
Johan Modig is a Swedish orienteering competitor.
David Andersson is a Swedish orienteering competitor and European champion.
Michal Smola is a Czech orienteering competitor, silver medalist from the world championships, and junior world champion. He became Junior World Champion in the short distance in Nove Mesto na Morave in 2000, and with the Czech team in relay in 2000 and in 2001. His best achievement by September 2009 is silver medal in the middle distance at the 2008 World Orienteering Championship in Olomouc.
Martin Johansson is a Swedish orienteering, ski-orienteering, and cross-country skiing competitor, a medallist at the orienteering world championships, and a 2004 Junior World Champion in relay. He received bronze medals in sprint at the World Orienteering Championships in Kyiv 2007 and Olomouc 2008. His brother, Lars, is a member of the Rockford Icehogs
Ida Bobach is a Danish orienteering competitor who was Junior World Champion in 2009, and became triple Junior World Champion from 2010, when she won the sprint, long distance and the relay. She represents the club OK Pan Århus, and since 2007, has received training from Danish national coach Lars Lindstrøm. In 2015 she won gold medals at the World Championships in the long and Relay.
Tove Alexandersson is a Swedish foot orienteer, ski orienteer, skyrunner, trail runner and ski mountaineer. She has won a total of 19 gold medals at the World Orienteering Championships and 10 gold medals at the World Ski Orienteering Championships. In 2018, she won the Sky Marathon event at the Skyrunning World Championships, in her second skyrunning race ever. In 2021, she won the combined discipline at the World Championships of Ski Mountaineering, and in 2023 she won a silver medal in the up and down discipline at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships. She competes for Stora Tuna OK in orienteering and Alfta-Ösa OK in ski orienteering. Alexandersson holds the record for the number of gold medals in a row at the World Orienteering Championships, winning 11 in a row between 2018 and 2022.
Gustav Bergman is a Swedish orienteering competitor. He won a bronze medal in the middle distance at the 2013 World Orienteering Championships.
