A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, or ability.
How the championship title is assigned
The title is usually awarded through a combination of specific contests or, less commonly,
ranking systems (e.g. the
ICC Test Championship), or a combination of the two (e.g.
World Triathlon Championships in
Triathlon
A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the ...
). This determines a 'world champion', who or which is commonly considered the best nation, team, individual (or other entity) in the world in a particular field, although the vagaries of sport ensure that the competitor recognised at the best in an event is not always the 'world champion' (see
Underdog
An underdog is a person or group in a competition, usually in sports and creative works, who is largely expected to lose. The party, team, or individual expected to win is called the favorite or wikt:top dog, top dog. In the case where an under ...
). This may also be known as a
world cup competition, for example cycling (
UCI World Championships and
UCI World Cups). Often, the use of the term cup or championship in this sense is just a choice of words. Some sports have multiple champions because of multiple organizations, such as boxing, mixed martial arts and wrestling.
Certain competitive exercises do not have a world championship or a world cup as such, but may have one or several world champions. Professional
boxing
Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...
, for example, has several world champions at
different weights, but each one of them is decided by a "title match", not a tournament. In a title match system, the championship can only be won by directly defeating the incumbent, who in turn must continue to compete to retain their title or risk
forfeiture.
In
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
(soccer), the first such tournament was the
Football World Championship disputed from 1876 to 1904 between the winners of the
FA Cup and
Scottish Cup.
After that, there have been many tournaments between teams from around the world, but it wasn't until 1960 when the
Intercontinental Cup was established, competed between the winners two greatest and most important continental championships: the
UEFA Champions League from Europe and
CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores from South America, the cup was endorsed by both
UEFA
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...
and
CONMEBOL but had no involvement from
FIFA, the governing body for world football.
As such, FIFA wanted to expand the tournament to include the champion from other continents - from the
AFC Champions League (
Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
),
CAF Champions League
The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual football club (association football), club football competition organized by the Conf ...
(
Africa),
CONCACAF Champions League (
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
and
Caribbean
The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
) and
OFC Champions League (
Oceania) and created the
FIFA Club World Cup. The
first edition in 2000 ran concurrently with the
2000 Intercontinental Cup, and in 2004 the Intercontinental Cup was merged with the CCW, which has been ongoing since 2005 with yearly editions.
Finally, certain competitions do not have a world championship or world cup, but rather hold a series of events recognised as the elite level in their field (e.g.
tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
and
golf have a series of four
Grand Slam events recognised as the pinnacle of the game, in addition to key team events, world tour finals and the Olympic Games, though each year
ITF (International Tennis Federation) designates a
World Champion based on performances throughout the year).
History
There are some sports that already had a 'world championship' in the 18th or 19th century, although it was variable how 'world-wide' these competitions really were. The French player
Clergé is considered to be the first international champion in
real tennis, since 1740. In
chess
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
, international matches have been held for centuries, often resulting in certain players considered the best of all, with the first multiplayer tournament held
in London in 1851, but Wilhelm Steinitz in 1886 was the first chess player generally recognized as the
world chess champion.
Other sports with early 'world championships' were
English draughts (1840) and
speed skating.
Overview
The following lists for the various sports with a world championship include:
*
List of world sports championships, for physical sports
*
List of world championships in mind sports, including several other activities like competitions in professional activities
*
List of world cups and world championships for juniors and youth
*
List of world cups
See also
*
World cup
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:World Championship
Sports terminology