World championship
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A world championship is generally an international sports 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 or contest.
Overview
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). 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).[citation needed]
Certain sports do not have a world championship. Instead, they may organise a world cup competition, or they may organize both, 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 sports do not have a world championship or a world cup as such, but may have one or several world champions. Professional boxing, for example, has several world champions at different weights, but each one of them is decided by a "title fight", not a tournament.[citation needed]
A certain number of sports hold world championships or world cups which are overshadowed, in terms of prestige, by the same events in the Olympic Games, the most prestigious multi-sports event.[citation needed]
Still other sports may or may not have a true world championship but may designate the winners of a domestic competition to be "world champions." This is especially true of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada; world cups and championships exist in all of the major sports, but the domestic U.S. and Canadian leagues are generally nicknamed as the world professional championships or the equivalent of a world club championship. (In American football, although an IFAF World Championship exists, the United States is so far above and beyond the other nations it faces that the winner of the U.S.-based Super Bowl, a competition limited to the 32 teams in the National Football League, is commonly nicknamed as the world champion by the players, the press and fans alike; the NFL itself explicitly marketed the contest as a world championship in its first iterations.)[1]
Finally, certain professional sports 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 has 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 designates a World Champion based on performances throughout the year).
Sports
Best sportsperson by sport
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2017) |
This table includes medals for both individual and team events. "Best" in this list is considered to be the sportperson who is on top of their sport's medal table, rather than sportsperson with most overall medals. Currently active competitors are highlighted in pale green. Italics indicates more than one title achieved in a single year.
Male
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Female
Open
Mixed
| Category | Sport | Sportsperson | Born | 
|
|
|
Tot. | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter sports |  Figure skating
|
 Irina Rodnina
|
1949 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | |
| Olympic sports |  Tennis
|
 Serena Williams
|
1981 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | |
 Tommy Robredo
|
1982 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | |||
| James Blake
|
1979 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||
 Dominik Hrbatý
|
1978 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||
| Arantxa Sánchez Vicario
|
1971 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||
| Paralympic sports |  Sailing
|
 Alexandra Rickham & Niki Birrell
|
1981 1986 |
5 | 3 | 1 | 9 | [17][25] |
Mind sports
Eating
See also
- List of world sports championships
- List of world cups and world championships for juniors and youth
- List of world championships in mind sports
- World cup competition
References
- ^ Evans, Simon (February 3, 2011). "Super Bowl contenders happy with world champions title". Reuters. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
- ^ Time trial event.
- ^ Greco-Roman event.
- ^ "Multi-Medalists Top 15" (PDF). issf-sports.org. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^ The master, which qualifies the tennis world ranking, is considered the World Championship of individual tennis.
- ^ "In-line skating". archive.org. Archived from the original on 2010-11-28. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^ "Figure Skating Senior World Championships – Roll of Honour" (PDF). rollersports.org. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
- ^ "Daniele Gilardoni". www.worldrowing.com. International Rowing Federation. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
- ^ a b http://www.52superseries.com/my-blue-heaven-azzurra-win-the-2015-tp52-world-title/
- ^ Bobsleigh world championships multiple medallist
- ^ Nordic combined world championships multiple medallist
- ^ a b Includes World Allround, World Sprint, and World Single Distance Championships.
- ^ Also represented Russia as Viktor An
- ^ "WORLD CUP DISTINCTIONS". phf.com.pk. Archived from the original on January 1, 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ The master, which qualifies the tennis world ranking, is considered the World Championship of individual tennis.
- ^ "Meine sportlichen Erfolge Weltmeisterschaften" [My sporting achievements World Championships]. www.simoneniggli.ch (in German). Archived from the original on 2018-06-11. Retrieved 2018-06-11.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ a b "Alexandra Rickham – Results". sailing.org. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
- ^ ca:Stefan Everts
- ^ "DAC Racing". class-1.com. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
- ^ http://www.gbrcaa.org/Competition%20History/World%20and%20European.htm
- ^ http://www.ofremmi.info/f3a/History/WC/history_of_f3a_world_championshi.htm
- ^ "Hirosaka, Masami | IFMAR". Rcranking.net. Retrieved 2014-08-20.
- ^ Dressage event.
- ^ "Reiner Klimke – Results". the-sports.org. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
- ^ "Niki Birrell – Results". sailing.org. Retrieved 24 July 2016.