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The International Association of Athletics Federations World Indoor Championships were inaugurated as the World Indoor Games in 1985 in Paris, France and were subsequently renamed in 1987 as they are known today.

They have been held every two years except for when they were held in consecutive years 2003 and 2004 to facilitate the need for them to be held in alternate years to the main IAAF World Championships (outdoors) in the future.

	Year	City	Country	Date	Venue
1	1985	Paris	France	18 January - 19 January 1985	Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy
2	1987	Indianapolis	United States	6 March - 8 March 1987	Hoosier Dome
3	1989	Budapest	Hungary	3 March - 5 March 1989
4	1991	Seville	Spain	8 March - 10 March 1991
5	1993	Toronto	Canada	12 March - 14 March 1993	SkyDome
6	1995	Barcelona	Spain	10 March - 12 March 1995	Palau Sant Jordi
7	1997	Paris	France	7 March - 9 March 1997	Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy [1]
8	1999	Maebashi	Japan	5 March - 7 March 1999	Green Dome Maebashi
9	2001	Lisbon	Portugal	9 March - 11 March 2001	Atlantic Pavilion
10	2003	Birmingham	United Kingdom	14 March - 16 March 2003	National Indoor Arena
11	2004	Budapest	Hungary	5 March - 7 March 2004	Budapest Arena
12	2006	Moscow	Russia	10 March - 12 March 2006	Olimpiyski Sport Complex
13	2008	Valencia	Spain	7 March - 9 March 2008	Luis Puig Palace
14	2010	Doha	Qatar	March 2010
15	2012	Istanbul	Turkey	March 2012

The events held have remained more or less the same since they originated with the main alterations coming in the earlier years.

The 4 x 400 m relay race for both men and women was added to the full schedule in 1991 as was the women's triple jump, but only as an exhibition event before gaining full status at the following championships.

1993 saw the last of the racewalking events included and a 1600 m medley relay was tried but dropped for future games. This same year a men's heptathlon and women's pentathlon were successfully introduced as non-championship events and have remained in place since.

In 1997 the women's pole vault entered the fray – two years before it made an appearance at the games' outdoor counterpart.

The 200 m was absent from the 2006 championships in Moscow, as in recent years it has become too predictable. Because of the tight bends involved, athletes not drawn in one of the outside lanes have next to no chance of winning.

In their short history the championships have seen Mozambique's Maria Mutola claim an incredible 6 gold medals in the women's 800 m from 1993 to 2004, her only defeat coming at the hands of Ludmila Formanová of the Czech Republic in 1999 in a championship record of 1 minute 56.9 seconds that still stands.

Cuban Iván Pedroso took five straight golds in the men's long jump from 1993-2001.
Stefka Kostadinova of Bulgaria a high jumper has also taken top spot five times in the women's event.

Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia won 3 golds in the 3,000 m as well as 1 in the 1,500 m which he won in 1999 when winning both events.
Sergey Bubka has taken 3 golds in the pole vault representing the Soviet Union as well as 1 representing Ukraine since the break up of the old Eastern bloc.
Another Cuban Javier Sotomayor features in the list as he has taken 4 golds as well as a bronze in the men's high jump.

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