The 4th IAAF World Championships in Athletics Stuttgart, Germany 1993

After the successful hosting of the 3rd IAAF World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, the Event made its way back to Europe. Stuttgart, Germany finally welcomed the IAAF World Championships in 1993, ten years after losing the bid to host the 1^st IAAF World Championships to Helsinki, Finland.

Prior to the 1993 IAAF World Championships, the Event was held every four years, similar to that of the Olympic Games, but in 1993 this all changed and it was decided that the Event would be held every two years from here on out. As the event grew and athlete performances increased, it only seemed natural to adjust the competition schedule to meet the current demands.

The 1993 IAAF World Championships in Stuttgart was certainly one for the record books, the event saw both great success and great disappointment. This year the world welcomed some very amazing athletes to the field including Frankie Fredericks (NAM), Michael Johnson (USA), Haile Gebrelassie (ETH) and Sergey Bubka (UKR); all of whom took home the Gold.

This event was also very special because it was the first time that the PR of China had appeared in this Event. Emerging from “the Bamboo Curtain,” China had now begun to show itself as an international powerhouse in both politics and athletics after the end of the Cold War. The Chinese National Team took home eight medals in five events, and even swept the Women’s 3000m.

Though it was a great year for some, it was a very disappointing year for the King of Spring, Carl Lewis, who took 4^th place in his main event. Lewis had held his title for over 10 years, but was out run in his main event by the young Linford Christie (GBR), and his two teammate Andre Cason (USA) and Dennis Mitchell(USA) who took the Silver and Bronze Medals respectively. To Lewis' suprise he did finally take home his first ever World Championships medal in the 200m, a bronze, which would prove to be his final medal in both the Olympic Games and the IAAF World Championships.

Next time we will visit the IAAF World Championships Göteborg 1995.