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IBSF World Championships

Bobsleigh and skeleton's world titles — seven events over four heats, every year except the Olympic one, and a German record no other nation approaches.
✓ Last reviewed: August 2026
SportBobsleigh & skeleton
OrganiserIBSF
First held1930 (four-man) · 1982 (men's skeleton) · 2021 (monobob)
FrequencyAnnual, never in an Olympic year
Events7 — 2-man, 4-man, monobob, 2-woman, skeleton M/W, mixed team
NextLillehammer (NOR), 15–28 February 2027

What are the IBSF World Championships?

The world titles of bobsleigh and skeleton, run by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation annually except in Olympic years. Seven events are contested — two-man, four-man, women's monobob, two-woman, men's and women's skeleton, and the skeleton mixed team — matching the Olympic programme exactly. World championship and Olympic races run over four heats, twice as many as an ordinary World Cup race.[1] [2]

SeasonPool / FormatHost cities
2025Friedrich's 9th 2-man and 7th straight 4-man titleLake Placid (USA) — record 38 nations
2024Germany won 6 of the 7 goldsWinterberg (GER)
2023Lochner 2-man, Friedrich 4-man, Weston skeletonSt. Moritz (SUI)
2021Monobob world championship debut — HumphriesAltenberg (GER)
2020Friedrich 2-man and 4-man doubleAltenberg (GER)
2027— scheduledLillehammer (NOR), 15–28 February

Recent editions — headline winners.

How do crews qualify?

By ranking, with an experience requirement attached. Bobsleigh places come off the IBSF Discipline Ranking List — three sleds in the top 25 earns a nation three places, and so on down — and a pilot must have started and been ranked in at least five IBSF races on three different tracks in the preceding 24 months, three of them on two tracks in the current season. Skeleton places come off the World Cup ranking, and a nation that races less than half its confirmed World Cup quota loses a place.[2] [3]

Who wins?

Germany, on a scale nothing else matches: 87 world championship golds and 201 medals, more than double the next nation, including six of the seven titles at Winterberg 2024. Francesco Friedrich's record is the extreme case — nine two-man world titles and seven straight in the four-man through 2025. Britain's Matt Weston has been the outstanding men's skeleton slider of the period.[1] [4]

References

  1. IBSF — International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation. Accessed August 2026.
  2. IBSF — 2025 International Rules, Bobsleigh. Accessed August 2026.
  3. IBSF — 2025 International Rules, Skeleton. Accessed August 2026.
  4. IBSF — Lillehammer 2027 World Championships. Accessed August 2026.