quality:corruption, linguistic:paraphrasing, information:highlighting
Indoor

Basic indoor venues may be adapted gymnasiums, which can easily accommodate high jump competitions and short track events. Full-size indoor arenas (i.e. those fully equipped to host all events for the World Indoor Championships) bear similarities with their outdoor equivalents. Typically, a central area is surrounded by a 200-metre oval track with four to eight lanes. The track can be banked at the turns to allow athletes to run around the radius more comfortably. Some have a second running track going straight across the field area, parallel to the straights of the main circuit. This track is used for the 60 metres and 60 metres hurdles events, which are held almost exclusively indoors.

Another common adaptation in the United States is a 160-yard track (11 laps to a mile; 148m) that fits into a common basketball court -sized arena. This was quite popular when races were held at imperial distances, which gradually was phased out by different organizations in the 1970s and 1980s. Examples of this configuration include the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden, and the Sunkist Invitational formerly held in the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

All four of the common jumping events are held at indoor venues. The long and triple jump areas run alongside the central 60 m track and are mostly identical in form to their outdoor counterparts. The pole vault track and landing area are also alongside the central running track. Shot put and weight throw are the only throwing events held indoors due to size restrictions. The throwing area is similar to the outdoor event, but the landing sector is a rectangular section surrounded by netting or a stop barrier.

In addition to hosting the World Indoor Championships, the IAAF has hosted the IAAF World Indoor Tour since 2016.

In May 2023, World Athletics announced they were renaming "indoor track" and "indoor athletics" to "short track", effectively expanding the "indoor track" category to allow for the theoretical possibility of an outdoor 200 meter-track being used for valid "indoor" qualification marks. The change took effect at the beginning of 2024.

Various events have been discontinued from the World Athletics Indoor Championships, including 200m and racewalking. Some race distance events have been held in world tour (IAAF World Indoor Tour and IAAF Indoor Permit Meetings in 1997 or later) events, including at Aviva Indoor Grand Prix and the Russian Winter Meeting, but never at the world championships, including: