World Orienteering Championships 2026

The Sprint Final, KO-Sprint Semi & Finals and Sprint Relay will be aired as listed in – TV Broadcasters

There will be a free streaming from the two qualification races available at https://tv.orienteering.sport/ebu (embedded from EBU, login at Eurovisionsport.com is needed)

The Knock-Out Sprint – Quarter-finals will be available on IOF TV.

IOF TV Tickets
IOF TV all races ticket
IOF TV single race tickets

Broadcasts overview

Live here on orienteering.sport
LIVE Web-TV (English commentary)
Live GPS tracking
Live results

Useful links
Organisers event info page
IOF Eventor page
Bulletin 4
World of O – “all you need to know about WOC”

TV Broadcasters:

	Sprint Final	KO-Sprint Semi + Final	Sprint Relay
IOF TV	14:10-17:00	14:50-17:00	15:30-17:00
	UTC +2, CEST, English commentary
SVT	14:10-17:00	14:50-17:00	15:30-17:00
NRK	14:10-17:00	14:50-17:00	15:30-17:00
langrenn.com	14:10-17:00	14:50-17:00	15:30-17:00
YLE	15:10-18:00	15:50-18:00	16:30-18:00
SRG	14:10-17:00	14:50-17:00	15:30-17:00
ORF	14:10-17:00	14:50-17:00	15:30-17:00
TV8 Mont Blanc	14:10-17:00	14:50-17:00	15:30-17:00
CzTV	14:10-17:00	14:50-17:00	15:30-17:00
RAI	–	–	15:30-17:00
SportTV	–	14:50-17:00	15:30-17:00

Times are local time for each country.

The WOC 2026 is the 3rd Sprint World Orienteering Championships since the splitting of the WOC program in 2019.

Sprint distance

Each federation can enter 3 athletes + ev. previous champions with allocated named spots. The Sprint distance competition starts with a Qualification race with three parallell heats. The best 15 in each heat qualifies for the Final.

Knock-Out Sprint distance

The four stages of the Knock-Out Sprint are organised as follows:
Qualification stage: There are 3 parallel heats with an interval start. The first 12 placed competitors in each heat will qualify for the quarter-finals.
Quarter-finals: There are 6 quarter-finals with 6 competitors in each. They each have a mass start. The best 3 in each heat qualify for the Semi-finals.
Semi-finals: There are 3 semi-finals with 6 competitors each. The best 2 in each heat qualify for the final.
Final: 6 athletes competes for the championship and the medals.

Sprint Relay

The Sprint Relay is a four leg mixed gender Team race. All teams start in a mass start where the first leg is dedicated to Women. Leg 2 and 3 is dedicated for Men and finally a Women leg finish the Sprint Relay off. The Team that reaches the finish on the 4th leg first is the winning team.

(photo: IOF / Kristina Lindgren)

This WOC arrives in a city that already hosted a World Cup round in 2024, proving its organizational capabilities and genuine passion. Genoa is the sixth-largest city in Italy and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria.

It is, therefore, also a confirmation: Genova is ready, once again, to welcome the global Orienteering community and transform itself into a competition arena. Genova is a symbolic city: born to look beyond the horizon, overlooking the sea, shaped by steep alleys, squares filled with stories, and a port that for centuries served as a bridge between continents. It is the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, an emblem of the drive to cross known boundaries and seek out new horizons.

Beyond the competition, Liguria region will offer you the sea and mountains just a step away, the perched villages, the culture, and the flavours of a land suspended between sky and rock.