| Championships | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 Sittard |
 Birgit Friedmann (FRG)
|
 Karoline Nemetz (SWE)
|
 Ingrid Kristiansen (NOR)
|
| 1983 Helsinki |
 Mary Decker (USA)
|
Brigitte Kraus (FRG)
|
 Tatyana Kovalenko-Kazankina (URS)
|
| 1987 Rome |
Tetyana Samolenko (URS)
|
 Maricica Puică (ROU)
|
 Ulrike Bruns (GDR)
|
| 1991 Tokyo |
Tetyana Dorovskikh (URS)
|
Yelena Romanova (URS)
|
 Susan Sirma (KEN)
|
| 1993 Stuttgart |
 Qu Yunxia (CHN)
|
Zhang Linli (CHN)
|
Zhang Lirong (CHN)
|
Medalists by country
edit| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soviet Union (URS) |
2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 2 | China (CHN) |
1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 3 | West Germany (FRG) |
1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | United States (USA) |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 |  Romania (ROU) |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Sweden (SWE) |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 7 | East Germany (GDR) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Kenya (KEN) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Norway (NOR) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |