Three events including the men's and women's 4x400m and women's triple jump were added to the 13 men's and 11 women's events in the conventional Championships.

There were as many as 8 indoor world records marked in the Championships, with three-time winner Shchennikov of the USSR marking 18:23.55, Germany marking 3:03.05 in the men’s 4x400m, Marlene Ottey of Jamaica setting 22.24 in the women's 200m, and Beate Anders of Germany marking 11:50.90 in 3000m walk. Inessa Kravets of USSR set three world records of 14.30, 14.39, and 14.44 metres in the three tries in triple jump. The other is Germany's record of 3:27.22 set in the women’s 4x400m.

A point of note in the Championships was that, after a long time, the German team was organised by both West and East German athletes for the first time since the 1960's, and the men’s 4x400m was consist of all-East German athletes. In pole vault, Sergei Bubka of the USSR cleared 6 metres for the first time in a worldwide meeting and grabbed his third win. In 60m, Ben Johnson of Canada entered for his first race after a two-year ban. He placed second in the preliminaries and third in the semifinal but ended fourth in the final with 6.61 after Andre Cason of the US marking 6.54, Linford Christie of UK with 6.55, and Chidi Imoh of Nigeria with 6.60.