The 23rd Biathlon World Championships for men were held in 1987 for the second time in Lake Placid, New York, United States. The 4th women's world championships were held in Lahti, Finland.^[1]

Men's results

20 km individual

Medal	Name	Nation	Penalties	Result
	Frank-Peter Roetsch	GDR	1	1:00:00.4
	Josh Thompson	USA	1	1:00:51.0
	Jan Matouš	CZE	0	1:01:15.3

10 km sprint

Medal	Name	Nation	Penalties	Result
	Frank-Peter Roetsch	GDR	1	29:49.6
	Matthias Jacob	GDR	2	30:38.8
	André Sehmisch	GDR	2	30:55.4

4 × 7.5 km relay

Medal	Name	Nation	Penalties	Result
	East Germany Frank-Peter Roetsch Matthias Jacob André Sehmisch Jürgen Wirth	GDR
	Soviet Union Dmitry Vasilyev Juri Kashkarov Alexandr Popov Valeriy Medvedtsev	URS
	West Germany Ernst Reiter Herbert Fritzenwenger Peter Angerer Fritz Fischer	FRG

Women's results

10 km individual

Medal	Name	Nation	Penalties	Result
	Sanna Grønlid	NOR	2	42:42.8
	Kaija Parve	URS	2	+ 48.3
	Tuija Vuoksiala	FIN	2	+ 2:14.0

5 km sprint

Medal	Name	Nation	Penalties	Result
	Elena Golovina	URS	0	21:14.7
	Venera Chernyshova	URS	1	+ 37.2
	Anne Elvebakk	NOR	2	+ 57.4

3 × 5 km relay

Medal	Name	Nation	Penalties	Result
	Soviet Union Elena Golovina Venera Chernyshova Kaija Parve	URS
	Sweden Inger Björkbom Mia Stadig Eva Korpela	SWE
	Norway Anne Elvebakk Sanna Grønlid Siv Bråten	NOR

Medal table

Place	Nation				Total
1	East Germany	3	1	1	5
2	Soviet Union	2	3	0	5
3	Norway	1	0	2	3
4	United States	0	1	0	1
4	Sweden	0	1	0	1
6	Finland	0	0	1	1
6	West Germany	0	0	1	1
6	Czechoslovakia	0	0	1	1