Portal:Sport of athletics
Introduction
Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross-country running, and racewalking.
The results of racing events are decided by finishing position (or time, where measured), while the jumps and throws are won by the athlete that achieves the highest or furthest measurement from a series of attempts. The simplicity of the competitions, and the lack of a need for expensive equipment, makes athletics one of the most common types of sports in the world. Athletics is mostly an individual sport, with the exception of relay races and competitions which combine athletes' performances for a team score, such as cross country.
Organized athletics are traced back to the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BC. The rules and format of the modern events in athletics were defined in Western Europe and North America in the 19th and early 20th century, and were then spread to other parts of the world. Most modern top level meetings are held under the auspices of World Athletics, the global governing body for the sport of athletics, or its member continental and national federations. (Full article...)
General images -
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Carl Lewis, one of the athletes who helped increase track and field's profile (from Track and field) -
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The finish of a women's 100 m race (from Track and field) -
American athlete Jim Thorpe lost his Olympic medals after taking expense money prior to the 1912 Summer Olympics for playing baseball, a violation of Olympic amateurism rules. (from Track and field) -
Arne Andersson (left) and Gunder Hägg (right) broke a number of middle distance world records in the 1940s. (from Track and field) -
The Gordon Indoor Track sports an 80-yard sprint straight, and the track is 220 yards in length. (from Track and field) -
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The start of a typical cross country race, as an official fires a gun to signal the start (from Cross country running) -
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An Ancient Greece vase from 600 BC depicting a running contest (from Track and field) -
The New York State Federation Championship cross country meet in November 2010 (from Cross country running) -
Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, one of the first modern track and field stadiums (from Track and field) -
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Girls handing over the baton in a relay race in Leipzig in 1950 (from Track and field) -
Oscar Pistorius running in the first round of the 400 m at the 2012 Summer Olympics (from Track and field) -
A typical layout of an outdoor track and field stadium (from Track and field) -
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A children's cross country competition in Čakovec, Croatia (from Cross country running) -
Naide Gomes in the jumping phase of the event (from Track and field) -
Runners at the 2010 European Cross Country Championships in Albufeira, Portugal (from Cross country running) -
Ethiopian runner Kenenisa Bekele leading in a long-distance track event (from Track and field) -
A graph of the world record progression in the men's 100 metres (from Track and field) -
A women's 400 m hurdles race at the 2007 Dutch Championships (from Track and field) -
Men assuming the starting position for a sprint race (from Track and field) -
The 100 m final at the 2008 Summer Olympics (from Track and field) -
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A child taking part in a local schools meeting in Cambodia (from Track and field) -
Shaul Ladany (centre), in 1969 (from Racewalking) -
A javelin throw athlete (from Track and field) -
The Roy Griak Invitational cross country meet at the University of Minnesota in September 2007 (from Cross country running) -
A racewalker "flying" (entirely out of contact with the ground, a rule violation) (from Racewalking) -
Men traversing the water jump in a steeplechase competition (from Track and field) -
Edvin Wide, Ville Ritola, and Paavo Nurmi (on left) competing in the individual cross country race at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris; due to the hot weather, which exceeded 40 °C (104 °F), only 15 out of 38 competitors finished the race. (from Cross country running) -
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Marion Jones, after admitting to doping, lost her Olympic medals, was banned from the sport, and spent six months in jail. (from Track and field)
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Selected article
The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad (Greek: Αγώνες της 1ης Ολυμπιάδας, romanized: Agónes tis 1is Olympiádas) and commonly known as Athens 1896 (Greek: Αθήνα 1896), was the first international Olympic Games held in modern history. Organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which had been created by French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin, it was held in Athens, Greece, from 6 to 15 April 1896.
Fourteen nations (according to the IOC, though the number is subject to interpretation) and 241 athletes (all males; this number is also disputed) took part in the games. Participants were all European, or living in Europe, with the exception of the United States team. Over 65% of the competing athletes were Greek. Winners were given a silver medal, while runners-up received a copper medal. Retroactively, the IOC has converted these to gold and silver, and awarded bronze medals to third placed athletes. Ten of the 14 participating nations earned medals. The United States won the most gold medals, 11, while host nation Greece won the most medals overall, 47. The highlight for the Greeks was the marathon victory by their compatriot Spyridon Louis. The most successful competitor was German wrestler and gymnast Carl Schuhmann, who won four events.
The 1896 Olympics were regarded as a great success. The Games had the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date. The Panathenaic Stadium overflowed with the largest crowd ever to watch a sporting event. After the Games, Coubertin and the IOC were petitioned by several prominent figures, including Greece's King George and some of the American competitors in Athens, to hold all the following Games in Athens. However, the 1900 Summer Olympics were already planned for Paris and, with the exception of the Intercalated Games of 1906, the Olympics did not return to Greece until the 2004 Summer Olympics, 108 years later. (Full article...)
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Selected picture
Athlete birthdays
1 June:
- Hasna Benhassi, Moroccan middle-distance runner
- Antonietta Di Martino, Italian high jumper
- Werner Günthör, Swiss shot putter
- Mihaela Loghin, Romanian shot putter
- Moses Masai, Kenyan distance runner
- Lorraine Moller, New Zealand distance runner
- David Neville, American sprinter
- Olga Nazarova, Soviet sprinter
- Brian Oldfield, American shot putter
- Yarisley Silva, Cuban pole vaulter
2 June:
- Olga Bondarenko, Soviet distance runner
- Cliff Cushman, American hurdler
- Hec Dyer, American sprinter
- Volodymyr Holubnychy, Soviet race walker
- Joe McCluskey, American steeplechase runner
- Remigija Nazarovienė, Lithuanian heptathlete
- Mark Plaatjes, South African-American distance runner
- Natalia Rodríguez, Spanish middle-distance runner
3 June:
- Yelena Isinbayeva, Russian pole vaulter
- Micah Kogo, Kenyan distance runner
- Luis Fernando López, Colombian race walker
- Edith McGuire, American sprinter
- Dagmar Neubauer, German sprinter
- Eddy Ottoz, Italian hurdler
- Lindy Remigino, American sprinter
4 June:
- Oleg Fedoseyev, Soviet triple jumper
- Gulfiya Khanafeyeva, Russian hammer thrower
- Abel Kirui, Kenyan distance runner
- Tom Longboat, Canadian distance runner
- Bronisław Malinowski, Polish steeplechase runner
- Niurka Montalvo, Cuban-Spanish long jumper
- Olha Saladuha, Ukrainian triple jumper
- John Treacy, Irish distance runner
5 June:
- Karin Balzer, German hurdler
- Anke Behmer, German heptathlete
- John Carlos, American sprinter
- Joe DeLoach, American sprinter
- Vilhjálmur Einarsson, Icelandic triple jumper
- Fred Lorz, American distance runner
- Werner Schildhauer, German distance runner
6 June:
- Ryan Brathwaite, Barbadian hurdler
- Hans-Peter Ferner, German middle-distance runner
- Marian Oprea, Romanian triple jumper
- Andrey Prokofyev, Soviet hurdler
- Tommie Smith, American sprinter
- Paweł Wojciechowski, Polish pole vaulter
7 June:
- Alina Astafei, Romanian-German high jumper
- Clarence DeMar, American distance runner
- Alleyne Francique, Grenadian sprinter
- Hatem Ghoula, Tunisian race walker
- Piotr Małachowski, Polish discus thrower
- Richard Thompson, Trinidadian sprinter
Related portals
More did you know
- ... that 1985 NCAA hurdling champion Thomas Wilcher won the Michigan High School Athletic Association team track & field championship three consecutive times, both as an athlete and a coach?
- ... that Charlie Fonville broke a 14-year-old shot put world record by almost twelve inches at the 1948 Kansas Relays but was not allowed to stay with the other athletes because he was African-American?
- ... that the Peachtree Road Race, held annually on July 4 (U.S. Independence Day) in Atlanta, Georgia, is the world's largest 10 kilometer road race with 55,000 runners participating in 2007?
- ... that Patrick Ivuti's photo finish victory in the 2007 Chicago Marathon, one of the five major marathons, was his first marathon victory?
| Archive |
Selected biography
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Caitlyn Marie Jenner (born William Bruce Jenner; October 28, 1949; known as Bruce Jenner until 2015) is an American media personality and former Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete. (Full article...)
Jenner was the American champion in the men's decathlon event in 1974, and was featured on the cover of Track & Field News magazine's August 1974 issue.[1][2] While on tour in 1975, Jenner won the French national championship,[3] and a gold medal at the 1975 Pan American Games, setting the tournament record with 8,045 points.[4] This was followed by world records of 8,524 points at the U.S.A./U.S.S.R./Poland triangular meet in Eugene, Oregon, on August 9–10, 1975, breaking Avilov's record,[5] and 8,538 points at the 1976 Olympic trials, also in Eugene.[6][7] The second Eugene record was a hybrid score because of a timing system failure and it was wind aided. Still, Jenner was proud of "A nice little workout, huh?"
We got what we wanted. We scared the hell out of everybody in the world only a month away from the Games.[8]
Of the 13 decathlons Jenner competed in between 1973 and 1976, the only loss was at the 1975 AAU National Championships, when a "no height" in the pole vault marred the score.[4]
At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Jenner achieved personal bests in all five events on the first day of the men's decathlon – a "home run" – despite being in second place behind Guido Kratschmer of West Germany. Jenner was confident: "The second day has all my good events. If everything works out all right, we should be ahead after it's all over." Following a rainstorm on the second day, Jenner watched teammate Fred Dixon get injured in the 110 meter hurdles[9] and so adopted a cautious approach to the hurdles and discus, then had personal bests in the pole vault, when Jenner took the lead, and javelin.[10] At that point, victory was virtually assured, and it remained to be seen by how much Jenner would improve the record. In the final event – the 1500 meters, which was seen live on national television – Jenner looked content to finish the long competition. Jenner sprinted the last lap, making up a 50-meter deficit and nearly catching the event favorite, Soviet Leonid Litvinenko, who was already well out of contention for the gold medal, and whose personal best had been eight seconds better than Jenner's personal best before the race. Jenner set a new personal best time and won the gold medal with a world-record score of 8,618 points.[11][6][12][13][14]
| More selected biographies |
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that German runner Alica Schmidt, who is running in the Women's 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2020 Summer Olympics, has won multiple European junior relay medals?
- ... that Marthe Yankurije, who dropped out of school during her fourth year of secondary school, competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics?
- ... that at the 2022 British Indoor Athletics Championships, Lorraine Ugen equalled the championship long jump record?
- ... that for the first time this century, this year's British Athletics Championships were not broadcast on live television?
- ... that the women's race at today's New York City Marathon will feature two of the medalists from this year's Olympic marathon?
- ... that in the 1932 baseball game in which pitcher Eddie Rommel won his last game, he pitched 17 innings in relief, an American League record?
- ... that at the 2022 British Athletics Championships, Daryll Neita became the first woman since 2010 to win both the 100- and 200-metre events?
- ... that the men's 100 metres event at the 2023 British Athletics Championships was run in heavy rain?
World records
| Event | Men | Record | Women | Record |
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| 100 m |  Usain Bolt |
9.58 |  Florence Griffith Joyner |
10.49 |
| 200 m | Usain Bolt |
19.19 | Florence Griffith Joyner |
21.34 |
| 400 m |  Wayde van Niekerk |
43.03 |  Marita Koch |
47.60 |
| 800 m |  David Rudisha |
1:40.91 |  Jarmila Kratochvílová |
1:53.28 |
| 1500 m |  Hicham El Guerrouj |
3:26.00 | Faith Kipyegon |
3:49.11 |
| 5000 m |  Joshua Cheptegei |
12:35.36 |  Gudaf Tsegay |
14:00.21 |
| 10,000 m | Joshua Cheptegei |
26:11.00 | Letesenbet Gidey |
29:01.03 |
| Marathon | Kelvin Kiptum |
2:00:35 | Brigid Kosgei |
2:14:04 |
| 3000 m steeplechase | Lamecha Girma |
7:52.11 | Beatrice Chepkoech |
8:44.32 |
| 110 / 100 m hurdles | Aries Merritt |
12.80 |  Tobi Amusan |
12.12 |
| 400 m hurdles |  Karsten Warholm |
45.94 | Sydney McLaughlin |
50.68 |
| High jump |  Javier Sotomayor |
2.45 m |  Stefka Kostadinova |
2.09 m |
| Pole vault |  Armand Duplantis |
6.23 m |  Yelena Isinbayeva |
5.06 m |
| Long jump | Mike Powell |
8.95 m |  Galina Chistyakova |
7.52 m |
| Triple jump |  Jonathan Edwards |
18.29 m |  Yulimar Rojas |
15.74 m |
| Shot put | Ryan Crouser |
23.56 m | Natalya Lisovskaya |
22.63 m |
| Discus throw | Jürgen Schult |
74.08 m | Gabriele Reinsch |
76.80 m |
| Hammer throw | Yuriy Sedykh |
86.74 m |  Anita Włodarczyk |
82.98 m |
| Javelin throw | Jan Železný |
98.48 m | Barbora Špotáková |
72.28 m |
| Decathlon/Heptathlon |  Kevin Mayer |
9126 pts. | Jackie Joyner-Kersee |
7291 pts. |
| 20 km racewalk |  Yusuke Suzuki |
1:16:36 |  Yang Jiayu |
1:23:49 |
| 4×100 m relay | Jamaica |
36.84 |  United States |
40.82 |
| 4×400 m relay | United States |
2:54.29 | Soviet Union |
3:15.17 |
Topics
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Annual awards in athletics and track and field | ||
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Athletics events
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Athletics competitions
It's from the first edition (1896 Summer Olympics), that Athletics has been considered the "Queen" of the Olympics. Since then there have been a series of competitions organized at world level, than at the continental level. Furthermore, the Athletics is the main sport of nearly all multi-sport events such as Universiade, Mediterranean Games or Pan American Games. The following list refers to the main Athletics competitions that take place in the world.
| Event | 1st edition | Kind of competition | Can participate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic Games | 1896 | World games |  Worldwide
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| World Championships | 1983 | World championships | |
| World Indoor Championships | 1985 | ||
| European Championships | 1934 | Continental championships | .svg){kind=small} Europe
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| European Indoor Championships | 1966 | ||
| South American Championships | 1919 | .svg){kind=small} South America
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| Asian Championships | 1973 | .svg){kind=small} Asia
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| African Championships | 1979 | .svg){kind=small} Africa
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| Ocenian Championships | 1990 | .svg){kind=small} Oceania
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Federations
- Internationals
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)
European Athletics Association (EAA)
Confederation of African Athletics (CAA)
Asian Athletics Association (AAA)
North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association
CONSUDATLE
Oceania Athletics Association (OAA)
- Nationals
Australia: Athletics Australia (AA)
Brazil: Brazilian Athletics Confederation (CBAt)
Canada: Athletics Canada (AC)
Czech: Czech Athletics Federation (ČAS)
France: Fédération française d'athlétisme (FFA)
Germany: German Athletics Association (DLV)
Italy: Italian Athletics Federation (FIDAL)
Jamaica: Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA)
Japan: Japan Association of Athletics Federations (JAAF)
Kenya: Athletics Kenya (AK)
China: Chinese Athletic Association
Norway: Norwegian Athletics Association
Romania: Romanian Athletics Federation
Spain: Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA)
Great Britain: UK Athletics (UKA)
United States: USA Track & Field (USATF)
- Others
Wales: Welsh Athletics (WA)
England: Amateur Athletic Association of England (AAA)
Scotland: Scottishathletics
Athletic Association of Small States of Europe (AASSE)
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Sources
- ^ "1974 Covers (18-issue year)". Track & Field News. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
- ^ "USA Outdoor Track & Field Hall of Fame". USA Track & Field. Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
- ^ "French Championships". gbrathletics.com. 2007. Archived from the original on December 26, 2010. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
- ^ a b Mike Sielski (November 19, 2003). "Jenner true to word, wins Olympic gold". ESPN Classic. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
- ^ Conrad, John (August 11, 1975). "Jenner gets his record – handily". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). p. 1C. Archived from the original on August 20, 2021. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
- ^ a b Richard Hymans (2008). "The History of the United States Olympic trials – Track and Field" (PDF). USA Track and Field. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 27, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
- ^ Conrad, John (June 27, 1976). "Brigham's Olympian hopes at end". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). p. 1C. Archived from the original on August 20, 2021. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
- ^ Litsky, Frank (June 27, 1976). "Jenner Triumphs In Decathlon Trial". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 14, 2018. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
- ^ "Heading For The 11th Event". Sports Illustrated Vault | Si.com. Archived from the original on August 8, 2018. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
- ^ "Bruce Jenner Javelin Record". brucejennerinterviews.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
- ^ Maury White. "Bruce Jenner". The Des Moines Register. Archived from the original on February 21, 2015. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
- ^ Arash Markazi (July 30, 2015). "Bruce Jenner became an Olympic icon exactly 39 years ago". ESPN. Archived from the original on June 11, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
- ^ "Athletics at the 1976 Montréal Summer Games: Men's Decathlon". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
- ^ "Jenner's long haul pays off with gold and world mark". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). wire services. July 31, 1976. p. 1B. Archived from the original on August 20, 2021. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
