Portal:Sport of athletics
Introduction
Athletics is a group of sporting events involving competitive running, jumping and throwing. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross-country running, and race walking.
The results of racing events are decided by finishing position (or time, where measured), while the jumps and throws are won by the athlete who achieves the highest or furthest measurement from a series of attempts. The simplicity of the competitions and the lack of need for expensive equipment make athletics one of the most widely practiced 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 -
A graph of the world record progression in the men's 100 metres (from Track and field)
Naide Gomes in the jumping phase of the event (from Track and field)
Ethiopian runner Kenenisa Bekele leading in a long-distance track event (from Track and field)
Oscar Pistorius running in the first round of the 400 m at the 2012 Summer Olympics (from Track and field)
The Gordon Indoor Track features an 80-yard sprint straight, and the track is 220 yards in length. (from Track and field)
Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, one of the first modern track and field stadiums (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)
Carl Lewis, one of the athletes who helped increase track and field's profile (from Track and field)
A children's cross country competition in Čakovec, Croatia (from Cross country running)
Girls handing over the baton in a relay race in Leipzig in 1950 (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)
A typical layout of an outdoor track and field stadium (from Track and field)
Men assuming the starting position for a sprint race (from Track and field)
A javelin throw athlete (from Track and field)
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)
A child taking part in a local schools meeting in Cambodia (from Track and field)
Shaul Ladany (centre), in 1969 (from Race walking)
Quincy Wilson setting the U18 world record in the 400-meter dash (from Track and field)
Men traversing the water jump in a steeplechase competition (from Track and field)
The New York State Federation Championship cross country meet in November 2010 (from Cross country running)
The start of a typical cross country race, as an official fires a gun to signal the start (from Cross country running)
An example of a racewalker in a "flight phase" (both feet entirely out of contact with the ground, a rule violation) (from Race walking)
The finish of a women's 100 m race (from Track and field)
A women's 400 m hurdles race at the 2007 Dutch Championships (from Track and field)
The Roy Griak Invitational cross country meet at the University of Minnesota in September 2007 (from Cross country running)
A high school student attempting to high jump while using the Fosbury Flop technique (from Track and field)
Runners at the 2010 European Cross Country Championships in Albufeira, Portugal (from Cross country running)
Arne Andersson (left) and Gunder Hägg (right) broke a number of middle-distance world records in the 1940s. (from Track and field)
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Selected article
The modern Summer Olympic Games have been held every four years since the first Games in 1896 (except 1916 due to the First World War, 1940 and 1944 due to the Second World War, and 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and Olympic records are recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in each event. The athletics events, which take place at each Games, are divided into four groups: track events (including sprints, middle- and long-distance running, hurdling and relays), field events (including javelin, discus, hammer, shot put, pole vault, high, long and triple jumps), road events (such as walks and the marathon) and combined events (the heptathlon and the decathlon). Women compete in 23 athletics events during the Games, and men compete in 24; while 21 of the events are the same for both men and women, men exclusively compete in the 50 km walk, the women's combined event is the heptathlon while the men compete in the decathlon, and the short distance hurdles for women is contested over 100 m, ten metres shorter than the men's event.
Some Olympic records have been broken but later rescinded by the IOC. In 1988, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson broke the Olympic and World record in the 100 metres sprint, but was subsequently disqualified after it was discovered that he had used anabolic steroids to enhance his performance. His record was expunged and the gold medal was instead awarded to original silver medalist American Carl Lewis. Hungarian athlete Róbert Fazekas broke the Olympic record in the men's discus in 2004 but was later stripped of both his gold medal and the record after it was deemed that he had "committed an anti-doping rule violation".
The longest standing modern Olympic athletics record is Bob Beamon's achievement in the men's long jump at the 1968 Summer Olympics. The jump, at 8.90 m (29 ft 2 in), also broke the existing world record by 55 cm (22 in), and stood as the world record for 23 years until Beamon's compatriot, Mike Powell, jumped farther in the 1991 World Championships in Athletics in Tokyo.
Note, only those events currently competed for and recognised by the IOC as Summer Olympic events are listed. (Full article...)
| More selected articles |
Selected picture
Athlete birthdays
7 October:
- Valeria Bufanu, Romanian hurdler
- William Droegemueller, American pole vaulter
- Erik Elmsäter, Swedish steeplechase runner
- Daniele Meucci, Italian distance runner
- Sanderlei Parrela, Brazilian sprinter
- Olesya Zykina, Russian sprinter
8 October:
- Ira Davenport, American middle-distance runner
- Tatiana Grigorieva, Russian-Australian pole vaulter
- Reese Hoffa, American shot putter
- Lennox Miller, Jamaican sprinter
- Koji Murofushi, Japanese hammer thrower
- Elvira Ozolina, Soviet javelin thrower
- Emiel Puttemans, Belgian distance runner
- Geoff Vanderstock, American hurdler
9 October:
- Sylvio Cator, Haitian long jumper
- Dionicio Cerón, Mexican distance runner
- Peter Elliott, British middle-distance runner
- Deon Hemmings, Jamaican hurdler
- Tatyana Lysenko, Russian hammer thrower
- Blessing Okagbare, Nigerian sprinter
- Steve Ovett, British middle-distance runner
10 October:
- Brian Diemer, American steeplechase runner
- Tatyana Firova, Russian sprinter
- Mario Lanzi, Italian middle-distance runner
- Elana Meyer, South African distance runner
- Mohammed Mourhit, Belgian distance runner
11 October:
- Yelena Belevskaya, Soviet long jumper
- Darrel Brown, Trinidadian sprinter
- Nesta Carter, Jamaican sprinter
- Lee Bong-Ju, Korean distance runner
- Mekonnen Gebremedhin, Ethiopian middle-distance runner
- Hans Liesche, German high jumper
- Alan Pascoe, British hurdler
- Tadeusz Rut, Polish hammer thrower
- Tetyana Tereshchuk-Antipova, Ukrainian hurdler
- Mal Whitfield, American 400/800 runner
- Níki Xánthou, Greek long jumper
- Juan Carlos Zabala, Argentinian distance runner
12 October:
- Kajsa Bergqvist, Swedish high jumper
- Fons Brijdenbach, Belgian sprinter
- Janay DeLoach, American long jumper
- Truxtun Hare, American thrower
- Marion Jones, American sprinter
- Vitold Kreyer, Soviet triple jumper
- Emmanuel Kipchirchir Mutai, Kenyan distance runner
- Vita Palamar, Ukrainian high jumper
- Adriaan Paulen, Dutch 400/800 runner and IAAF president
13 October:
- Dwayne Evans, American sprinter
- Detlef Michel, German javelin thrower
- John Regis, British sprinter
- Annegret Richter, German sprinter
- Javier Sotomayor, Cuban high jumper
Related portals
More did you know
- ... that the 2000 Summer Olympics gold medalist in the heptathlon was Denise Lewis?
- ... that as part of a publicity stunt, the 1927 Texas Relays held an 89 mile (143 km) running race from San Antonio to Austin?
- ... that Czech decathlete Roman Šebrle, world record holder and 2004 Olympic winner, was injured in January 2007 when a javelin which had been thrown 55 metres pierced his shoulder?
- ... that at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics, Yipsi Moreno became world champion in the hammer throw at the age of twenty, improving from an eighteenth place finish in 1999?
| Archive |
Selected biography
Reginald Wyatt (born September 17, 1990) is an American hurdler. He is the current holder of the NFHS (United States High School) record in the 300 meters intermediate hurdles at 35.02, set while winning a preliminary race at the CIF California State Meet on June 5, 2009 at Buchanan High School in Clovis, California. Wyatt won the State Meet the following day, but his time of 36.71 was not destined to be record material after he also won the 400 metres in 46.13 earlier at the same meet.
In 2009, he won the USATF Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 50.02 and he ran 49.78, the fifth best high school time for 400 hurdles, while winning the United States Junior Olympics. At the 2009 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships in Port of Spain, Trinidad he again lost to rival Wynne but still took home a bronze medal. (Full article...)
| More selected biographies |
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that Mokulubete Makatisi placed eighth at the 2022 Commonwealth Games women's marathon despite running in new shoes that she had received on the eve of the race?
- ... that Femke Bol's time of 49.17 seconds on 2 March 2024 broke her own 400 m short track world record?
- ... that a 400-metre race in 2025 was won by Lieke Klaver, who pretended that an absent competitor was running in front of her?
- ... that Libania Grenot was the first woman in three decades to successfully defend the European 400-metres title?
- ... that Justyna Święty-Ersetic "snatch[ed] gold in the dying strides" of the women's 400 metres at the 2018 European Athletics Championships?
- ... that Femke Bol successfully defended her 2021 title by winning the women's 400 metres at the 2023 European Athletics Indoor Championships?
- ... that Sydney McLaughlin's world record of 50.68 seconds in the 400 metres hurdles was called "one of the greatest track performances of all time"?
- ... that four-time NAIA scoring champion Grace Beyer has scored more career points than any female basketball player at a four-year college or university?
World records
Topics
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Records in athletics | |||||||||||
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Athletics by country | ||
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Annual awards in athletics and track and field | ||
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Athletics events
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Athletics competitions
From the first edition at the 1896 Summer Games, athletics has been considered the "queen" of the Olympics. Today, there are several other athletics championships organized at global and continental levels. Athletics also serves as the main focus of many multi-sport events such as the World University Games, Mediterranean Games, and Pan American Games. The following is a list of prominent athletics competitions.
| Event | 1st edition | Kind of competition | Can participate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic Games | 1896 | World games |  Worldwide |
| World Championships | 1983 | World championships | |
| World Indoor Championships | 1985 | ||
| European Championships | 1934 | Continental championships | .svg){kind=small} Europe |
| European Indoor Championships | 1966 | ||
| South American Championships | 1919 | .svg){kind=small} South America | |
| Asian Championships | 1973 | .svg){kind=small} Asia | |
| African Championships | 1979 | .svg){kind=small} Africa | |
| Ocenian Championships | 1990 | .svg){kind=small} Oceania |
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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