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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 - load new batch
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Image 2Marion 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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Image 3A graph of the world record progression in the men's 100 metres (from Track and field)
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Image 4American 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)
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Image 7A racewalker "flying" (entirely out of contact with the ground, a rule violation) (from Racewalking)
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Image 10The Roy Griak Invitational cross country meet at the University of Minnesota in September 2007 (from Cross country running)
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Image 12Anna Giordano Bruno releases the pole after clearing the bar in pole vault (from Track and field)
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Image 13Men assuming the starting position for a sprint race (from Track and field)
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Image 14The finish of a women's 100 m race (from Track and field)
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Image 17Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, one of the first modern track and field stadiums (from Track and field)
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Image 18Men traversing the water jump in a steeplechase competition (from Track and field)
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Image 19Oscar Pistorius running in the first round of the 400 m at the 2012 Summer Olympics (from Track and field)
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Image 21The New York State Federation Championship cross country meet in November 2010 (from Cross country running)
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Image 23A typical layout of an outdoor track and field stadium (from Track and field)
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Image 24The 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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Image 25Ethiopian runner Kenenisa Bekele leading in a long-distance track event (from Track and field)
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Image 26A woman attempting to high jump while using the Fosbury Flop technique (from Track and field)
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Image 27Runners at the 2010 European Cross Country Championships in Albufeira, Portugal (from Cross country running)
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Image 29Arne 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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Image 30The 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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Image 31Carl Lewis, one of the athletes who helped increase track and field's profile (from Track and field)
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Image 33Yury Shayunou spinning with the hammer within the circle in hammer throw (from Track and field)
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Image 35A women's 400 m hurdles race at the 2007 Dutch Championships (from Track and field)
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Image 36Edvin 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)
Selected article
Starting blocks are a device used in the sport of track and field by sprint athletes to brace their feet against at the start of a race so they do not slip as they stride forward at the sound of the starter's pistol. The blocks also enable the sprinters to adopt a more efficient starting posture and isometrically preload their muscles in an enhanced manner. This allows them to start more powerfully and increases their overall sprint speed capability.
For most levels of competition, including the whole of high-level international competition, starting blocks are mandatory equipment for the start of sprint races. Their invention is credited to Australian Charlie Booth and his father in 1929. Prior to this, runners would dig holes in the dirt track. Trowels were provided at the start of races. This was not the most consistent/stable system. It also was destructive to the track surface with the holes having to be, filled for subsequent runners. When George Simpson became the first person to run 9.4 seconds for the 100-yard dash in 1930, his record was disallowed. Because he used starting blocks.
Modern blocks used for world records now must have sensors that detect the pressure from the athlete and can be used to time their reaction to the starting gun. Athletes who react faster than one-tenth of a second can be charged with a false start and the race recalled. Many also carry electronic speakers so the sound of the gun arrives at the ears of the athletes at exactly the same time. Some races for hearing-impaired athletes have also used starting light systems, similar to motorsport's Christmas Tree. (Full article...)
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Athlete birthdays
4 July:
- John Anderson, American discus thrower
- Wude Ayalew, Ethiopian distance runner
- Amantle Montsho, Botswanan sprinter
- Aurèle Vandendriessche, Belgian distance runner
5 July:
- Abeba Aregawi, Ethiopian-Swedish middle-distance runner
- Matthew Birir, Kenyan steeplechase runner
- Valentí Massana, Spanish race walker
- Wim Peters, Dutch triple jumper
- Carlo Thränhardt, German high jumper
- John Woodruff, American middle-distance runner
6 July:
- Valerie Brisco-Hooks, American sprinter
- Rex Cawley, American hurdler
- Benita Fitzgerald-Brown, American hurdler
- Gunhild Hoffmeister, German middle-distance runner
- Arthur Lydiard, New Zealand coach
- Mary Peters, British pentathlete
- Zhanna Pintusevich-Block, Ukrainian sprinter
- Jozef Pribilinec, Czechoslovakian race walker
- László Tábori, Hungarian middle-distance runner
7 July:
- Murray Halberg, New Zealand distance runner
- Kerstin Knabe, German hurdler
- Adam Nelson, American shot putter
- Tina Paulino, Mozambican middle-distance runner
8 July:
- Harrison Dillard, American hurdler and sprinter
- Shalane Flanagan, American distance runner
- Olesya Krasnomovets, Russian sprinter
- Wang Liping, Chinese race walker
9 July:
- Pauline Davis-Thompson, Bahamian sprinter
- Ben Eastman, American 400/800 runner
- Olusoji Fasuba, Nigerian sprinter
- Kara Goucher, American distance runner
- Sim Iness, American discus thrower
- Derek Mills, American sprinter
- Gulnara Samitova-Galkina, Russian steeplechase runner
- Richard Sheldon, American shot putter and discus thrower
- Rutger Smith, Dutch shot putter and discus thrower
10 July:
- Hassiba Boulmerka, Algerian middle-distance runner
- Herb McKenley, Jamaican sprinter
- Rashid Sharafetdinov, Soviet distance runner
- C.K. Yang, Taiwanese decathlete
Related portals
More did you know
- ... that Amane Gobena is the first Ethiopian runner to win the Osaka Ladies Marathon?
- ... that Oprah Winfrey completed the America's Finest City Half Marathon in 1993, running under a pseudonym and accompanied by a bodyguard, a trainer, and a video crew?
- ... that Sharon Cherop fell over at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon but got back up and ran the fastest marathon ever by a woman in Canada?
- ... that Kenyan athlete Paul Malakwen Kosgei became the World Half Marathon Champion in 2002 despite having never competed in a half marathon before?
- ... that A. K. M. Miraj Uddin set a Pakistani national record in the pole vault by clearing 12 feet 2 inches (3.71 m) with a bamboo pole instead of a carbon-fiber pole?
Archive |
Selected biography
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games.
Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifetime as "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history". He set three world records and tied another, all in less than an hour, at the 1935 Big Ten track meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a feat that has never been equaled and has been called "the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport".
He achieved international fame at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, by winning four gold medals: 100 meters, long jump, 200 meters, and 4 × 100-meter relay. He was the most successful athlete at the Games and, as a black American man, was credited with "single-handedly crushing Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy".
The Jesse Owens Award is USA Track & Field's highest accolade for the year's best track and field athlete. Owens was ranked by ESPN as the sixth-greatest North American athlete of the 20th century and the highest-ranked in his sport. In 1999, he was on the six-man short-list for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Century. (Full article...)
More selected biographies |
Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch
- ... that Marthe Yankurije, who dropped out of school during her fourth year of secondary school, competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics?
- ... that the men's 100 metres event at the 2023 British Athletics Championships was run in heavy rain?
- ... 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 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 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 when the Oakland Athletics promoted Bill McNulty to the major leagues, they needed forest rangers to find him?
- ... that at the 2022 British Indoor Athletics Championships, Lorraine Ugen equalled the championship long jump record?
- ... that the women's race at today's New York City Marathon will feature two of the medalists from this year's Olympic marathon?
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
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 |
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Olympic Games | 1896 | World games | Worldwide |
World Championships | 1983 | World championships | |
World Indoor Championships | 1985 | ||
European Championships | 1934 | Continental championships | Europe |
European Indoor Championships | 1966 | ||
South American Championships | 1919 | South America | |
Asian Championships | 1973 | Asia | |
African Championships | 1979 | Africa | |
Ocenian Championships | 1990 | 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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