Portal:Sport of athletics
Introduction
Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping and throwing. 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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A children's cross country competition in Čakovec, Croatia (from Cross country running) -
A racewalker "flying" (entirely out of contact with the ground, a rule violation) (from Racewalking) -
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The Gordon Indoor Track sports an 80-yard sprint straight, and the track is 220 yards in length. (from Track and field) -
A typical layout of an outdoor track and field stadium (from Track and field) -
A javelin throw athlete (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) -
The 100 m final at the 2008 Summer Olympics (from Track and field) -
Men assuming the starting position for a sprint race (from Track and field) -
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Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, one of the first modern track and field stadiums (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) -
The Roy Griak Invitational cross country meet at the University of Minnesota in September 2007 (from Cross country running) -
Oscar Pistorius running in the first round of the 400 m at the 2012 Summer Olympics (from Track and field) -
An ancient Greece vase from 600 BC depicting a running contest (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) -
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Ethiopian runner Kenenisa Bekele leading in a long-distance track event (from Track and field) -
Naide Gomes in the jumping phase of the event (from Track and field) -
A women's 400 m hurdles race at the 2007 Dutch Championships (from Track and field) -
A graph of the world record progression in the men's 100 metres (from Track and field) -
The New York State Federation Championship cross country meet in November 2010 (from Cross country running) -
The finish of a women's 100 m race (from Track and field) -
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A child taking part in a local schools meeting in Cambodia (from Track and field) -
Carl Lewis, one of the athletes who helped increase track and field's profile (from Track and field) -
Shaul Ladany (centre), in 1969 (from Racewalking) -
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Men traversing the water jump in a steeplechase competition (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) -
Runners at the 2010 European Cross Country Championships in Albufeira, Portugal (from Cross country running) -
Girls handing over the baton in a relay race in Leipzig in 1950 (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)
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_-_The_Winners_of_the_10,000_M_Walk.jpg)
Selected article
The Chicago Marathon is a road marathon held in October in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the seven World Marathon Majors. Thus, it is also a World Athletics Label Road Race. The Chicago Marathon is one of the largest races by number of finishers worldwide. The race was awarded the World Athletics Heritage Plaque in 2024, for "outstanding contribution to the history and development of road running."
Annual Chicago marathons were held from 1905 to the 1920s, but the first race in the present series occurred on September 25, 1977, under the original name the Mayor Daley Marathon, which drew a field of 4,200 runners. The race has been held every year since, except in 1987 when only a half-marathon was run, and in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It became among the fastest-growing modern-marathon road races in the world, due in part to its largely fast and flat course which facilitates the pursuit of personal records and world record performances. It generally begins and ends in Grant Park, and travels streets of the North Side, West Side and South Side, before returning to the Loop. The race has achieved its elite status among marathons by developing relationships with sponsors who provide prize money to lure elite runners who have produced American and world record performances. Since 2008, the race has been sponsored and organized by Bank of America, and is officially known as the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. (Full article...)
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Selected picture
Athlete birthdays
30 December:
- Hadi Soua'an Al-Somaily, Saudi Arabian hurdler
- Glory Alozie, Nigerian-Spanish hurdler
- Dave Bedford, British distance runner
- Ato Boldon, Trinidadian sprinter
- Sandra Glover, American hurdler
- Phillips Idowu, British triple jumper
- Ben Johnson, Canadian sprinter
- Antal Kiss, Hungarian race walker
- Paola Pigni, Italian middle-distance runner
- Martti Vainio, Finnish distance runner
- Jacek Wszoła, Polish high jumper
31 December:
- Inge Helten, German sprinter
- Helma Knorscheidt, German shot putter
- Yrjö Nikkanen, Finnish javelin thrower
- Ivan Riley, American hurdler
- Ahmed Salah, Djiboutian distance runner
- Fritz Schwab, Swiss race walker
- Margaret Simpson, Ghanaian heptathlete
- Willye White, American long jumper
- Jeff Williams, American sprinter
1 January:
- Yohann Diniz, French race walker
- Kinue Hitomi, Japanese all-rounder
- Adil Kaouch, Moroccan middle-distance runner
- Vladimir Kiselyov, Soviet shot putter
- Alain Mimoun, French distance runner
- Dick Quax, New Zealand middle- and long-distance runner
- Jaysuma Saidy Ndure, Gambian-Norwegian sprinter
- Andrew Valmon, American sprinter
- Melaine Walker, Jamaican hurdler
2 January:
- István Bagyula, Hungarian pole vaulter
- Rudolf Bauer, Hungarian discus thrower
- Cristieana Cojocaru, Romanian hurdler
- Sheryf El-Sheryf, Ukrainian triple jumper
- Ludmila Formanová, Czech middle-distance runner
- Paweł Januszewski, Polish hurdler
- Bianca Knight, American sprinter
- Martin Lauer, German hurdler, sprinter and decathlete
- Ines Müller, German shot putter
- Athanasia Tsoumeleka, Greek race walker
- Yevgeniy Yevsyukov, Soviet race walker
3 January:
- Alessandro Andrei, Italian shot putter
- Eşref Apak, Turkish hammer thrower
- Bryan Clay, American decathlete
- Duncan Gillis, Canadian hammer thrower
- Eeles Landström, Finnish pole vaulter
- Lisa Misipeka, American Samoan hammer thrower
4 January:
- Igor Astapkovich, Belarusian hammer thrower
- Nataliya Bochina, Soviet sprinter
- Andrei Krauchanka, Belarusian decathlete
- Marla Runyan, American middle- and long-distance runner
- Pat Ryan, Irish-American hammer thrower
- Eddie Southern, American hurdler and sprinter
- Toru Terasawa, Japanese distance runner
- Marianne Werner, German shot putter
5 January:
- Derrick Atkins, Bahamian sprinter
- Adolfo Consolini, Italian discus thrower
- Giuseppe Gibilisco, Italian pole vaulter
- Derek Johnson, British middle-distance runner
- Veikko Karvonen, Finnish distance runner
- Jack Lovelock, New Zealand middle-distance runner
- Patrik Sjöberg, Swedish high jumper
- Iwan Thomas, British sprinter
- Vadims Vasiļevskis, Latvian javelin thrower
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
Merlene Joyce Ottey (born 10 May 1960) is a Jamaican-Slovenian former track and field sprinter. She began her career representing Jamaica in 1978 and continued to do so for 24 years before representing Slovenia from 2002 to 2012. She is ranked fourth on the all-time list over 60 metres (indoor), eighth on the all-time list over 100 metres and sixth on the all-time list over 200 metres. She is the current world indoor record holder for 200 metres with 21.87 seconds, set in 1993. She was named Jamaican Sportswoman of the Year 13 times between 1979 and 1995.
Ottey had the longest career as a top-level international sprinter appearing at the 1979 Pan American Games as a 19-year-old fresh from U-20 and Junior competitions, and concluding her career at age 52 when she anchored the Slovene 4 × 100 m relay team at the 2012 European Championships.
A nine-time Olympic medalist, she holds the record for the most Olympic appearances (seven) of any track and field athlete. Although gold medal success at the Olympics eluded Ottey, she was able to bring home three silvers and six bronze medals. She won 14 World Championship medals, and still holds the record (as of 2017) for most medals in individual events with 10. Her career achievements and longevity led to her being called the "Queen of the Track". Her proclivity for earning bronze medals in major championships earned her the title of "Bronze Queen" in track circles.
Ottey was formerly married to the American high jumper and 400 m hurdler Nat Page and was known as Merlene Ottey-Page during the mid-1980s. (Full article...)
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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 the men's 100 metres event at the 2023 British Athletics Championships was run in heavy rain?
- ... that at the 2022 British Indoor Athletics Championships, Lorraine Ugen equalled the championship long jump record?
- ... that Femke Bol successfully defended her 2021 title by winning the women's 400 metres at the 2023 European Athletics Indoor Championships?
- ... 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 Femke Bol won the women's 400 metres hurdles at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in a championship record of 52.49 seconds?
- ... that Femke Bol won the women's 400 metres and 400 metres hurdles at the 2022 European Athletics Championships in an unprecedented double victory?
- ... that the championship record was broken three times in the mixed 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2024 World Athletics Relays?
World records
Topics
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| Field |
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Records in athletics | |||||||||||
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| Area records |
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| Americas |
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| Community |
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International youth, junior, and U23 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 |
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| 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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