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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An ancient Greece vase from 600 BC depicting a running contest (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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Shaul Ladany (centre), in 1969 (from Racewalking) -
The Roy Griak Invitational cross country meet at the University of Minnesota in September 2007 (from Cross country running) -
Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, one of the first modern track and field stadiums (from Track and field) -
Men assuming the starting position for a sprint race (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) -
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) -
A child taking part in a local schools meeting in Cambodia (from Track and field) -
The 100 m final at the 2008 Summer Olympics (from Track and field) -
Naide Gomes in the jumping phase of the event (from Track and field) -
A typical layout of an outdoor track and field stadium (from Track and field) -
A women's 400 m hurdles race at the 2007 Dutch Championships (from Track and field) -
Oscar Pistorius running in the first round of the 400 m at the 2012 Summer Olympics (from Track and field) -
Men traversing the water jump in a steeplechase competition (from Track and field) -
Carl Lewis, one of the athletes who helped increase track and field's profile (from Track and field) -
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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Ethiopian runner Kenenisa Bekele leading in a long-distance track event (from Track and field) -
A javelin throw athlete (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) -
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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A racewalker "flying" (entirely out of contact with the ground, a rule violation) (from Racewalking) -
A graph of the world record progression in the men's 100 metres (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) -
Runners at the 2010 European Cross Country Championships in Albufeira, Portugal (from Cross country running) -
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The New York State Federation Championship cross country meet in November 2010 (from Cross country running) -
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The finish of a women's 100 m race (from Track and field) -
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Selected article
The use of performance-enhancing drugs (doping in sport) is prohibited within the sport of athletics. Athletes who are found to have used such banned substances, whether through a positive drugs test, the biological passport system, an investigation or public admission, may receive a competition ban for a length of time which reflects the severity of the infraction. Athletes who are found to have banned substances in their possession, or who tamper with or refuse to submit to drug testing can also receive bans from the sport. Competitive bans may also be given to athletes who test positive for prohibited recreational drugs or stimulants with little performance-enhancing effect for competitors in athletics. The sports body responsible for determining which substances are banned in athletics is the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Typically, any athlete who tests positive for banned substances after having served a previous ban receives a lifetime ban from the sport of athletics. Many high-profile sportspeople to receive doping bans have come from the sport of athletics, with significant past cases concerning Ben Johnson, Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery. Furthermore, a number of athletes who underwent state-sponsored doping programmes in East Germany and the Soviet Union between the 1950s and 1980s were competitors in athletics, but the quality of the international anti-doping work was so poor that only one East German athlete ever tested positive. Following allegations of state-sponsored doping in Russia, the IAAF suspended the country's athletes from competition, including the 2016 Summer Olympics. (Full article...)
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Selected picture
Athlete birthdays
23 November:
- Rodion Gataullin, Russian pole vaulter
- Svetlana Krachevskaya, Soviet shot putter
- Nam Sung-yong, Korean distance runner
- Asafa Powell, Jamaican sprinter
- Delos Thurber, American high jumper
- Terrence Trammell, American hurdler
24 November:
- Eamonn Coghlan, Irish middle- and long-distance runner
- Dejen Gebremeskel, Ethiopian distance runner
- Carmelita Jeter, American sprinter
- Gisela Mauermayer, German discus thrower
- Sándor Rozsnyói, Hungarian steeplechase runner
- Ryan Whiting, American shot putter
25 November:
- Lillian Copeland, American discus and javelin thrower
- Yoel García, Cuban triple jumper
- Lalonde Gordon, Trinidadian sprinter
- DeHart Hubbard, American long jumper and sprinter
- Christos Papanikolaou, Greek pole vaulter
- Gerhard Sperling, German race walker
26 November:
- Ellen Fiedler, German hurdler
- Étienne Gailly, Belgian distance runner
- Lyudmila Shevtsova, Soviet middle-distance runner
- Roman Šebrle, Czech decathlete
27 November:
- Henry Carr, American sprinter
- Edward Cook, American pole vaulter
- Charles Dvorak, American pole vaulter
- Anatoliy Samotsvetov, Soviet hammer thrower
28 November:
- Kriss Akabusi, British hurdler
- Yelizaveta Bryzghina, Ukrainian sprinter
- Anastasía Kelesídou, Greek discus thrower
- Nadezhda Olizarenko, Soviet middle-distance runner
- Sonia O'Sullivan, Irish middle-distance runner
- Vania Stambolova, Bulgarian sprinter and hurdler
- Alfred Kirwa Yego, Kenyan middle-distance runner
29 November:
- Nikolay Chernetskiy, Soviet sprinter
- Käthe Krauß, German sprinter
- Hugo Lahtinen, Finnish pentathlete and long jumper
- Jennifer Oeser, German heptathlete
- Gus Pope, American discus thrower
Related portals
More did you know
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- ... 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
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Shambel Abebe Bikila (Amharic: ሻምበል አበበ ቢቂላ; August 7, 1932 – October 25, 1973) was an Ethiopian marathon runner who was a back-to-back Olympic marathon champion. He was the first Ethiopian Olympic gold medalist, winning his first gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome while running barefoot. At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, he won his second gold medal, making him the first athlete to successfully defend an Olympic marathon title. In both victories, he ran in world record time.
Born in Shewa, Abebe moved to Addis Ababa around 1952 and joined the 5th Infantry Regiment of the Ethiopian Imperial Guard, an elite infantry division that safeguarded the emperor of Ethiopia. Abebe served in the Kagnew Battalion during the Korean War.
Enlisting as a soldier before his athletic career, he rose to the rank of shambel (captain). Abebe participated in a total of sixteen marathons. He placed second on his first marathon in Addis Ababa, won twelve other races, and finished fifth in the 1963 Boston Marathon. In July 1967, he sustained the first of several sports-related leg injuries that prevented him from finishing his last two marathons. Abebe was a pioneer in long-distance running. Mamo Wolde, Juma Ikangaa, Tegla Loroupe, Paul Tergat, and Haile Gebrselassie—all recipients of the New York Road Runners' Abebe Bikila Award—are a few of the athletes who have followed in his footsteps to establish East Africa as a force in long-distance running.
On March 22, 1969, Abebe was paralysed due to a car accident. He regained some upper-body mobility, but he never walked again. While he was receiving medical treatment in England, Abebe competed in archery and table tennis at the 1970 Stoke Mandeville Games in London. Those games were an early predecessor of the Paralympic Games. He competed in both sports at a 1971 competition for disabled people in Norway and won its cross-country sleigh-riding event. Abebe died at age 41 in 1973 of a cerebral haemorrhage related to his accident four years earlier. He received a state funeral, and Emperor Haile Selassie declared a national day of mourning. Many schools, venues, and events, including Abebe Bikila Stadium in Addis Ababa, are named after him. He is the subject of biographies and films documenting his athletic career, and he is often featured in publications about the marathon and the Olympics. (Full article...)
| More selected biographies |
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... 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 the men's 100 metres event at the 2023 British Athletics Championships was run in heavy rain?
- ... that the championship record was broken three times in the mixed 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2024 World Athletics Relays?
- ... that at the 2022 British Indoor Athletics Championships, Lorraine Ugen equalled the championship long jump record?
- ... 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 won the women's 400 metres and 400 metres hurdles at the 2022 European Athletics Championships in an unprecedented double victory?
- ... that at the 2022 British Athletics Championships, Daryll Neita became the first woman since 2010 to win both the 100- and 200-metre events?
World records
Topics
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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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