Portal:Sport of athletics

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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...)

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  Image 1Remigius Machura preparing to throw within the circle in shot put (from Track and field)
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  Image 2The pole vault competition at the 2007 Pan American Games (from Track and field)
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  Image 3Carl Lewis, one of the athletes who helped increase track and field's profile (from Track and field)
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  Image 4Men traversing the water jump in a steeplechase competition (from Track and field)
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  Image 5Runners at the 2010 European Cross Country ChampionshipsinAlbufeira, Portugal (from Cross country running)
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  Image 6The 2006 European Athletics ChampionshipsatUllevi Stadium (from Track and field)
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  Image 7Anna Giordano Bruno releases the pole after clearing the bar in pole vault (from Track and field)
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  Image 8A women's 400 m hurdles race at the 2007 Dutch Championships (from Track and field)
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  Image 9The Roy Griak Invitational cross country meet at the University of Minnesota in September 2007 (from Cross country running)
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  Image 10Edvin 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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  Image 11A typical layout of an outdoor track and field stadium (from Track and field)
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  Image 12Zoltán Kővágó preparing to spin and throw in discus throw (from Track and field)
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  Image 13A graph of the world record progression in the men's 100 metres (from Track and field)
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  Image 14Men assuming the starting position for a sprint race (from Track and field)
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  Image 15Ajavelin throw athlete (from Track and field)
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  Image 16AnAncient Greece vase from 600 BC depicting a running contest (from Track and field)
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  Image 17Ethiopian runner Kenenisa Bekele leading in a long-distance track event (from Track and field)
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  Image 18Shaul Ladany (centre), in 1969 (from Racewalking)
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  Image 19The 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 20The 100 m final at the 2008 Summer Olympics (from Track and field)
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  Image 21Yury Shayunou spinning with the hammer within the circle in hammer throw (from Track and field)
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  Image 22Arne 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 23The finish of a women's 100 m race (from Track and field)
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  Image 24Panathenaic StadiuminAthens, one of the first modern track and field stadiums (from Track and field)
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  Image 25American 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 26Naide Gomes in the jumping phase of the event (from Track and field)
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  Image 27Girls handing over the baton in a relay race in Leipzig in 1950 (from Track and field)
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  Image 28The 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 29Marion 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 30The New York State Federation Championship cross country meet in November 2010 (from Cross country running)
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  Image 31A child taking part in a local schools meeting in Cambodia (from Track and field)
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  Image 32A racewalker "flying" (entirely out of contact with the ground, a rule violation) (from Racewalking)
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  Image 33A children's cross country competition in Čakovec, Croatia (from Cross country running)
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  Image 34An early model of hurdling at the Detroit Athletic Club in 1888 (from Track and field)
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  Image 35A woman attempting to high jump while using the Fosbury Flop technique (from Track and field)
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  Image 36Oscar Pistorius running in the first round of the 400 m at the 2012 Summer Olympics (from Track and field)

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Start of the men's 100 metres final at the
2012 Olympic GamesinLondon

The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint raceintrack and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the 100-meter (109.36 yd) dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1928 for women. The inaugural World Championships were in 1983.

The reigning 100 m Olympic or world champion is often named "the fastest man or woman in the world". Noah Lyles and Sha'Carri Richardson are the world champions; Marcell Jacobs and Elaine Thompson-Herah are the men's and women's Olympic champions.

On an outdoor 400-metre running track, the 100 m is held on the home straight, with the start usually being set on an extension to make it a straight-line race. There are three instructions given to the runners immediately before and at the beginning of the race: "on your marks", "set", and the firing of the starter's pistol. The runners move to the starting blocks when they hear the 'on your marks' instruction. The following instruction, to adopt the 'set' position, allows them to adopt a more efficient starting posture and isometrically preload their muscles: this will help them to start faster. A race-official then fires the starter's pistol to signal the race beginning and the sprinters stride forwards from the blocks. Sprinters typically reach top speed after somewhere between 50 and 60 m. Their speed then slows towards the finish line. (Full article...)

Selected picture

Hurdling

Credit: Tsutomu Takasu, 27 June 2007

Athlete birthdays

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

• Earlene Brown, American shot putter and discus thrower
• Monique Éwanjé-Épée, French hurdler
• Kostas Kenteris, Greek sprinter
• Lynn Williams, Canadian middle- and long-distance runner

12 July:

• Yarelis Barrios, Cuban discus thrower
• Otis Davis, American sprinter
• Andrey Mikhnevich, Belarusian shot putter
• Bruny Surin, Canadian sprinter
• Juha Väätäinen, Finnish distance runner
• Andrae Williams, Bahamian sprinter

13 July:

• Hjalmar Andersson, Swedish distance runner
• Rod Dixon, New Zealand middle- and long-distance runner
• Helena Fibingerová, Czechoslovakian shot putter
• Lien Gisolf, Dutch high jumper
• Liu Xiang, Chinese hurdler
• Jonni Myyrä, Finnish javelin thrower
• Ineta Radēviča, Latvian long jumper
• Raúl Spank, German high jumper
• Andrei Tivontchik, German pole vaulter
• Viktor Tsybulenko, Soviet javelin thrower

Related portals

Olympic Games

Sports

More did you know

Shaheen in 2009

Saif Saaeed Shaheen (Arabic: سيف سعيد شاهين), formerly Stephen Cherono (born 15 October 1982), is a steeplechase runner. He was born in Keiyo, Kenya but now he represents Qatar. He was, for 19 years, the world record holder for 3000 metre steeplechase. He is a two time World Champion in the event. His older brother Abraham Cherono is also a steeplechase runner.

He was the 1999 World Youth Champion in the steeplechase and set a world junior record two years later. He won the steeplechase at the 2002 Commonwealth Games for Kenya but switched allegiance to Qatar in 2003. That year he became world champion in the event, although a dispute with the Kenyan Athletics Federation meant he was ineligible to compete at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He set a world record of 7:53.63 minutes in Brussels just ten days after the Olympic final, and later defeated that year's Olympic champion, Ezekiel Kemboi, at the 2004 World Athletics Final in Monaco.

In the 2006 season he took the 3000 metres silver medal at the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships and also set a number of Asian records. He completed a 5000 m/steeplechase double at the 2006 IAAF World Cup. Serious injuries ruled him out from late 2006 to 2008. He returned in 2009 and 2010 but failed to reach the same level of performance and retired from the sport. (Full article...)

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

• ... that the men's 100 metres event at the 2023 British Athletics Championships was run in heavy rain?

World records

Event	Men	Record (Year)	Women	Record (Year)
100 metres	Usain Bolt	9.58 (2009)	Florence Griffith Joyner	10.49 (1988)
200 metres	Usain Bolt	19.19 (2009)	Florence Griffith Joyner	21.34 (1988)
400 metres	Wayde van Niekerk	43.03 (2016)	Marita Koch	47.60 (1985)
800 metres	David Rudisha	1:40.91 (2012)	Jarmila Kratochvílová	1:53.28 (1983)
1500 metres	Hicham El Guerrouj	3:26.00 (1998)	Faith Kipyegon	3:49.04 (2024)**
5000 metres	Joshua Cheptegei	12:35.36 (2020)	Gudaf Tsegay	14:00.21 (2023)
10000 metres	Joshua Cheptegei	26:11.00 (2020)	Beatrice Chebet	28:54.14 (2024)**
Marathon	Kelvin Kiptum	2:00:35 (2023)	Tigst Assefa	2:11:53 Mx (2023)
3000 metres steeplechase	Lamecha Girma	7:52.11 (2023)	Beatrice Chepkoech	8:44.32 (2018)
110 metres hurdles (men) 100 metres hurdles (women)	Aries Merritt	12.80 (2012)	Tobi Amusan	12.12 (2022)
400 metres hurdles	Karsten Warholm	45.94 (2021)	Sydney McLaughlin	50.65 (2024)**
High jump	Javier Sotomayor	2.45 m (1993)	Yaroslava Mahuchikh	2.10 m (2024)**
Pole vault	Armand Duplantis	6.24 m (2024)**	Yelena Isinbayeva	5.06 m (2009)
Long jump	Mike Powell	8.95 m (1991)	Galina Chistyakova	7.52 m (1988)
Triple jump	Jonathan Edwards	18.29 m (1995)	Yulimar Rojas	15.74 m (2022)
Shot put	Ryan Crouser	23.56 m (2023)	Natalya Lisovskaya	22.63 m (1987)
Discus throw	Mykolas Alekna	74.35 m (2024)**	Gabriele Reinsch	76.80 m (1988)
Hammer throw	Yuriy Sedykh	86.74 m (1986)	Anita Włodarczyk	82.98 m (2016)
Javelin throw	Jan Železný	98.48 m (1996)	Barbora Špotáková	72.28 m (2008)
Decathlon (men) Heptathlon (women)	Kevin Mayer	9126 pts (2018)	Jackie Joyner-Kersee	7291 pts (1988)
20 kilometres racewalk	Yusuke Suzuki	1:16:36 (2015)	Yang Jiayu	1:23:49 (2021)
4×100 metres relay	Jamaica Nesta Carter Michael Frater Yohan Blake Usain Bolt	36.84 (2012)	United States Tianna Bartoletta Allyson Felix Bianca Knight Carmelita Jeter	40.82 (2012)
4×400 metres relay	United States Andrew Valmon Quincy Watts Butch Reynolds Michael Johnson	2:54.29 (1993)	Soviet Union Tatyana Ledovskaya Olga Nazarova Mariya Pinigina Olga Bryzgina	3:15.17 (1988)

See also: List of world records in athletics

Athletics events

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	Europe
European Indoor Championships	1966
South American Championships	1919		South America
Asian Championships	1973		Asia
African Championships	1979		Africa
Ocenian Championships	1990		Oceania

More about Athletics competitions

Federations

• 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)

More about Athletics organizations

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