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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Shaul Ladany (centre), in 1969 (from Race walking) -
The Roy Griak Invitational cross country meet at the University of Minnesota in September 2007 (from Cross country running) -
Naide Gomes in the jumping phase of the event (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) -
A women's 400 m hurdles race at the 2007 Dutch Championships (from Track and field) -
Ethiopian runner Kenenisa Bekele leading in a long-distance track event (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) -
The New York State Federation Championship cross country meet in November 2010 (from Cross country running) -
Men traversing the water jump in a steeplechase competition (from Track and field) -
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A high school student attempting to high jump while using the Fosbury Flop technique (from Track and field) -
The 100 m final at the 2008 Summer Olympics (from Track and field) -
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A typical layout of an outdoor track and field stadium (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) -
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) -
A children's cross country competition in Čakovec, Croatia (from Cross country running) -
Runners at the 2010 European Cross Country Championships in Albufeira, Portugal (from Cross country running) -
Men assuming the starting position for a sprint race (from Track and field) -
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Oscar Pistorius running in the first round of the 400 m at the 2012 Summer Olympics (from Track and field) -
A javelin throw athlete (from Track and field) -
A racewalker "flying" (entirely out of contact with the ground, a rule violation) (from Race walking) -
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) -
A graph of the world record progression in the men's 100 metres (from Track and field) -
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Carl Lewis, one of the athletes who helped increase track and field's profile (from Track and field) -
An ancient Greece vase from 600 BC depicting a running contest (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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A child taking part in a local schools meeting in Cambodia (from Track and field)
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Selected article
The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the shot—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival (1896), and women's competition began in 1948. The shot put is part of the most common combined events, the decathlon, the women's and men's heptathlon and the women's pentathlon. (Full article...)
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Selected picture
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Athlete birthdays
17 June:
- Derek Ibbotson, British middle- and long-distance runner
- Michael Mathieu, Bahamian sprinter
- Hansle Parchment, Jamaican hurdler
- Elisa Rigaudo, Italian race walker
- Si Tianfeng, Chinese race walker
- Paul Tergat, Kenyan distance runner
18 June:
- Annelie Ehrhardt, German hurdler
- Troy Kemp, Bahamian high jumper
- Sergey Kirdyapkin, Russian race walker
- Martti Marttelin, Finnish distance runner
- Glenn Morris, American decathlete
- Craig Mottram, Australian distance runner
- Christian Taylor, American triple jumper
- Paavo Yrjölä, Finnish decathlete
19 June:
- Mohammed Al-Khuwalidi, Saudi-Arabian long jumper
- Lázaro Borges, Cuban pole vaulter
- Sabine Braun, German heptathlete
- Johnny Gray, American middle-distance runner
- Erkki Kataja, Finnish pole vaulter
- Ilya Markov, Russian race walker
- Assefa Mezegebu, Ethiopian distance runner
- Margarita Ponomaryova, Russian hurdler
- Janusz Sidło, Polish javelin thrower
- Quincy Watts, American sprinter
20 June:
- Kirk Baptiste, American sprinter
- Silke Gladisch-Möller, German sprinter
- Bob King, American high jumper
- Jack Torrance, American shot putter
21 June:
- Ralph Craig, American sprinter
- Sentayehu Ejigu, Ethiopian distance runner
- Hermann Engelhard, German 400/800 runner
- Abubaker Kaki, Sudanese middle-distance runner
- Heino Lipp, Estonian-Soviet decathlete and shot putter
- Ken Matthews, British race walker
- Sandra Perković, Croatian discus thrower
- Mona-Lisa Pursiainen, Finnish sprinter
- Brad Walker, American pole vaulter
22 June:
- Elias Katz, Finnish distance runner
- Margrit Klinger, German middle-distance runner
- James Rector, American sprinter
- Ossian Skiöld, Swedish hammer thrower
- Cornelius Warmerdam, American pole vaulter
23 June:
- Filbert Bayi, Tanzanian runner
- Oliver-Sven Buder, German shot putter
- Dick Cochran, American discus thrower
- Abel Kiviat, American middle-distance runner
- Norman Pritchard, Indian sprinter
- Fernanda Ribeiro, Portuguese distance runner
- Wilma Rudolph, American sprinter
- Nicola Sanders, British sprinter
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
Iolanda Balaș (Romanian pronunciation: [joˈlanda ˈbalaʃ], Hungarian: Balázs Jolán, later Balázs-Sőtér Jolán; 12 December 1936 – 11 March 2016) was a Romanian athlete, an Olympic champion and former world record holder in the high jump. She was the first Romanian woman to win an Olympic gold medal and is considered to have been one of the greatest high jumpers of the twentieth century. (Full article...)
Balaș took up athletics owing to her caretaker Luisa Ernst, who was also a retired high jumper.[1] In 1953 she transferred from Timișoara club "Electrica" to CCA (CSA Steaua). After finishing fifth in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, she won Olympic gold medals at Rome in 1960 (becoming the first Romanian woman to do so)[2] and Tokyo in 1964. At the 1964 Olympics she competed with a torn tendon, which forced her later to withdraw from the 1966 European Championships. Nevertheless, between 1957 and 1966, Balaș won 154 consecutive competitions,[3] not including qualifying competitions or exhibitions. She improved the world record 14 times, from 1.75 m to 1.91 m, and equalled it once outdoors and once indoors. She was the first woman to jump over six feet. Her technique was a sophisticated version of the scissors technique.[1]
Balaș won two British WAAA Championships high jump titles at the 1962 WAAA Championships[4] and the 1963 WAAA Championships.[5][6]
| More selected biographies |
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that the men's 100 metres event at the 2023 British Athletics Championships was run in heavy rain?
- ... 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 successfully defended her 2021 title by winning the women's 400 metres at the 2023 European Athletics Indoor Championships?
- ... 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 Nahuel Carabaña turned around mid-race at the 2022 European Athletics Championships to help an injured competitor?
- ... 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 Ireland won the mixed 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2024 European Athletics Championships, receiving their first European gold medal in athletics since 1998?
- ... that Femke Bol won the women's 400 metres and 400 metres hurdles at the 2022 European Athletics Championships in an unprecedented double victory?
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)
Categories
WikiProjects
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Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
Sources
- ^ a b "Iolanda Balaş". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
- ^ "Romanian high jumper Iolanda Balas dies at 79". Daily Herald. Associated Press. 11 March 2016. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
- ^ "The Sport's Longest Winning Streak Gets Longer", Track & Field News (August 2016), p. 47.
- ^ "Golden girls serve up a record rush". Birmingham Weekly Mercury. 8 July 1962. Retrieved 23 February 2025 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "AAA, WAAA and National Championships Medallists". National Union of Track Statisticians. Retrieved 23 February 2025.
- ^ "AAA Championships (women)". GBR Athletics. Retrieved 23 February 2025.
