Welcome to THE ATHLETICS PORTAL
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 -
The following are images from various sport of athletics-related articles on Wikipedia.
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A racewalker "flying" (entirely out of contact with the ground, a rule violation) (from Racewalking) -
Oscar Pistorius running in the first round of the 400 m at the 2012 Summer Olympics (from Track and field) -
The 100 m final at the 2008 Summer Olympics (from Track and field) -
A javelin throw athlete (from Track and field) -
Shaul Ladany (centre), in 1969 (from Racewalking) -
The Gordon Indoor Track sports an 80-yard sprint straight, and the track is 220 yards in length. (from Track and field) -
A child taking part in a local schools meeting in Cambodia (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) -
An Ancient Greece vase from 600 BC depicting a running contest (from Track and field) -
Men assuming the starting position for a sprint race (from Track and field) -
Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, one of the first modern track and field stadiums (from Track and field) -
The finish of a women's 100 m race (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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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) -
Men traversing the water jump in a steeplechase competition (from Track and field) -
Girls handing over the baton in a relay race in Leipzig in 1950 (from Track and field) -
A women's 400 m hurdles race at the 2007 Dutch Championships (from Track and field) -
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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) -
Arne Andersson (left) and Gunder Hägg (right) broke a number of middle distance world records in the 1940s. (from Track and field) -
Carl Lewis, one of the athletes who helped increase track and field's profile (from Track and field) -
Ethiopian runner Kenenisa Bekele leading in a long-distance track event (from Track and field) -
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The Roy Griak Invitational cross country meet at the University of Minnesota in September 2007 (from Cross country running) -
The New York State Federation Championship cross country meet in November 2010 (from Cross country running) -
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A graph of the world record progression in the men's 100 metres (from Track and field) -
Runners at the 2010 European Cross Country Championships in Albufeira, Portugal (from Cross country running) -
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A typical layout of an outdoor track and field stadium (from Track and field) -
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Naide Gomes in the jumping phase of the event (from Track and field) -
A children's cross country competition in Čakovec, Croatia (from Cross country running)
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Selected article
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The IAAF Hall of Fame was established by the International Association of Athletics Federations (since 2019: World Athletics) in 2012. It is intended to honor individuals who have made valuable contributions in the sport of athletics both internationally and in their home countries that match certain criteria.
The inaugural class, composed of 24 individuals, was introduced in November 2012. (Full article...)
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Selected picture
Athlete birthdays
Previous
4 May':
- Silvia Costa, Cuban high jumper
- Wolrad Eberle, German decathlete
- Ulrike Meyfarth, German high jumper
- Pekka Päivärinta, Finnish distance runner
5 May:
- Mabel Gay, Cuban triple jumper
- Heike Henkel, German high jumper
- Igor Kashkarov, Soviet high jumper
- Meb Keflezighi, American distance runner
- Jorge Llopart, Spanish race walker
- Francine Niyonsaba, Burundian middle-distance runner
- Steve Scott, American middle-distance runner
6 May:
- Lyudmila Andonova, Bulgarian high jumper
- Bernard Barmasai, Kenyan steeplechase runner
- Daniela Bártová, Czech pole vaulter
- Andreas Busse, German middle-distance runner
- Gerd Kanter, Estonian discus thrower
- Wolfgang Reinhardt, German pole vaulter
- Kaliese Spencer, Jamaican hurdler
- Naoko Takahashi, Japanese distance runner
- Roland Wieser, German race walker
7 May':
- Jimmy Ball, Canadian sprinter
- James Carter, American hurdler
- Florența Crăciunescu, Romanian discus thrower
- Bill Hoyt, American pole vaulter
- Huang Zhihong, Chinese shot putter
- Lawrence Johnson, American pole vaulter
- Georgiy Kolnootchenko, Soviet discus thrower
- Eric Krenz, American discus thrower
- Florian Schwarthoff, German hurdler
Upcoming
8 May:
- Päivi Alafrantti, Finnish javelin thrower
- Wesley Coe, American shot putter
- Paul Drayton, American sprinter
- Bershawn Jackson, American hurdler
- Aleksandr Kovalenko, Soviet triple jumper
- Galen Rupp, American distance runner
9 May:
- Ralph Boston, American long jumper
- James Butts, American triple jumper
- Frank Foss, American pole vaulter
- Dorothy Hyman, British sprinter
- Tegla Loroupe, Kenyan distance runner
- Marie-José Pérec, French sprinter
- Fred Warngård, Swedish hammer thrower
10 May:
- Audun Boysen, Norwegian middle-distance runner
- Jonathan Edwards, British triple jumper
- Des Koch, American discus thrower
- John Ngugi, Kenyan distance runner
- Merlene Ottey, Jamaican sprinter
- Tamara Press, Soviet thrower
- Tatyana Shikolenko, Russian javelin thrower
Related portals
More did you know
- ... that the 2000 Summer Olympics gold medalist in the heptathlon was Denise Lewis?
- ... that as part of a publicity stunt, the 1927 Texas Relays held an 89 mile (143 km) running race from San Antonio to Austin?
- ... that Czech decathlete Roman Šebrle, world record holder and 2004 Olympic winner, was injured in January 2007 when a javelin which had been thrown 55 metres pierced his shoulder?
- ... that at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics, Yipsi Moreno became world champion in the hammer throw at the age of twenty, improving from an eighteenth place finish in 1999?
| Archive |
Selected biography
Katherine Proudfoot (born 21 April 1977 in Auckland, New Zealand) is a cerebral palsy athlete from Australia competing mainly in throwing events. She competed in the F36 classification at the 2008, 2012 and the 2016 Summer Paralympics, winning medals at each Game. Following a medical review request in early 2017, she now competes in seated throws in the F32 classification. At the 2017 Australian Athletics Championships she threw 7.04m in the Women's Shot Put Secured event, bettering the Women's F32 shot put world record mark of 6.55m. (Full article...)
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Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that the men's 100 metres event at the 2023 British Athletics Championships was run in heavy rain?
- ... that Marthe Yankurije, who dropped out of school during her fourth year of secondary school, competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics?
- ... that for the first time this century, this year's British Athletics Championships were not broadcast on live television?
- ... 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 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?
- ... 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?
World records
World records as of 9 April 2024
| Event | Men | Record | Women | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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
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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
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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
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