Athletics is an exclusive collection of
sporting events that involve competitive
running,
jumping, throwing, and
walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are
track and field,
road running,
cross country running, and
race walking.
The simplicity of the competitions, and the lack of a need for
expensive equipment, makes athletics one of the most commonly competed
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, and most modern events are conducted by the member clubs of the
International Association of Athletics Federations. The athletics meeting forms the backbone of the modern
Summer Olympics, and other leading international meetings include the
IAAF World Championships and
World Indoor Championships, and athletes with a
physical disability compete at the
Summer Paralympics and the
IPC Athletics World Championships.
Etymology
The word athletics is derived from the
Ancient Greek ἀθλητής (
athlētēs, "combatant in public games") from ἆθλον (
athlon, "prize") or ἆθλος (
athlos, "competition").
[1]
Initially, the term was used to describe athletic contests in
general—i.e. sporting competition based primarily on human physical
feats. In the 19th century, the term athletics acquired a more narrow
definition in Europe and came to describe sports involving competitive
running, walking, jumping and throwing. This definition continues to be
the most prominent one in the United Kingdom and most of the areas of
the former
British Empire. Furthermore, foreign words in many
Germanic and
Romance languages which are related to the term athletics also have a similar meaning.
In contrast to this, in much of North America athletics is synonymous
with sports in general, maintaining a more historic usage of the term.
The word "athletics" is rarely used to refer to the sport of athletics
in this region. Track and field is preferred, and is used in the United
States and Canada to refer to all athletics events, including
racewalking and marathon running.
History
Antiquity and Middle Ages
Athletic contests in running, walking, jumping, and throwing are among the oldest of all sports and their roots are
prehistoric.
[2] Athletics events were depicted in the
Ancient Egyptian tombs in
Saqqara, with illustrations of
running at the
Heb Sed festival and
high jumping appearing in tombs from as early as of 2250 BC.
[3] The
Tailteann Games were an ancient
Celtic festival in
Ireland, founded around 1800 BC, and the thirty-day meeting included
running and
stone-throwing among its sporting events.
[4] The original and only event at
the first Olympics in 776 BC was a stadium-length
running event known as the
stadion. This later expanded to include throwing and jumping events within the
ancient pentathlon. Athletics competitions also took place at other
Panhellenic Games, which were founded later around 500 BC.
[5]
The
Cotswold Olimpick Games, a sports festival which emerged in 17th century
England, also featured athletics in the form of
sledgehammer throwing contests.
[6] Annually, from 1796 to 1798,
L'Olympiade de la République was held in
revolutionary France,
and is an early forerunner to the modern summer Olympic Games. The
premier event of this competition was a running event, but various
ancient Greek disciplines were also on display. The 1796 Olympiade marks
the introduction of the
metric system into sport.
[7]
Modern era
The
Royal Military College, Sandhurst
has claimed to be the first to adopt this in 1812 and 1825, but without
any supporting evidence. The earliest recorded meeting was organised at
Shrewsbury,
Shropshire in 1840 by the Royal
Shrewsbury School
Hunt. There are details of the meeting in a series of letters written
60 years later by C.T. Robinson, who was a pupil there from 1838 to
1841. The Royal Military Academy at Woolwich held an organised
competition in 1849, but the first regular series of meetings was held
by
Exeter College, Oxford from 1850.
[8]
The first modern-style indoor athletics meetings were recorded
shortly after in the 1860s, including a meet at Ashburnham Hall in
London which featured four running events and a triple jump competition.
[9][10]
The
Amateur Athletic Association
(AAA) was established in England in 1880 as the first national body for
the sport of athletics and began holding its own annual athletics
competition – the
AAA Championships. The
United States also began holding an annual national competition – the
USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships – first held in 1876 by the
New York Athletic Club.
[11]
Athletics became codified and standardised via the English AAA and
other general sports organisations in the late 19th century, such as the
Amateur Athletic Union (founded in the US in 1888) and the
Union des sociétés françaises de sports athlétiques (founded in France in 1889).
An athletics competition was included in the first modern
Olympic Games in 1896 and it has been as one of the foremost competitions at the quadrennial
multi-sport event ever since. Originally for men only, the
1928 Olympics saw the introduction of women's events in the athletics programme. Athletics is part of the
Paralympic Games since the inaugural Games in
1960. Athletics has a very high profile during major championships, especially the Olympics, but otherwise is less popular.
An international governing body, the International Amateur Athletics
Federation (IAAF), was founded in 1912; it adopted its current name, the
International Association of Athletics Federations, in 2001. The IAAF established separate outdoor
World Championships in 1983. In modern times, athletes can receive money for racing, putting an end to the so-called "
amateurism" that existed before.
The Comité International Sports des Sourds had been formed by 1922, to govern international deaf sports, including athletics.
[12]
The first organized international competitions for athletes with a
physical disability (not deaf) began in 1952, when the first international
Stoke Mandeville Games were organized for World War II veterans.
[12][13] This only included athletes in a
wheelchair. The first
Paralympic Games were held in 1960. Competitions would over time be expanded to include mainly athletes with
amputations,
cerebral palsy and
visual impairment, in addition to wheelchair events.
Sports
The International Association of Athletics Federations, the sport's governing body, defines athletics in five disciplines:
track and field,
road running,
race walking,
cross country running, and
mountain running.
[14] All forms of athletics are
individual sports with the exception of
relay races.
However, athletes' performances are often tallied together by country
at international championships, and in the case of cross country the
finishing times of the top athletes from each team or country are
combined to declare a team victor.
Track and field
A typical track and field stadium with an oval running track and a grassy inner field
Track and field competitions emerged in the late 19th century and
were typically contested between athletes who were representing rival
educational institutions,
military organisations and
sports clubs.
[15]
Participating athletes may compete in one or more events, according to
their specialities. Men and women compete separately. Track and field
comes in both indoor and outdoor formats, with most indoor competitions
occurring in
winter, while outdoor events are mostly held in
summer. The sport is defined by the venue in which the competitions are held – the
track and field stadium.
A variety of
running events are held on the track which fall into three broad distance categories:
sprints,
middle-distance, and
long-distance track events. Relay races feature teams comprising four runners each, who must pass a
baton to their team-mate after a specified distance with the aim of being the first team to finish.
Hurdling events and the
steeplechase
are a variation upon the flat running theme in that athletes must clear
obstacles on the track during the race. The field events come in two
types – jumping and throwing competitions. In throwing events, athletes
are measured by how far they hurl an implement, with the common events
being the
shot put,
discus,
javelin, and
hammer throw. There are four common jumping events: the
long jump and
triple jump are contests measuring the horizontal distance an athlete can jump, while the
high jump and
pole vault are decided on the height achieved.
Combined events, which include the
decathlon (typically competed by men) and
heptathlon
(typically competed by women), are competitions where athletes compete
in a number of different track and field events, with each performance
going toward a final points tally.
The most prestigious track and field contests occur within athletics championships and athletics programmes at
multi-sport events. The
Olympic athletics competition and
World Championships in Athletics, and the
Paralympic athletics competition and
IPC World Championships in Athletics,
are the highest and most prestigious levels of competition in track and
field. Track and field events have become the most prominent part of
major athletics championships and many famous athletes within the sport
of athletics come from this discipline. Discrete track and field
competitions are found at
national championships-level and also at annual, invitational
track and field meets. Meetings range from elite competitions – such as those in the
IAAF Diamond League series – to basic
all comers track meets, inter-sports club meetings and schools events, which form the grassroots of track and field.
- Note: Events in italics are competed at indoor world championships only
Road running
Main article:
Road running
Road running competitions are running events (predominantly long distance) which are mainly conducted on courses of
paved or
tarmac roads, although major events often finish on the track of a main
stadium. In addition to being a common
recreational sport, the elite level of the sport – particularly
marathon races
– are one of the most popular aspects of athletics. Road racing events
can be of virtually any distance, but the most common and well known are
the
marathon,
half marathon,
10 km and
5 km. The marathon is the only road running event featured at the
IAAF World Championships in Athletics and the
Summer Olympics, although there is also an annual
IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. The marathon is also the only road running event featured at the
IPC Athletics World Championships and the
Summer Paralympics. The
World Marathon Majors series includes the five most prestigious marathon competitions at the elite level – the
Berlin,
Boston,
Chicago,
London, and
New York City marathons.
The sport of road running finds its roots in the activities of
footmen: male servants who ran alongside the carriages of
aristocrats around the 18th century, and who also ran errands over distances for their masters.
Foot racing competitions evolved from
wagers
between aristocrats, who pitted their footman against that of another
aristocrat in order to determine a winner. The sport became
professionalised
as footmen were hired specifically on their athletic ability and began
to devote their lives to training for the gambling events. The
amateur sports movement in the late 19th century marginalised competitions based on the professional, gambling model. The
1896 Summer Olympics
saw the birth of the modern marathon and the event led to the growth of
road running competitions through annual events such as the Boston
Marathon (first held in 1897) and the
Lake Biwa Marathon and
Fukuoka Marathons, which were established in the 1940s. The
1970s running boom in the
United States made road running a common
pastime and also increased its popularity at the elite level.
[16]
Ekiden contests – which originated in
Japan
and remain very popular there – are a relay race variation on the
marathon, being in contrast to the typically individual sport of road
running.
Cross country running
Competitors mid-race at a boys high school event in the
United States
Cross country running is the most naturalistic of the sports in
athletics as competitions take place on open-air courses over surfaces
such as
grass,
woodland trails, and
earth. It is both an individual and
team sport,
as runners are judged on an individual basis and a points scoring
method is used for teams. Competitions are typically long distance races
of 4 km (2.5 mi) or more which are usually held in autumn and winter.
Cross country's most successful athletes often compete in long-distance
track and road events as well.
The
Crick Run in
England
in 1838 was the first recorded instance of an organised cross country
competition. The sport gained popularity in British, then American
schools in the 19th century and culminated in the creation of the first
International Cross Country Championships in 1903.
[17] The annual
IAAF World Cross Country Championships
was inaugurated in 1973 and this remains the highest level of
competition for the sport. A number of continental cross country
competitions are held, with championships taking place in
Asia,
Europe,
North America and
South America.
The sport has retained its status at the scholastic level, particularly
in the United Kingdom and United States. At the professional level, the
foremost competitions come under the banner of the
IAAF Cross Country Permit Meetings.
While cross country competitions are no longer held at the Olympics,
having featured in the athletics programme from 1912–1924, it has been
present as one of the events within the
modern pentathlon competition since the
1912 Summer Olympics. One variation on traditional cross country is
mountain running, which incorporates significant uphill and/or downhill sections as an additional challenge to the course.
Fell running and
Orienteering are other competitive sports similar to cross country, although they feature an element of
navigation which is absent from the set courses of cross country.
Racewalking
Main article:
Racewalking
Racewalking is a form of competitive
walking
which is usually contested on courses on open-air roads, although
running tracks are also occasionally used. Racewalking is the only sport
in athletics in which judges monitor athletes on their technique.
Racewalkers must always have a foot in contact with the ground and their
advancing leg must be straightened, not bent at the knee – failure to
follow these rules results in disqualification from the race.
[18]
Racewalking finds its roots in the sport of
pedestrianism
which emerged in the late 18th century in England. Spectators would
gamble on the outcome of the walking competitions. The sport took on an
endurance aspect and competitions were held over long distances or
walkers would have to achieve a certain distance within a specified time
frame, such as
Centurion contests of walking 100 miles (160 km) within 24 hours.
[18] During this period, racewalking was frequently held on athletics tracks for ease of measurement, and the
1908 Summer Olympics in
London saw the introduction of the 3500-metre and 10-mile walks. Racewalking was briefly dropped from the Olympic programme in
1928, but the men's
50 kilometres race walk has been held at every Olympic Games but one since 1932. The men's
20 kilometres race walk
was added to the Olympic athletics schedule in 1956 and the women's
event was first held in 1992. The most common events in modern
competition are over 10 km, 20 km and 50 km on roads, although women's
3 km and men's 5 km are held on indoor tracks.
The highest level racewalking competitions occur at the IAAF World
Championships in Athletics and at the Summer Olympics, although the
sport also has its own separate major competition – the
IAAF World Race Walking Cup – which has been held since 1961. The
IAAF World Race Walking Challenge
forms the primary seasonal competition – athletes earn points for their
performances at ten selected racewalking competitions and the highest
scoring walkers are entered into that year's
IAAF Race Walking Challenge Final.
Categories
Athletes with a disability
Athletes with a
physical disability have competed at separate international events since 1952. It is governed by
IPC Athletics, and is one of the sports at the Summer
Paralympic Games since
1960.
[12][13]
Competiors at elite level competitions, are classified by disability,
to arrange athletes with a similar disability in the same event. A
classified T12 athlete for example, is a track athlete with a visual
impairment.
- F = Field athletes
- T = Track athletes
In
wheelchair racing athletes compete in lightweight racing chairs. Most major
marathons have wheelchair divisions and the elite racers consistently beat the runners on foot.
Occasionally, athletes with a disability excel to compete with able bodied athletes. Legally blind
Marla Runyan ran in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics and won a gold medal in the 1500 metres at the
1999 Pan American Games.
Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee, has competed in the
2012 Olympics. At the
2011 World Championships Pistorius successfully made it to the 400 metres semi-final round and won a silver medal as part of South Africa's
4x400 metres relay team. In
Masters athletics it is far more common to make an accommodation for athletes with a disability. Blind Ivy Granstrom set numerous
Masters world records while being guided around the track.
Venues
Professional athletics almost exclusively takes place in one of three types of venue:
stadiums,
set courses on grass or woodland, and road-based courses. Such venues
ensure that events take place in a relatively standardised manner, as
well as improving the safety of athletes and enjoyment for spectators.
At a more basic level, many forms of athletics demand very little in
terms of venue requirements; almost any open space or area of field can
provide a suitable venue for basic running, jumping and throwing
competitions.
Track and field stadia
A typical layout of an outdoor track and field stadium
A standard outdoor track is in the shape of a
stadium,
[19]
400 metres in length, and has at least eight lanes 1.22 m in width.
Older track facilities may have nonstandard track lengths, such as 440
yards (402.3 m) (common in the United States). Historically, tracks were
covered by a dirt running surface. Modern
All-weather running tracks
are covered by a synthetic weather-resistant running surface, which
typically consists of rubber (either black SBR or colored EPDM
granules), bound by polyurethane or latex resins. Older tracks may be
cinder-covered.
A standard indoor track is designed similarly to an outdoor track,
but is only 200 metres in length and has between four and eight lanes,
each with width between 0.90 m and 1.10 m.
[20]
Often, the bends of an indoor track will be banked to compensate for
the small turning radius. However, because of space limitations, indoor
tracks may have other nonstandard lengths, such as 160-yard (146.3 m)
indoor track at
Madison Square Garden used for the
Millrose Games.
Because of space limitations, meetings held at indoor facilities do not
hold many of athletics events typically contested outdoors.
Cross country courses
A cross country race taking place at a snowy park in the United States.
There is no standardised form of cross country course and each venue
is significantly defined by the environment it contains – some may be
relatively flat and featureless, while others may be more challenging
with natural obstacles, tight turns, and undulating ground. While a
small number of purpose-built courses exist, the vast majority of cross
country running courses are created by cordoning a specific area within
any open natural land, typically a
park,
woodland or
greenspace near a
settlement.
[21]
At the elite and professional level, courses must be looped and each
lap must be between 1750 m and 2000 m in length. Severe obstacles such
as deep ditches, high barriers and thick undergrowth not normally
present; the course should be able to be completed whilst remaining on
foot throughout. In order to maintain the sport's distinction from road
running, the usage of unnatural or
macadamised surfaces is generally kept to a minimum or avoided entirely.
[21]
Due to the fact that the majority of races take place on areas of grass, soil, mud or earth,
weather conditions can significantly affect the difficulty of cross country courses, as
snow and
rain reduces traction and can create areas of standing water.
Road courses
A typical road running course on the inner-city roads of
Toronto
The surface of road races is highly important and the IAAF dictate
that the courses must be along man-made roads, bicycle paths or
footpaths. Courses set along major roads of cities are typical of road
running events, and
traffic
is usually cordoned off from the area during the competition. While
soft ground, such as grass, is generally avoided, races may start and
finish on soft ground or within a track and field stadium. Road racing
courses come in two primary types: looped and point-to-point. Courses
may be measured and designed to cover a standardised distance, such as
10 km (6.2 mi), or they may simply follow a set route between two
landmarks.
[22]
Road running courses over 5 km usually offer drinks or refreshment
stations for runners at designated points alongside the course and
medical professionals are present at the courses of major races due to
the health risks involved with long-distance running.
[22]
Elite road walks are conducted on closed loop courses (usually loops
of 2,000 or 2,500 meters). Refreshment stations are also present over
long distance walking competitions, with drinks being available on every
lap for races longer than 10 km.
[23]
Organizations
Since its foundation in 1912, the
international governing body for athletics has been the
International Association of Athletics Federations
(IAAF). It was initially known as the International Amateur Athletics
Federation but changed later its name to reflect that the sport had
moved away from
amateurism towards
professionalism
in the late 1970s. The IAAF has 213 member nations and territories,
which are divided into six continental areas (or area associations).
[24] The six association areas are for
Asia,
Africa,
Europe,
Oceania,
North America and
South America.
The sports within athletics do not have their own independent governing
bodies at either international or continental level and, instead, all
fall under the athletics authorities.
[25]
Map of the six continental federations of the IAAF
National level athletics organisations are responsible for the
regulation of the sport within their respective countries and most major
competitions have some form of permit or approval from their national
body.
Competitions
Athletics competitions can be broadly divided into three types:
international championships, national championships, and annual meetings
and races. Athletics at international championships, or Games,
represent the pinnacle of competition within the sport, and they are
contested between athletes representing their country or region. The
organisation of these competitions is usually overseen by either a
world, continental, or regional athletics governing body. Athletes gain
entry into these competitions by earning selection from their national
athletics governing body, which is generally done by assessing athletes
via their past achievements or performances at a national selection
event. National championships are annual competitions endorsed by a
national governing body which serve the purpose of deciding the
country's best athlete in each event. Annual one-day meetings and races
form the most basic level of competition and are the most common format
of athletics contests. These events are often invitational and are
organised by sports organisations, sports promoters, or other
institutions.
Competitions typically feature only one of the sports within
athletics. However, major outdoor international athletics championships
and athletics competitions held as part of
multi-sport events usually feature a combination of track and field, road running and racewalking events
International championships
Olympic Games
The modern
Summer Olympics
was the first event at which a global athletics competition took place.
All the four major sports within athletics have featured in the Olympic
athletics programme since its inception in 1896, although cross country
has since been dropped. The Olympic competition is the most prestigious
athletics contest and, in addition to this, many athletics events are
also among the most prominent competitions at the Summer Olympics as a
whole. A total of 47 athletics events are held at the Olympics, 24 for
men and 23 for women. The events within the men's and women's programmes
are either identical or have a similar equivalent, with the sole
exception being that men contest the 50 km race walk.
Paralympic Games
The
Summer Paralympics include athletes with a
physical disability.
Track and field, and road events have featured in the Paralympic
athletics programme since its inception in 1960. The Paralympic
competition is the most prestigious athletics contest where athletes
with a physical disability compete.
Athletics at the Paralympic Games also include
wheelchair racing where athletes compete in lightweight racing chairs. Athletes with a
visual impairment compete with a
sighted guide. At the
2012 Summer Paralympics in
London, for the first time at an international athletics event, the guides will receive medals,
[26] such as the pilots in cycling, and the guides at the
Paralympic Winter Games have done for a while.
World Championships
The
IAAF World Championships in Athletics
is the primary global athletics championships held by IAAF. The
biennial competition was first held in 1983 and now features an event
programme which is identical to the Olympics. Thus, road running,
racewalking and track and field are the sports which feature at the
competition. Cross country running has its own discrete global
championships – the
IAAF World Cross Country Championships – which has been held annually since 1973. The
IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics
is a biennial athletics championships which features solely indoor
track and field events. The foremost separate road running event is the
annual
IAAF World Half Marathon Championships (formerly World Road Running Championships). While not having official world championship status, the biennial
IAAF World Race Walking Cup
fulfils a similar role for the sport of racewalking. Outdoor track and
field is the only sport in athletics that does not have a its own
distinct global championship which is separate from other types of
athletics, although the
IAAF Continental Cup (a quadrennial competition between continental teams) is composed entirely of outdoor track and field events.
Other world championships include the
IAAF World Junior and
World Youth Championships in Athletics, which are for athletes under-19 and under-17, respectively.
World Masters Athletics conducts the
World Masters Athletics Championships for athletes in 5-year age divisions over the age of 35. The now defunct
IAAF World Road Relay Championships served as the global event for
ekiden marathon relay races.
Elite athletes with a physical disability compete at the
IPC Athletics World Championships and at the Commonwealth Games.
European Teams Championships
http://www.european-athletics.org/gateshead-2013/12018-european-athletics-team-championships-final-standings.html
Here you see how the 4 levels all ended up in the June 2013 Eur Tm
Athletics Cup - noteworthy in 2013 is how Turkey, Netherlands and the
Baltic states have improved from earlier years, while Belarus,
Switzerland, Hungary, Austria and Portugal are among the teams who have
been overtaken by others / not done as well as usually this year.
Commonwealth Games
Athletics is one of the sports at the quadrennial
Commonwealth Games competition. It has been a Commonwealth Games sport since the inaugural edition of the event's precursor, the
1930 British Empire Games. It is a core sport and must be included in the sporting programme of each edition of the Games.
Universiade
Athletics is one of the sports at the biennial summer
Universiade competition. It has been one of the event's competed sports since the inaugural edition.
Culture and media
Ancient Greek pottery showing the javelin and the discus throw
Athletics, and its athletes in particular, has been artistically
depicted since ancient times – one of the surviving instances include
runners and high jumpers in the motifs of
Ancient Egyptian tombs dating from 2250 BC. Athletics was much respected in Ancient Greece and the events within the
ancient pentathlon provided inspiration for large statues such as the
Discobolus and
Discophoros, and for motifs on countless vase and
pottery works.
Aristotle discussed the significance of the pentathlon in his
treatise Rhetoric
and reflected on the athlete aesthetic of the period: "a body capable
of enduring all efforts, either of the racecourse or of bodily
strength...This is why the athletes in the pentathlon are most
beautiful".
[27]
Films about athletics are overwhelmingly focused on running events: the 1962 film
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (based on the
book of the same name) explores cross country running as a means of escape.
Chariots of Fire, perhaps one of the most well-known athletics films, is a fictionalised account of
Eric Liddell and
Harold Abrahams's chase for sprint
gold medals at the
1924 Olympics. Track and field has been the subject of American films such as
Personal Best (1981) and
Across the Tracks (1991).
Biopics are found within the genre, including
Prefontaine (regarding
Steve Prefontaine) and
Jim Thorpe – All-American (1951) featuring
Burt Lancaster as Thorpe. Documentaries are also common with examples such as 2007 film
Spirit of the Marathon, which follows runners' preparations for the 2005
Chicago Marathon.
Books on the subject are predominantly non-fiction, and tend towards
the forms of training manuals and historical accounts of athletics. The
story of the
four-minute mile has been a particularly popular subject, spawning books such as
The Perfect Mile and
3:59.4: The Quest to Break the Four Minute Mile.
Athletics
journalism has spawned a number of dedicated
periodicals including
Athletics Weekly and
Race Walking Record, both of which were first published in England in the early 1940s, and
Track & Field News which was first published in the United States in 1948.
Runner's World has been in print since 1966 and the
Track & Field Magazine of Japan (
Rikujyo Kyogi Magazine) is another long-running publication.
Athletics events have been selected as a main motif in numerous collectors' coins. One of the recent samples is the €10 Greek
Running commemorative coin, minted in 2003 to commemorate the
2004 Summer Olympics.
In the obverse of the coin, a modern athlete figure appears in the
foreground, shown in the starting position, while in the background two
ancient runners are carved in a manner that gives the appearance of a
coin that is "worn" by time. This scene originally appeared on a
black-figure vase of the 6th century BC.
Post retirement, Milkha Singh holds the appointment of Director of
Sports in Punjab. His life story will be the basis of a forthcoming
biographical film, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, directed by Rakeysh Mehra and starring Farhan Akhtar and Sonam Kapoor.[10]
