Portal:Sport of athletics
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 race walking.
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 finish of a women's 100 m race (from Track and field)
Men assuming the starting position for a sprint race (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)
A graph of the world record progression in the men's 100 metres (from Track and field)
Girls handing over the baton in a relay race in Leipzig in 1950 (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)_-_start_dje%C4%8Daka.JPG)
A children's cross country competition in Čakovec, Croatia (from Cross country running)
A typical layout of an outdoor track and field stadium (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 child taking part in a local schools meeting in Cambodia (from Track and field)_not_in_contact_with_the_ground.jpg)
An example of a racewalker in a "flight phase" (both feet entirely out of contact with the ground, a rule violation) (from Race walking)
Men traversing the water jump in a steeplechase competition (from Track and field)
Ethiopian runner Kenenisa Bekele leading in a long-distance track event (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)
Quincy Wilson setting the U18 world record in the 400-meter dash (from Track and field)_-_The_Winners_of_the_10%252C000_M_Walk.jpg)
Shaul Ladany (centre), in 1969 (from Race walking)
Naide Gomes in the jumping phase of the event (from Track and field)
Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, one of the first modern track and field stadiums (from Track and field)
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)
Runners at the 2010 European Cross Country Championships in Albufeira, Portugal (from Cross country running)
The Roy Griak Invitational cross country meet at the University of Minnesota in September 2007 (from Cross country running)
Oscar Pistorius running in the first round of the 400 m at the 2012 Summer Olympics (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)
A women's 400 m hurdles race at the 2007 Dutch Championships (from Track and field)
Carl Lewis, one of the athletes who helped increase track and field's profile (from Track and field)
A javelin throw athlete (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)
The New York State Federation Championship cross country meet in November 2010 (from Cross country running)
Selected article
The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (or 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 in 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...)
| More selected articles |
Selected picture
Athlete birthdays
24 August:
- Ivory Crockett, American sprinter
- Natalya Lebedeva, Soviet hurdler
- Wang Zhen, Chinese race walker
- Elfi Zinn, German middle-distance runner
25 August:
- Earl Bell, American pole vaulter
- Guy Butler, British sprinter
- Tom Kiely, Irish all-rounder
- Renny Quow, Trinidadian sprinter
- Nick Winter, Australian triple jumper
26 August:
- Hestrie Cloete, South African high jumper
- Charles Friedek, German triple jumper
- Arnie David Giralt, Cuban triple jumper
- Olimpiada Ivanova, Russian race walker
- Roger Kingdom, American hurdler
- Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, Canadian hurdler
27 August:
- Yelisaveta Bagriantseva, Soviet discus thrower
- Zdzisław Hoffmann, Polish triple jumper
- Denise Lewis, British heptathlete
- Wolfgang Nordwig, German pole vaulter
- Eino Penttilä, Finnish javelin thrower
- Leo Sexton, American shot putter
- Jay Silvester, American discus thrower
28 August:
- Anders Gärderud, Swedish steeplechase runner
- Regina Jacobs, American middle-distance runner
- Lilli Schwarzkopf, German heptathlete
29 August:
- Bob Beamon, American long jumper
- Michael Blackwood, Jamaican sprinter
- Perdita Felicien, Canadian hurdler
- Sam Ferris, British distance runner
- Aliuska López, Cuban-Spanish hurdler
- Wyomia Tyus, American sprinter
- Michael Wessing, German javelin thrower
30 August:
- Yuliya Fomenko, Russian middle-distance runner
- Saida Gunba, Soviet javelin thrower
- Tianna Madison, American sprinter and long jumper
- Tomasz Majewski, Polish shot putter
- Félix Sánchez, Dominican hurdler
- Sydney Wooderson, British middle- and long-distance runner
Related portals
More did you know
- ... that Ethiopian long-distance runner Atsede Habtamu set a new course record at the Eindhoven Marathon with her first marathon victory earlier this month?
- ... that 2006 National Capital Marathon winner Amos Tirop Matui was disqualified and received financial compensation due to a misplaced barrier on the course?
- ... that Australian runner Michael Shelley lost his scholarship funding and suffered a broken leg in 2009, but went on to win a silver medal in the marathon at the 2010 Commonwealth Games?
- ... that Irene Kosgei, despite injuring her knee at a drinks station early in the women's marathon at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, edged compatriot Irene Mogaka to become the first Kenyan woman to win a Commonwealth marathon title?
| Archive |
Selected biography
Saif Saaeed Shaheen (Arabic: سيف سعيد شاهين), formerly Stephen Cherono (born 15 October 1982), is a retired steeplechase runner. Born in Keiyo, Kenya he represented 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...)
| More selected biographies |
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that the championship record was broken three times in the mixed 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2024 World Athletics Relays?
- ... that Justyna Święty-Ersetic "snatch[ed] gold in the dying strides" of the women's 400 metres at the 2018 European Athletics Championships?
- ... 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 Libania Grenot was the first woman in three decades to successfully defend the European 400-metres title?
- ... that Sydney McLaughlin's world record of 50.68 seconds in the 400 metres hurdles was called "one of the greatest track performances of all time"?
- ... that Femke Bol's time of [[2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships –
- ... that Femke Bol passing three runners to win the mixed 4 × 400 metres relay was called "one of Paris's signature moments"?
- ... that Femke Bol won the women's 400 metres hurdles at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in a championship record of 52.49 seconds?
World records
.png){kind=small}
Topics
| Track |
| ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Field |
| ||||||||||||
| Combined | |||||||||||||
| Road |
| ||||||||||||
| Other | |||||||||||||
.jpg){kind=small}
Records in athletics | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Area records |
| ||||||||||
| World events | |||||||||||
| Africa | |||||||||||
| Americas |
| ||||||||||
| Asia | |||||||||||
| Europe | |||||||||||
| Oceania | |||||||||||
| Community |
| ||||||||||
International youth, junior, and U23 athletics | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World | |||||||||
| Regional championships |
| ||||||||
| Games |
| ||||||||
| |||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
Athletics by country | ||
|---|---|---|
Annual awards in athletics and track and field | ||
|---|---|---|
| International |  | |
| National |
| |
| Mandatory sports |
|
|---|---|
| Discretionary sports | |
| |
Athletics events
|
|
|
|
|
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic Games | 1896 | World games |  Worldwide |
| World Championships | 1983 | World championships | |
| World Indoor Championships | 1985 | ||
| European Championships | 1934 | Continental championships | .svg.png){kind=small} Europe |
| European Indoor Championships | 1966 | ||
| South American Championships | 1919 | .svg.png){kind=small} South America | |
| Asian Championships | 1973 | .svg.png){kind=small} Asia | |
| African Championships | 1979 | .svg.png){kind=small} Africa | |
| Ocenian Championships | 1990 | .svg.png){kind=small} Oceania |
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
.svg.png)
Australia: Athletics Australia (AA)
Brazil: Brazilian Athletics Confederation (CBAt).svg.png)
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
- WikiProject Athletics
- WikiProject Sports
- WikiProject Running
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
Sources
More portals
-
List of all portals -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Random portal -
WikiProject Portals