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 -
Selected article
The men's marathon race of the 1908 Summer Olympics took place in London on 24 July 1908. Johnny Hayes won after Dorando Pietri was disqualified for having received assistance before the finish line. For the first time in an Olympic marathon, the distance was 26 mi 385 yd (42.195 km), which would become the standard distance in 1921. 75 competitors entered the race, of whom 55 from 16 nations started, with 27 from 11 nations finishing. NOCs could enter up to 12 athletes. The United States and South Africa each won their first Olympic marathon medals. (Full article...)
More selected articles |
Selected picture
Athlete birthdays
25 June:
- Lutz Dombrowski, German long jumper
- Sébastien Levicq, French decathlete
- Maurren Maggi, Brazilian long jumper
- Erki Nool, Estonian decathlete
- Frank Paschek, German long jumper
- John Powell, American discus thrower
26 June:
- Natalya Antyukh, Russian sprinter and hurdler
- Inga Babakova, Ukrainian high jumper
- Paul Bitok, Kenyan distance runner
- Babe Didrikson, American all-rounder
- Priscah Jeptoo, Kenyan distance runner
- Geir Moen, Norwegian sprinter
- Jai Taurima, Australian long jumper
27 June:
- Gabriella Dorio, Italian middle-distance runner
- Vasiliy Kaptyukh, Belarusian discus thrower
- LaShawn Merritt, American sprinter
- Gene Venzke, American middle-distance runner
28 June:
- Adrián Annus, Hungarian hammer thrower
- Ibrahim Camejo, Cuban long jumper
- Anişoara Cuşmir, Romanian long jumper
- Belayneh Dinsamo, Ethiopian distance runner
- Howard Drew, American sprinter
- Lloyd LaBeach, Panamanian sprinter
- Guillermo Martínez, Cuban javelin thrower
- Pietro Mennea, Italian sprinter
- Fabrizio Mori, Italian hurdler
- Lars Riedel, German discus thrower
- Hans-Joachim Walde, German decathlete
- Zhong Huandi, Chinese distance runner
29 June:
- Margitta Gummel, German shot putter
- Henry Hawtrey, British distance runner
- Erik Lundqvist, Swedish javelin thrower
- Earle Meadows, American pole vaulter
- Rosa Mota, Portuguese distance runner
- Aleksandr Shustov, Russian high jumper
30 June:
- Andrey Abduvaliyev, Tajikistani hammer thrower
- Volker Beck, German hurdler
- Olga Bryzgina, Soviet sprinter
- Otis Harris, American sprinter
- Patrick Ivuti, Kenyan distance runner
- Asbel Kiprop, Kenyan middle-distance runner
- Billy Mills, American distance runner
- Silke Renk, German javelin thrower
- Hezekiél Sepeng, South African middle-distance runner
- Barbora Špotáková, Czech javelin thrower
1 July:
- Ödön Földessy, Hungarian long jumper
- Ed Gordon, American long jumper
- Glenn Hardin, American hurdler
- Lynn Jennings, American distance runner
- Carl Lewis, American sprinter and long jumper
- Steffi Nerius, German javelin thrower
- Jefferson Pérez, Ecuadorian race walker
- Donald Thomas, Bahamian high jumper
- Tatyana Tomashova, Russian middle-distance runner
- Szymon Ziółkowski, Polish hammer thrower
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
Claudia Testoni (19 December 1915 – 17 July 1998), was an Italian hurdler, sprinter and long jumper. She was European champion, in 1938, on 80 metres hurdles. She was born in Bologna and died in Cagliari. (Full article...)
Testoni is one of the 38 athletes included in the FIDAL Hall of Fame (list of Italian athletes who have won at least one gold medal at the Olympic Games, World Championships or European Championships, or who have achieved a world record).[1]
She was 4th at the 1936 Summer Olympics in two events. From 1931 to 1940 she has 17 caps in the Italian national athletics team. In the 1930s was celebrated her rivalry with compatriot Ondina Valla (the winner in Berlin 1936), after a thrilling final, resolved by a photo finish, and the same place in the 4 × 100 m relay. It is said that the disappointment over the Olympic fourth place was so great, that from that moment on she turned her back to her friend and rival Ondina; other sources, however, report letters in which the two friends showed renewed demonstrations of affection.
She was the world record holder in the 80 m hurdles event, until in 1942 it was taken away by Fanny Blankers-Koen.[2] Her son-in-law, Claudio Velluti, was a professional basketball player of Olimpia Milano.[3]
More selected biographies |
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that for the first time this century, this year's British Athletics Championships were not broadcast on live television?
- ... that Marthe Yankurije, who dropped out of school during her fourth year of secondary school, competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics?
- ... 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 when the Oakland Athletics promoted Bill McNulty to the major leagues, they needed forest rangers to find him?
- ... 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?
- ... 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 Athletics Championships, Daryll Neita became the first woman since 2010 to win both the 100- and 200-metre events?
- ... that the men's 100 metres event at the 2023 British Athletics Championships was run in heavy rain?
World records
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
Athletics events
|
|
|
|
|
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 |
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 |
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
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
Sources
- ^ "Hall of Fame". fidal.it. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
- ^ "Women's 80/100 Meters Hurdles - Del's Athletics Almanac". athletics.hitsites.deaccessdate=24 October 2012. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
- ^ "Compie settant'anni e va in pensione lo storico direttore della Clinica ortopedica dell'Università Claudio Velluti, una vita da migliore in campo" (in Italian). unica.it. Retrieved 24 October 2012.[permanent dead link]