Portal:Athletics
Introduction
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Discobulus.jpg/130px-Discobulus.jpg)
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 World Athlete of the Year award is a prize that can be won by athletes participating in events within the sport of athletics organised by World Athletics (formerly named IAAF), including track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking.
The first edition of awards in 1997, with winners Bulgaria's high jumper Stefka Kostadinova and Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, had its results annulled. The athletes awarded in 1988 were Americans, namely sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner and track and field athlete Carl Lewis.
Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt is the only athlete, male or female, to win the World Athlete of the Year Awards six times. Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and Morocco's middle-distance runner Hicham El Guerrouj have won the main award three times. American track and field athlete Marion Jones, sprinter Sanya Richards-Ross representing the USA, Carl Lewis and other American sprinter Michael Johnson, Ethiopia's long-distance runner Kenenisa Bekele, Kenya's long-distance runner Eliud Kipchoge, and Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis have won the award twice each.
The Rising Star of the Year award was inaugurated in 2005, when Great Britain's sprinter Harry Aikines-Aryeetey was awarded. The first woman to be voted was steeplechase specialist, Ruth Bosibori of Kenya, in 2007.
Belgian heptathlete Nafissatou Thiam was the first to receive Rising Star award followed by Athlete of the Year trophy. The other athletes to achieve the feat were Venezuela's triple jumper Yulimar Rojas, Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, and Norwegian hurdler Karsten Warholm. In 2022, American sprinter Erriyon Knighton became the first athlete to be crowned Rising Star twice. (Full article...)
More selected articles |
Selected picture
Athlete birthdays
25 March:
- Irving Baxter, American jumper
- Christina Cahill, British middle-distance runner
- María Caridad Colón, Cuban javelin thrower
- Stacy Dragila, American pole vaulter
- Muriel Hurtis-Houairi, French sprinter
- Abdalaati Iguider, Moroccan middle-distance runner
- Carl Kaufmann, German sprinter
- Stefka Kostadinova, Bulgarian high jumper
- Gunnar Nielsen, Danish middle-distance runner
- Aleksandr Puchkov, Soviet hurdler
- Irina Stankina, Russian race walker
- Mitchell Watt, Australian long jumper
26 March:
- Lennart Atterwall, Swedish javelin thrower
- Barbara Jones, American sprinter
- Stig Pettersson, Swedish high jumper
- Tatyana Providokhina, Soviet middle-distance runner
- Violeta Szekely, Romanian middle-distance runner
- Vilho Tuulos, Finnish triple jumper
27 March:
- Nunu Abashidze, Soviet shot putter
- Irina Belova, Russian heptathlete
- Yuliya Golubchikova, Russian pole vaulter
- Jukka Keskisalo, Finnish steeplechase runner
- Aleksandr Klimenko, Ukrainian shot putter
- Antonina Lazareva, Soviet high jumper
- Mihaela Melinte, Romanian hammer thrower
- Dean Starkey, American pole vaulter
28 March:
- Ladji Doucouré, French hurdler
- Harvey Glance, American sprinter
- Evelin Jahl, German discus thrower
- Sylvia Kibet, Kenyan distance runner
- Aksana Miankova, Belarusian hammer thrower
- Martin Sheridan, Irish-American thrower and standing jumper
- Józef Szmidt, Polish triple jumper
- Ilke Wyludda, German discus thrower
- Olga Yegorova, Russian middle- and long-distance runner
29 March:
- Ed Archibald, Canadian pole vaulter
- Kim Batten, American hurdler
- Jim Bausch, American decathlete
- Yusuf Saad Kamel, Kenyan-Bahraini middle-distance runner
- Sigrid Kirchmann, Austrian high jumper
- Voula Patoulidou, Greek hurdler
- Djabir Saïd-Guerni, Algerian middle-distance runner
- Steve Smith, British high jumper
- Ivan Ukhov, Russian high jumper
30 March:
- Paweł Czapiewski, Polish middle-distance runner
- Tommy Green, British race walker
- Josiah McCracken, American thrower
- Mikio Oda, Japanese triple jumper
- István Rózsavölgyi, Hungarian middle-distance runner
- Kareem Streete-Thompson, Caymanian-American long jumper
- Obadele Thompson, Barbadian sprinter
- Leonid Voloshin, Russian triple jumper
31 March:
- Roger Black, British sprinter
- Kimmo Kinnunen, Finnish javelin thrower
- Tamara Tyshkevich, Soviet shot putter
- Klaus Wolfermann, German javelin thrower
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
Jesse Owens when he won four Olympic gold medals in 1936 |
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games.
Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifetime as "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history". He set three world records and tied another, all in less than an hour, at the 1935 Big Ten track meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan—a feat that has never been equaled and has been called "the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport".
He achieved international fame at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, by winning four gold medals: 100 meters, long jump, 200 meters, and 4 × 100-meter relay. He was the most successful athlete at the Games and, as a black American man, was credited with "single-handedly crushing Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy".
The Jesse Owens Award is USA Track and Field's highest accolade for the year's best track and field athlete. Owens was ranked by ESPN as the sixth greatest North American athlete of the 20th century and the highest-ranked in his sport. In 1999, he was on the six-man short-list for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Century. (Full article...)
More selected biographies |
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... 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 2019, Helalia Johannes became Namibia's first-ever female medallist at the World Athletics Championships?
- ... 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 during the women's marathon at the 1983 World Championships in Athletics, one runner fell out of medal contention when she stopped for a toilet break?
- ... that Moneyball depicted Grady Fuson being fired by the Oakland Athletics, though in reality he left voluntarily?
- ... that the men's marathon at the 2019 World Athletics Championships started just before midnight?
- ... that Oakland Athletics fans coined the chant "I believe in Stephen Vogt!", inspired by a similar U.S. men's national soccer team chant?
World records
Event | Men | Record | Women | Record |
---|---|---|---|---|
100 m | ![]() |
9.58 | ![]() |
10.49 |
200 m | ![]() |
19.19 | ![]() |
21.34 |
400 m | ![]() |
43.03 | ![]() |
47.60 |
800 m | ![]() |
1:40.91 | ![]() |
1:53.28 |
1500 m | ![]() |
3:26.00 | ![]() |
3:50.07 |
3000 m | ![]() |
7:20.67 | ![]() |
8:06.11 |
5000 m | ![]() |
12:35.36 | ![]() |
14:06.62 |
10,000 m | ![]() |
26:11.00 | ![]() |
29:01.03 |
Half marathon | ![]() |
57:31 | ![]() |
1:02:52 |
Marathon | ![]() |
2:01:39 | ![]() |
2:14:04 |
3000 m steeplechase | ![]() |
7:53.63 | ![]() |
8:44.32 |
110 / 100 m hurdles | ![]() |
12.80 | ![]() |
12.12 |
400 m hurdles | ![]() |
45.94 | ![]() |
50.68 |
High jump | ![]() |
2.45 m | ![]() |
2.09 m |
Pole vault | ![]() |
6.21 m | ![]() |
5.06 m |
Long jump | ![]() |
8.95 m | ![]() |
7.52 m |
Triple jump | ![]() |
18.29 m | ![]() |
15.74 m |
Shot put | ![]() |
23.37 m | ![]() |
22.63 m |
Discus throw | ![]() |
74.08 m | ![]() |
76.80 m |
Hammer throw | ![]() |
86.74 m | ![]() |
82.98 m |
Javelin throw | ![]() |
98.48 m | ![]() |
72.28 m |
Decathlon/Heptathlon | ![]() |
9126 pts. | ![]() |
7291 pts. |
20 km racewalk | ![]() |
1:17:16 | ![]() |
1:24:38 |
50 km racewalk | ![]() |
3:32:33 | Lindsay Pelas | — |
4×100 m relay | ![]() |
36.84 | ![]() |
40.82 |
4×400 m relay | ![]() |
2:54.29 | ![]() |
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 | ![]() |
World Championships | 1983 | World championships | |
World Indoor Championships | 1985 | ||
European Championships | 1934 | Continental championships | ![]() |
European Indoor Championships | 1966 | ||
South American Championships | 1919 | ![]() | |
Asian Championships | 1973 | ![]() | |
African Championships | 1979 | ![]() | |
Ocenian Championships | 1990 | ![]() |
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
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
More portals
-
List of all portals
-
WikiProject Portals
This page was last updated at 2023-03-28 18:35 UTC. Update now. View original page.
All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.