Portal:Sport of athletics

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THE ATHLETICS PORTAL

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.

The athletics meeting forms the backbone of the Summer Olympics. The foremost international athletics meeting is the World Athletics Championships, which incorporates track and field, marathon running and race walking. Other top level competitions in athletics include the World Athletics Cross Country Championships and the World Half Marathon Championships. Athletes with a physical disability compete at the Summer Paralympics and the World Para Athletics Championships.

The word athletics is derived from the Ancient Greek ἀθλητής (athlētēs, "combatant in public games") from ἆθλον (athlon, "prize") or ἆθλος (athlos, "competition"). Initially, the term described 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 prominent in the United Kingdom and the former British Empire. Related words in Germanic and Romance languages also have a similar meaning.

In much of North America, athletics is synonymous with sports in general, maintaining the historical 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 athletics events, including racewalking and marathon running (although cross country running is typically considered a separate sport). (Full article...)

Track and Field.svg More about...Athletics

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 Earth icon Fredrik.png Worldwide
World Championships 1983 World championships
World Indoor Championships 1985
European Championships 1934 Continental championships Europe (orthographic projection).svg Europe
European Indoor Championships 1966
South American Championships 1919 South America (orthographic projection).svg South America
Asian Championships 1973 Asia (orthographic projection).svg Asia
African Championships 1979 Africa (orthographic projection).svg Africa
Ocenian Championships 1990 Australia-New Guinea (orthographic projection).svg Oceania

Selected article

Sally Pearson and Usain Bolt, athletes of the year in 2011.

The IAAF Athlete of the Year award is a prize that can be won by athletes participating in events within the sport of athletics organised by the International Athletic Foundation of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), including track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking.

Last winners
Year Men Women
2000 Czech Republic Jan Železný United States Marion Jones (Annulled)
2001 Morocco Hicham El Guerrouj United States Stacy Dragila
2002 Morocco Hicham El Guerrouj United Kingdom Paula Radcliffe
2003 Morocco Hicham El Guerrouj South Africa Hestrie Cloete
2004 Ethiopia Kenenisa Bekele Russia Yelena Isinbayeva
2005 Ethiopia Kenenisa Bekele Russia Yelena Isinbayeva
2006 Jamaica Asafa Powell United States Sanya Richards
2007 United States Tyson Gay Ethiopia Meseret Defar
2008 Jamaica Usain Bolt Russia Yelena Isinbayeva
2009 Jamaica Usain Bolt United States Sanya Richards
2010 Kenya David Rudisha Croatia Blanka Vlašić
2011 Jamaica Usain Bolt Australia Sally Pearson
More selected articles... Track and Field.svg More about...IAAF World Athlete of the Year

Selected biography

Tyson Gay Berlin 2009-2.JPG

Tyson Gay (born August 9, 1982) is an American track and field sprinter. His primary events are the 100 meters and 200 meters. His personal bests establish him as the second fastest athlete in the 100 meters and the fifth fastest athlete in the history of the 200 meters, with times of 9.69 (which is a United States record) and 19.58 seconds respectively. Gay has won numerous medals in major international competitions, including a gold medal sweep of the 100 m, 200 m and 4 x 100 meters relay at the 2007 Osaka World Championships. This made Gay the second sprinter to win all three events at the same World Championships, after Maurice Greene.

Recent achievement
Year Competition Venue Position Event Performance
2007 World Championships in Athletics Osaka, Japan 1st 100 m 9.85
2007 World Championships in Athletics Osaka, Japan 1st 200 m 19.76
2007 World Championships in Athletics Osaka, Japan 1st 4x100 m relay 37.78
2009 World Championships in Athletics Berlin, Germany 2nd 100 m 9.71
2009 IAAF World Athletics Final Thesaloniki, Greece 1st 100 m 9.88
Archive Track and Field.svg More about...Tyson Gay

World records

As of 29 September 2019
Event Men Record Women Record
100 m Jamaica Usain Bolt 9.58 United States Florence Griffith Joyner 10.49
200 m Jamaica Usain Bolt 19.19 United States Florence Griffith Joyner 21.34
400 m South Africa Wayde van Niekerk 43.03 East Germany Marita Koch 47.60
800 m Kenya David Rudisha 1:40.91 Czechoslovakia Jarmila Kratochvílová 1:53.28
1500 m Morocco Hicham El Guerrouj 3:26.00 Ethiopia Genzebe Dibaba 3:50.07
3000 m Kenya Daniel Komen 7:20.67 China Wang Junxia 8:06.11
5000 m Ethiopia Kenenisa Bekele 12:37.35 Ethiopia Tirunesh Dibaba 14:11.15
10,000 m Ethiopia Kenenisa Bekele 26:17.53 Ethiopia Almaz Ayana 29:17.45
Half marathon Kenya Geoffrey Kipsang Kamworor *58:01 Kenya Joyciline Jepkosgei 1:04:51
Marathon Kenya Eliud Kipchoge 2:01:39 United Kingdom Paula Radcliffe 2:15:25
3000 m steeplechase Qatar Saif Saaeed Shaheen 7:53.63 Kenya Beatrice Chepkoech 8:44.32
110 / 100 m hurdles United States Aries Merritt 12.80 Bulgaria Yordanka Donkova 12.21
400 m hurdles United States Kevin Young 46.78 United States Dalilah Muhammad 52.20
High jump Cuba Javier Sotomayor 2.45 m Bulgaria Stefka Kostadinova 2.09 m
Pole vault France Renaud Lavillenie 6.16 m Russia Yelena Isinbayeva 5.06 m
Long jump United States Mike Powell 8.95 m Soviet Union Galina Chistyakova 7.52 m
Triple jump United Kingdom Jonathan Edwards 18.29 m Ukraine Inessa Kravets 15.50 m
Shot put United States Randy Barnes 23.12 m Soviet Union Natalya Lisovskaya 22.63 m
Discus throw East Germany Jürgen Schult 74.08 m East Germany Gabriele Reinsch 76.80 m
Hammer throw Soviet Union Yuriy Sedykh 86.74 m Poland Anita Włodarczyk 82.98 m
Javelin throw Czech Republic Jan Železný 98.48 m Czech Republic Barbora Špotáková 72.28 m
Decathlon/Heptathlon France Kevin Mayer 9126 pts. United States Jackie Joyner-Kersee 7291 pts.
20 km racewalk Russia Vladimir Kanaykin 1:17:16 China Liu Hong 1:24:38
50 km racewalk France Yohann Diniz 3:32:33
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

Selected picture

Marianna Zachariadi ai XVI Giochi del Mediterraneo - 3.JPG
Credit: Jaakko, 6 July 2009
Marianna Zachariadi at 2009 Mediterranean Games

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This page was last updated at 2021-10-26 05:32 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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