Portal:Sport of athletics

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Welcome to THE ATHLETICS PORTAL

Introduction

A copy of the Ancient Greek statue Discobolus, portraying a discus thrower

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...)

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Race walkers at the U.S. World Cup Trials in 1987

Race walking, or racewalking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Race judges carefully assess that this is maintained throughout the race. Typically held on either roads or running tracks, common distances range from 3,000 metres (1.9 mi) up to 100 kilometres (62.1 mi).

There are two race walking distances contested at the Summer Olympics: the 20 kilometres race walk (men and women) and 50 kilometres race walk (men only). Both are held as road events. The biennial World Athletics Championships also featured these two events, in addition to a 50 km walk for women, until 2019. The 50 km race walk was replaced by the 35 kilometres race walk as standard championship discipline in 2022. The IAAF World Race Walking Cup, first held in 1961, is a stand-alone global competition for the discipline and it has 10 kilometres race walks for junior athletes, in addition to the Olympic-standard events. The IAAF World Indoor Championships featured 5000 m and 3000 m race walk variations, but these were discontinued after 1993. Top-level athletics championships and games typically feature 20 km racewalking events. (Full article...)

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Credit: Tsutomu Takasu, 27 June 2007
Men's 110 metres hurdles final in the 92nd Japan Athletics Championships

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Johnson in 2016

Michael Duane Johnson (born September 13, 1967) is an American retired sprinter who won four Olympic gold medals and eight World Championships gold medals in the span of his career. He held the world and Olympic records in the 200 m and 400 m, as well as the world record in the indoor 400 m. He also once held the world's best time in the 300 m. Johnson is generally considered one of the greatest and most consistent sprinters in the history of track and field.

Johnson is the only male athlete to win both the 200 meters and 400 meters events at the same Olympics, a feat he accomplished at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Johnson is also the only man to successfully defend his Olympic title in the 400 m, having done so at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Aside from his Olympic success, Johnson accumulated eight gold medals at the World Championships and is tied with Carl Lewis for the fourth most gold medals won by a runner.

Johnson held the US national records for the 200, 300, and 400 meters. The 4 × 400 meters relay world record was anchored by Johnson. (Full article...)

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World records

World records as of 20 November 2022
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 Uganda Joshua Cheptegei 12:35.36 Ethiopia Letesenbet Gidey 14:06.62
10,000 m Uganda Joshua Cheptegei 26:11.00 Ethiopia Letesenbet Gidey 29:01.03
Half marathon Uganda Jacob Kiplimo 57:31 Ethiopia Letesenbet Gidey 1:02:52
Marathon Kenya Eliud Kipchoge 2:01:39 Kenya Brigid Kosgei 2:14:04
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 Nigeria Tobi Amusan 12.12
400 m hurdles Norway Karsten Warholm 45.94 United States Sydney McLaughlin 50.68
High jump Cuba Javier Sotomayor 2.45 m Bulgaria Stefka Kostadinova 2.09 m
Pole vault Sweden Armand Duplantis 6.21 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 Venezuela Yulimar Rojas 15.74 m
Shot put United States Ryan Crouser 23.37 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 Lindsay Pelas
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

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