Athletics

The athletics (or: Track and Field) events have been at the very heart of the Olympics since the ancient Games at Olympia. It have been the simple foot races, jumping, discus and javelin events that marked the early Olympics. At the first Olympic Games in 1896, medals werea warded for 100m, 1,500m, 110m hurdles, marathon, long jump, triple jump, pole vault, discus, shot put and high jump. The word athletics comes from the Greek "athlos" which means "contest".

In 1912, the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) was founded by 17 national athletic federations. Women's events were included on the olympic programme in 1924 for the first time.

As the the demands of training and competing came to a new level, the IAAF abandoned the traditional concept of amateurism in 1982 and allowed trust funds for athletes in 1985. Since 1997, the IAAF offers prize money to successful athletes. The The first World Championships in Athletics were held in Helsinki (Finland) in 1983. In 2001, IAAF changed its name to the International Association of Athletics Federations.

[edit] Events

In athletics, one can differentiate between track, field, throwing, jumping and combined/multi events.

Track events are:

• Sprints (60, 100, 200 and 400 metres),
• Middle distance (800, 1.500 and 3.000 metres),
• Long distance (5.000 and 10.000 metres),
• Hurdling (100, 110 and 400 metres),
• Relays (4 x 100 metres, 4 x 400 metres, 4 x 200 metres relay, 4 x 800 metres etc.),
• Road running (5km, 10km, half-marathon and marathon) and
• Race walking (10 km, 20 km and 50 km).

Field events are:

• Throwing events (Shot put, Hammer throw, Javelin throw and Discus throw) and
• Jumping events (High jump, Pole vault, Long jump and Triple jump).

Combined or Multi events are:

• Modern Pentathlon (80 meter hurdles, Shot put, High jump, Long jump and 200 meters),
• Heptathlon (outdoor: 100 m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 m, long jump, javelin throw and 800 m; indoor: 60 m, long jump, shot put, high jump, 60 m hurdles, pole vault and 1000 m) and
• Decathlon (100 m, long jump, Shot put, high jump, 400 m, 110 m hurdles, discus throwing, pole vault, javelin throwing and 1500 m).

[edit] Weblinks

• Official IAAF website
• Track and Field News
• World Track and Field Results and News

Created by: Berlin