Athletics
is a group of sporting events that involves
competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking.[1] 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").[2] 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).
athletics, also called track-and-field sports or track and
field, a variety of competitions in running, walking, jumping,
and throwing events. Although these contests are called track
and field (or simply track) in the United States, they are
generally designated as athletics elsewhere. This article covers
the history, the organization, and the administration of
the sports, the conduct of competitions, the rules and
techniques of the individual events, and some of the sports’
most prominent athletes.
Track-and-field athletics are the oldest forms of organized
sport, having developed out of the most basic human activities
—running, walking, jumping, and throwing. Athletics have
become the most truly international of sports, with nearly
every country in the world engaging in some form of
competition. Most nations send teams of men and women to
the quadrennial Olympic Games and to the official World
Championships of track and field. There also are several
continental and intercontinental championship meets held,
including the European, Commonwealth, African, Pan-
American, and Asian.
History
Origin and early development
There is little in the way of definitive records of athletics’ early
days as organized sport. Egyptian and Asian civilizations are
known to have encouraged athletics many centuries before the
Christian era. Perhaps as early as 1829 BC, Ireland was the
scene of the Lugnasad festival’s Tailteann Games, involving
various forms of track-and-field activity. The Olympic
Games of Greece, traditionally dated from 776 BC, continued
through 11 centuries before ending about AD 393. These ancient
Olympics were strictly male affairs, as to both participants and
spectators. Greek women were reputed to have formed their
own Heraea Games, which, like the Olympics, were held every
four years.
Athletics as practiced today was born and grew to maturity
in England. The first mention of the sport in England was
recorded in 1154, when practice fields were first established
in London. The sport was banned by King Edward III in the
1300s but revived a century later by Henry VIII, reputed to be
an accomplished hammer thrower.
Modern development
The development of the modern sport, however, has come
only since the early 19th century. Organized amateur footraces
were held in England as early as 1825, but it was from 1860
that athletics enjoyed its biggest surge to that date. In 1861 the
West London Rowing Club organized the first meet open to all
amateurs, and in 1866 the Amateur Athletic Club (AAC) was
founded and conducted the first English championships. The
emphasis in all these meets was on competition for
“gentlemen amateurs” who received no financial
compensation. In 1880 the AAC yielded governing power to
the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA).
The first meet in North America was held near Toronto in
1839, but it was the New York Athletic Club, formed in the
1860s, that placed the sport on a solid footing in the United
States. The club held the world’s first indoor meet and helped
promote the formation in 1879 of the National Association of
Amateur Athletes of America (NAAAA) to conduct national
championships. Nine years later the Amateur Athletic
Union (AAU) took over as national governing body, amid
reports that the NAAAA was lax in enforcing amateurism.
