Track and field athletics

For other uses, see Track and field athletics (disambiguation).

Track and field is part of the sport of athletics. Athletics is a collection of sport events that includes running, jumping and throwing. Track and field events take place in a sports stadium, either on the running track, or on the field inside the running track. These tracks are generally made up of synthetic rubber – rubber particles bound with latex or polyurethane. Other athletics events that are not track and field, include cross country running, road running, marathon running, and race-walking - these events take place outside a sports stadium.

Athletics

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Highest governing body	World Athletics
Characteristics
Mixed gender	Yes
Type	Outdoor or indoor
Presence
Olympic	Present since inaugural 1896 Olympics
Paralympic	Present since inaugural 1960 Paralympics

Athletics is a very common sporting event over the world. Athletics is a combination of different sports, generally running, jumping and throwing events. Running events include marathons, hurdle races, long distance and short-distance events. Some jumping events are high jump, long jump, triple jump and pole vault. Throwing events involve javelin throw, discus throw, hammer throw and shot put.

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• Brittney Reese Berlin 2009.JPG

  Long jump at Berlin, 2009.

• 

  Discus throw at Barcelona.

• Pole vault event at Birmingham.

• 200 meters race at Helsinki.

There are also events that combine parts of running, jumping, and throwing. One of these is the decathlon, which includes two short-distance races, a mile run, a hurdles race, javelin, discus, shot-put, high jump and pole vault.

All participants are timed or have a distance measured and this is their result. Participants train hard for an event and always aim to better their results.

Athletics is a sport that people take part in all over the world. It is a sport that is most common between young children up to younger adults. Athletics can be played for enjoyment, but it can also be a competitive sport. Athletics is also an event in the Olympic games.

Track And Field Athletics Media

• Panathenaic amphora Kleophrades Louvre F277.jpg

  An ancient Greece vase from 600 BC depicting a running contest

• DETROIT ATHLETIC CLUB-1888.jpg

  An early model of hurdling at the Detroit Athletic Club in 1888

• 1906 Athens stadium.jpg

  Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, one of the first modern track and field stadiums

• Jim Thorpe 1912b.jpg

  American athlete Jim Thorpe lost his Olympic medals after taking expense money prior to the 1912 Summer Olympics for playing baseball, a violation of Olympic amateurism rules.

• CarlLewis.jpg

  Carl Lewis, one of the athletes who helped increase track and field's profile

• 100m women Golden League 2007 in Zurich.jpg

  The finish of a women's 100m race

• ArneAndersson&GunderHagg1942.jpg

  Arne Andersson (left) and Gunder Hägg (right) broke a number of middle-distance world records in the 1940s.

• Kenenisa Bekele - Smiling.jpg

  Ethiopian runner Kenenisa Bekele leading in a long-distance track event

• Fotothek df roe-neg 0002422 003 Läuferinnen beim Weiterreichen des Staffelstabes.jpg

  Girls handing over the baton in a relay race in Leipzig in 1950

• 20070701-nk2007-400m-horden.jpg

  A women's 400 m hurdles race at the 2007 Dutch Championships

• Triple jump Athletissima 2012.ogv

  Olga Rypakova performing a triple jump in 2012

Other websites

• International Association of Athletics Federations website
• USA Track & Field website
• Results & Statistics for Collegiate, High School, Middle School, and Club teams