Eena Janica Galila 3rdYr.
Athletics is a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing,
and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross
country running, and race walking. The simplicity of the competitions, and the lack of a need for
expensive equipment, makes athletics one of the most commonly competed sports in the world.
Organised athletics are traced back to the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BC, and most
modern events are conducted by the member clubs of the International Association of Athletics
Federations. The athletics meeting forms the backbone of the modern Summer Olympics, and other
leading international meetings include the IAAF World Championships andWorld Indoor Championships.
Athletics contests in running, walking, jumping, and throwing are among the oldest of all sports
and their roots are prehistoric.[1] Athletics events were depicted in the Ancient Egyptian tombs in Saqqara,
with illustrations of running at the Heb Sed festival and high jumping appearing in tombs from as early as
of 2250 BC.[2] The Tailteann Games were an ancient Celtic festival in Ireland, founded around 1800 BC,
and the thirty-day meeting included running and stone-throwing among its sporting events.[3] The original
and only event at the first Olympics in 776 BC was a stadium-length running event known as the stadion.
This later expanded to include throwing and jumping events within the ancient pentathlon. Athletics
competitions also took place at other Panhellenic Games, which were founded later around 500 BC.[4]
The Cotswold Olimpick Games, a sports festival which emerged in 17th century England, also
featured athletics in the form of sledgehammer throwing contests.[5] Annually, from 1796 to
1798, L'Olympiade de la République was held in revolutionary France, and is an early forerunner to the
modern summer Olympic Games. The premier event of this competition was a running event, but various
ancient Greek disciplines were also on display. The 1796 Olympiade marks the introduction of the metric
system into sport.
Track and field competitions emerged in the late 19th century and were typically contested
between athletes who were representing rival educational institutions, military organisations and sports
clubs.[9] Participating athletes may compete in one or more events, according to their specialities. Men
and women compete separately. Track and field comes in both indoor and outdoor formats, with most
indoor competitions occurring in winter, while outdoor events are held in spring and summer. The sport is
defined by the venue in which the competitions are held – the track and field stadium.
A variety of running events are held on the track and these fall into three broad distance
types: sprints, middle-distance, and long-distance track events. Relay races feature teams comprising
four runners each, who must pass a baton to their team-mate after a specified distance with the aim of
being the first team to finish. Hurdling events and the steeplechase are a variation upon the flat running
theme in that athletes must clear obstacles on the track during the race. The field events come in two
types – jumping and throwing competitions. In throwing events, athletes are measured by how far they
hurl an implement, with the most common events being the shot put, discus, javelin, and hammer throw.
There are four common track and field jumping events: the long jump andtriple jump are contests
measuring the distance an athlete can jump, while the high jump and pole vault are decided on the height
achieved. Combined events, such as the decathlon, are competitions where athletes compete in a
number of different track and field events, with each performance going toward a final points tally.
Athletics competitions are typically divided into one of four categories: track and field, road
running, cross country running, and race walking. All forms of athletics are individual sports with the
exception of relay races. However, athletes' performances are often tallied together by country at
international championships, and in the case of cross country the finishing times of the top athletes from
each team or country are combined to declare a team victor.
