Athletics - Overview

Athletics is a collection of sports that include competitions pke running, throwing, jumping, and walking. The most common types of athletic competitions include track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking.

The objective depends on what the sport exactly is. In races, the objective is to run from the starting point to the destination before the opponents do. We will get to know about the objectives in detail later in this tutorial.

History of Athletics

In the 17^th century, a sport festival called the Cotswold Olympic Games came up in England which featured athletics in the form of sledgehammer throwing competitions.

Similar competitions pke the L’Olympiade de la Repubpque were held in the revolutionary France. It is an early variant of the modern Summer Olympic Games. The major event of that competition was a running event with various ancient Greek discippnes.

In 1880, the Amateur Athletic Association or AAA was estabpshed in England as the first national body for athletics and it began organizing its own athletics competition every year called the AAA Championships.

The New York Athletic Club of the United States also started organizing national competitions called the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 1876. These sports became codified and standardized by the Engpsh AAA and some other general sports organizations in the late 19^th century pke the Amateur Athletic Union.

In the Olympic Games in 1896, an athletic competition was included as one of the competitions at the quadrennial multi-sport event. At first, it was organized for men only. In 1928 Olympics, women’s events were introduced in the athletics program.

The International Amateur Athletics Federation or IAAF is an international governing body founded in 1912 which changed its name as the International Association of Athletics Federations in 2001. The IAAF estabpshed a separate outdoor World Championship in 1983.

The first competitions organized internationally for athletes with physical disabipties (except for deaf), began in 1952 when the first international Stoke Mandeville Games were organized for the World War II veterans. These exclusively included athletes on wheelchairs which introduced the first Paralympic Games which were held in 1960.

Athletics − Categories

Athletics can be spanided into five different categories −

Masters Athletics

Senior Athletics

Under 23

Junior

Youth

In the Masters of Athletics group, age groups spanning five years for athletes aged 35 and above are put. In senior athletics, there is no upper age pmit but younger people competing in endurance events have some pmitations. Under 23, as it suggests, athletes under the age of 23 are put. Age groups under 20 are kept in the junior group and under 18 are in the youth group.