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87-402: The football clubs of the 1880s and 1890s were amateur teams. They were under the membership of an athletic club , which provided both sports and the ability to wager money on the sports. However, the prestige and increased membership that could come from a successful team, led these clubs to begin secretly hiring talented players. The amateur athletics that these clubs engaged in were policed by

174-791: A physical disability compete at the Summer Paralympics and the World Para Athletics Championships . The most prestigious glabal season-long leagues in the sport are the Diamond League for track and field athletes, and the World Marathon Majors in marathon runnning. The word athletics is derived from the Ancient Greek ἀθλητής ( athlētēs , "combatant in public games") from ἆθλον ( athlon , "prize") or ἆθλος ( athlos , "competition"). Initially,

261-422: A competitive advantage or differing cultural perspectives over the eligibility of a category. Beyond the primary categories based on physical attributes, some competitions have further eligibility criteria based on nationality, community membership or occupation. The foremost division of this kind is by sex[ling]: in athletics, men and women almost exclusively compete against people of the same sex. In contrast to

348-527: A competitive age grouping is typically assessed through official documentation, such as birth records or passports. Instances of age cheating have occurred at all of the IAAF's global age category championships. One prominent incident was Olympic medalist Thomas Longosiwa , who provided a falsified passport to compete at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Athletics at age 24. Age falsification for youth categories

435-451: A disability. Blind Ivy Granstrom set numerous Masters world records while being guided around the track. The disability categories have caused dispute among athletes, with some athletes being accused of exaggerating their level of disability in order to compete in less challenging categories. Athletes with intellectual disabilities were banned from competition in all Paralympic sports in response to verification issues and cheating at

522-483: A final points tally. The most prestigious track and field contests occur within athletics championships and athletics programmes at multi-sport events . The Olympic athletics competition and World Championships in Athletics , and the Paralympic athletics competition and World Para Athletics Championships , are the highest and most prestigious levels of competition in track and field. Track and field events have become

609-799: A formal league was not founded until 1920, when several teams from the "Ohio League" and the New York Pro Football League formed the American Professional Football Association . In 1922 the APFA became the National Football League. The circuit did not immediately die out and in fact experienced a slight renaissance in the 1920s as the Western Pennsylvania Senior Independent Football Conference . 1920s era blue laws in

696-429: A larger multisports club are examples of this (namely, Portuguese SADs ( Sociedade Anónima Desportiva ) such as Sport Lisboa e Benfica and Sporting Clube de Portugal , or Spanish SADs ( Sociedad Anónima Deportiva ) Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. and Real Betis Balompié S.A.D. , as well as Italian clubs like Società Sportiva Lazio S.p.A. ). Some sports teams are owned and financed by a single non-sports company , for example

783-460: A level at which they can compete against able-bodied athletes. Legally blind Marla Runyan ran in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics and won a gold medal in the 1500 metres at the 1999 Pan American Games . Oscar Pistorius , a double amputee, was a semi-finalist at the 2011 World Championships and won a silver medal as part of South Africa's 4 × 400 metres relay team . In masters athletics it is far more common to make an accommodation for athletes with

870-516: A player on one sports team within a sports and entertainment company to automatically play for another team in the same company. On the other hand, American varsity teams are generally organized into a structure forming a true multi-sport club belonging to an educational institution, but varsity collegiate athletics are almost never referred to as clubs; "club sports" in American colleges and universities refer to sports that are not directly sponsored by

957-585: A professional track and field circuit in the United States in the 1970s. Athletes used their increasing status to push for remuneration and the IAAF responded with the IAAF Golden Events series and the establishment an outdoor World Championships in 1983, including track and field, racewalking and a marathon event. In modern times, athletes can receive money for racing, putting an end to the so-called " amateurism " that existed before. The global body updated

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1044-457: 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

1131-450: A similar meaning. In many parts of North America, athletics is commonly understood as encompassing sports in general, aligning with its historical usage. The term "athletics" is seldom used specifically to denote the sport of athletics in this region. Instead, "track and field" is the preferred term used in the United States and Canada to describe athletics events, which include race-walking and marathon running (although cross-country running

1218-897: A single sport or to several ( multi-sport clubs ). The term "athletics club" is sometimes used for a general sports club, rather than one dedicated to athletics proper. Friedrich Ludwig Jahn 's Turners movement, first realized at Volkspark Hasenheide in Berlin in 1811, was the origin of the modern sports clubs . Larger sports clubs are characterized by having professional and amateur departments in various sports such as bike polo , football , basketball , futsal , cricket , volleyball , handball , rink hockey , bowling , water polo , rugby , track and field athletics , boxing , baseball , cycling , tennis , rowing , gymnastics , and others, including less traditional sports such as airsoft , billiards , e-sports , orienteering , paintball , or roller derby . The teams and athletes belonging to

1305-706: A single sport. There are some exceptions, especially when multiple such teams are under one ownership structure, in which case the club may be referred to as a "sports and entertainment" company; see, for example, the One Buffalo sports club, which fields an NFL team (the Buffalo Bills ), two hockey teams ( Buffalo Sabres and Rochester Americans ), professional lacrosse ( Buffalo Bandits and Rochester Knighthawks ), and general athletics and fitness (Impact Sports and Performance). Even in such circumstances, collective bargaining agreements and contract laws generally do not allow

1392-421: A sports club may compete in several different leagues, championships and tournaments wearing the same club colors and using the same club name, sharing also the same club fan base , supporters and facilities. Many professional sports clubs have an associate system where the affiliated supporters pay an annuity fee. In those cases, supporters become eligible to attend the club's home matches and exhibitions across

1479-422: A sports festival which emerged in 17th century England , featured athletics in the form of sledgehammer throwing contests. Annually, from 1796 to 1798, L'Olympiade de la République was held in revolutionary France , and is an early forerunner to the modern Olympic Games. The premier event of this competition was a running event, but various ancient Greek disciplines were also on display. The 1796 Olympiade marked

1566-454: A winner. The sport became professionalised as footmen were hired specifically on their athletic ability and began to devote their lives to training for the gambling events. The amateur sports movement in the late 19th century marginalised competitions based on the professional, gambling model. The 1896 Summer Olympics saw the birth of the modern marathon and the event led to the growth of road running competitions through annual events such as

1653-426: Is a form of competitive walking that usually takes place on open-air roads, although running tracks are also occasionally used. Racewalking is the only sport in athletics in which judges monitor athletes on their technique. Racewalkers must always have a foot in contact with the ground and their advancing leg must be straightened, not bent at the knee – failure to follow these rules results in disqualification from

1740-427: Is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running , jumping and throwing . 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

1827-1413: Is also a multisports organisation, with badminton , cricket, association football and tennis facilities. In addition, like in several other countries, many universities and colleges develop a wide range of student sport activities including at a professional or semi-professional level. Fulham F.C. once ran a professional rugby league team and rowing club, which other football clubs have emulated since. Many football clubs originate from cricket teams. Today, most major cities have separate clubs for each sport (e.g. Manchester United Football Club and Lancashire County Cricket Club are based in Manchester ). Many clubs internationally describe themselves as football clubs ("FC", "Football Club" in British English and "Fußball-Club" in German; "CF", Clube de Futebol in Portuguese and Club de Fútbol in Spanish). Generally, British football clubs field only football teams. Their counterparts in several other countries tend to be full multi-sport clubs, even when called football clubs ( Futebol Clube do Porto ; Fußball-Club Bayern München ; Futbol Club Barcelona ). The equivalent abbreviation "SC" (for "Soccer Club")

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1914-399: Is defined by the venue in which the competitions are held – the athletics stadium . A variety of running events are held on the track which fall into three broad distance categories: sprints , middle-distance , and long-distance track events . Relay races feature teams comprising four runners each, who must pass a baton to their teammate after a specified distance with the aim of being

2001-432: Is designed similarly to an outdoor track, but is only 200 metres in length and has between four and eight lanes, each with width between 0.90 m and 1.10 m. Often, the bends of an indoor track will be banked to compensate for the small turning radius. However, because of space limitations, indoor tracks may have other nonstandard lengths, such as 160-yard (146.3 m) indoor track at Madison Square Garden used for

2088-415: Is more common in the case of individual sports, such as the sport of athletics , where a distance runner may compete for a track and field team as well as a road running team, and also have further membership at a local sports club for training purposes. Some national sports bodies require an athlete to state a priority order of their club membership, outlining which club has the higher, or first, claim on

2175-653: Is mostly limited to less developed parts of the world, such as Africa and South Asia, which have less stringent controls on official documentation and many mature athletes engaging in high school competition due to disruptions to education. The same regions of the world also present issues with age verification in masters age categories, with examples such as Indian distance runners Dharampal Singh Gudha and Fauja Singh (both claiming to be over 100 years old) reaching mainstream attention. Athletes with physical disabilities have competed at separate international events since 1952. The International Paralympic Committee governs

2262-561: Is occasionally used in North American English (for example, Nashville SC and Orlando City SC ), but a general reluctance to decolonize the sport terminology means that most North American teams, somewhat ambiguously, as "football" in North American English refers to North American gridiron-style football still use "F.C." in their name instead (e.g. FC Dallas or Toronto FC ). Sport of athletics Athletics

2349-485: Is the owner of the Cardiff Arms Park site. It is responsible for much of the premier amateur sporting activities in city with cricket ( Cardiff Cricket Club ), rugby union (it is the major shareholder of the semi-professional Cardiff Rugby Club ), field hockey ( Cardiff & Met Hockey Club ), tennis ( Lisvane (CAC) Tennis Club ) and bowls ( Cardiff Athletic Bowls Club ) sections. Catford Wanderers Sports Club

2436-704: Is typically categorized as a distinct sport). Athletic contests in running, walking, jumping and throwing are among the oldest of all sports and their roots are prehistoric . 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. The Tailteann Games were an ancient Celtic festival in Ireland , founded c.  1800 BC , and

2523-402: The 1912 Summer Olympics . One variation on traditional cross country is mountain running , which incorporates significant uphill and downhill sections as an additional challenge to the course. Fell running and Orienteering are other competitive sports similar to cross country, although they feature an element of navigation which is absent from the set courses of cross country. Racewalking

2610-554: The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). By the mid-1890s allegations of professionalism became known to the AAU. The Allegheny Athletic Association was found guilty of paying cash to players and was permanently barred from any kind of competition with other AAU members. This punishment would end a team, because their opponents, whether other pros, amateur associations, or colleges, would have simply stopped playing them. Allegheny then defied

2697-551: The Great North Run , attract similar attention. An international governing body, the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF), was founded in 1912. It enforced amateur sport status on competitions during much of the 20th century. Professional competition continued at a low level, becoming increasingly more common as the century progressed. The International Track Association briefly formed

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2784-492: The IAAF World Race Walking Cup  – which has been held since 1961. The IAAF World Race Walking Challenge forms the primary seasonal competition – athletes earn points for their performances at ten selected racewalking competitions and the highest scoring walkers are entered into that year's IAAF Race Walking Challenge Final . The significant variation in people's abilities in the sport of athletics has led to

2871-718: The Summer Olympics and most other major multi-sport events . 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 Indoor Championships , World Athletics Cross Country Championships and the World Athletics Road Running Championships . Athletes with

2958-649: The Summer Paralympics . The World Marathon Majors series includes the six most prestigious marathon competitions at the elite level – the Berlin , Boston , Chicago , London , New York City and Tokyo Marathons . The sport of road running finds its roots in the activities of footmen : male servants who ran alongside the carriages of aristocrats around the 18th century, and who also ran errands over distances for their masters. Foot racing competitions evolved from wagers between aristocrats, who pitted their footman against that of another aristocrat in order to determine

3045-709: The Towerrunning World Association ). Snowshoe running is a winter sport governed by the World Snowshoe Federation , which is similarly to cross country running but has athletes wearing snowshoes to race over deep snow on an obstacle-free course. The International Association of Ultrarunners organises ultra running as an affiliate of World Athletics, but these long-distance forms of competition fit within World Athletics disciplines, albeit with additional distance. Athletics, specifically

3132-733: The USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships – first held in 1876 by the New York Athletic Club . Athletics became codified and standardized via the English AAA and other general sports organisations in the late 19th century, such as the Amateur Athletic Union (founded in the US in 1888) and the Union des sociétés françaises de sports athlétiques (founded in France in 1889). An athletics competition

3219-600: The United States major institutions like The New York Athletic Club and Los Angeles Athletic Club serve as athletic clubs that participate in multiple sports. Examples also abound of sports clubs that are in effect one sports team. Each team from the NFL (American football), CFL (Canadian football), NBA (basketball), MLB (baseball), NHL (ice hockey) or MLS (association football) North American sports leagues , can be called sports clubs, but in practice, they focus solely on

3306-425: The long jump and triple jump are contests measuring the horizontal distance an athlete can jump, while the high jump and pole vault are decided on the height achieved. Combined events , which include the decathlon (typically competed by men) and heptathlon (typically competed by women), are competitions where athletes compete in a number of different track and field events, with each performance going toward

3393-426: The "US Pro Football Title" and refused to play Latrobe. Franklin won the 1903 World Series of Football Several of the teams and individuals, in the circuit, pioneered several historic firsts for professional football. These accomplishments include: Sports club A sports club or sporting club , sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association , is a group of people formed for

3480-568: The 1860s, including a meet at Ashburnham Hall in London which featured four running events and a triple jump competition. The Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) was established in England in 1880 as the first national body for the sport of athletics and began holding its own annual athletics competition – the AAA Championships . The United States also began holding an annual national competition –

3567-796: The 1920s) The J.P. Rooneys were founded in 1921; it later joined the NFL in 1933 as the Pittsburgh Pirates (now the Pittsburgh Steelers ). Records of the Pirates playing other Western Pennsylvania teams (including the McKeesport Olympics ) continue up to at least 1940, after which point most teams dissolved due to World War II ; the Pirates (by now renamed the Steelers) then shifted its exhibition schedule to other minor league teams. Franklin claimed

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3654-410: The 2000 Summer Paralympics and the intellectual disability athletics programme was only restored twelve years later at the 2012 Summer Paralympics . Professional athletics almost exclusively takes place in one of three types of venue: stadiums , set courses on grass or woodland, and road-based courses. Such venues ensure that events take place in a relatively standardised manner, as well as improving

3741-499: The AAU in 1896 and created an entirely open professional team. A year later, the Latrobe Athletic Association , went entirely professional. The misconception that these were amateur athletic clubs was held to in public, even when newspapers wrote openly of players being under contract. To get around this, the circuit teams played for local or regional championships, with the only generally recognized national champion being

3828-593: The Boston Marathon (first held in 1897) and the Lake Biwa Marathon and Fukuoka Marathons , which were established in the 1940s. The 1970s running boom in the United States made road running a common pastime and also increased its popularity at the elite level. Ekiden contests – which originated in Japan and remain very popular there – are a relay race variation on the marathon, being in contrast to

3915-518: The Olympics, even among casual sports fans, but otherwise is less popular though it maintains a dedicate fan base. Big city marathons such as New York , Boston , Chicago , London and Tokyo are major televised events in their respective cities, and often attract thousands of entrants and tens of thousands of spectators, for whom the event is usually free as it takes place on normal city roads. A small number of half marathons and road mile races, including

4002-496: The United States). Historically, tracks were covered by a dirt running surface. Modern All-weather running tracks are covered by a synthetic weather-resistant running surface, which typically consists of rubber (either black SBR or colored EPDM granules), bound by polyurethane or latex resins. Older tracks may be cinder -covered. The facilities can be called track and field stadiums or athletics stadiums. A standard indoor track

4089-525: The age of 30 onwards. As a result, numerous age categories have been created to encourage younger and older athletes to engage in competition. At international level, there are three major categories for young athletes: under-23 , under-20 (formerly junior), and under-18 (formerly youth). Beyond international rules, different youth categories are in use in the sport, often in the form of two-year or single age groupings. Age categories are more extensive for older athletes and these are commonly organised under

4176-634: The athlete's services. In many regions of the world like Europe , North Africa , West Asia , the Indian subcontinent or Central and South America , sports clubs with several sports departments (multisports clubs) or branches, including highly competitive professional teams, are very popular and have developed into some of the most powerful and representative sports institutions in those places. In general, student sports can be described as composed by multisports clubs, each one representing its educational institution and competing in several sport disciplines. In

4263-446: The best college football team. However, the winner of the circuit was usually able to lay claim to a national, but professional, football title from 1890-1903. By 1904, the exodus of pro football talent to the " Ohio League ", diminished the region's level of play and the national professional champions, were usually then claimed by the teams from Ohio. Though a champion was declared by the media, fans and clubs throughout this period,

4350-579: The colleges but by student organizations (see National Club Football Association and American Collegiate Hockey Association for two leagues consisting entirely of college "club" teams in American football and ice hockey , respectively). In the United Kingdom , almost all major sports organisations are dedicated to a single sport, the exception to this is Cardiff Athletic Club based in Cardiff , Wales, which

4437-567: The competitions in athletics, and hosts the Paralympic Games , which have continued since 1960 . Competitors at elite level competitions, are classified by disability, to arrange athletes with a similar disability in the same event. A classified T12 athlete for example, is a track athlete with a visual impairment. Operating independently of the Paralympic movement, deaf athletes have a long-established tradition of organised athletics, with

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4524-447: The creation of numerous competitive categories, in order that athletes are pitted against rivals of a similar kind or ability, and to include groups of people who would otherwise not be competitive in open-to-all events. The eligibility of athletes for a given category is occasionally a source of controversy among the sport's participants, officials and spectators, with disputes typically being rooted in deliberate cheating in order to gain

4611-406: The difficulty of determining the exact performance advantage provided by a given condition, and the moral risk of "gender-engineering" by setting a biological definition for a female athlete. Age is a significant determiner of ability to compete in athletics, with athletic ability generally increasing through childhood and adolescence, peaking in early adulthood, then gradually declining from around

4698-844: The distance running discipline, also forms a significant portion of a number of other organised sports, most notable the triathlon family of sports and modern pentathlon . In both cases, the rules of the sport broadly mirror those of World Athletics, but the details are set by the international federation of the sports themselves. 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 . 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 mostly held in summer . The sport

4785-574: The division to raise questions of fairness in competition. The dispute reached new heights in 2019 with the United Nations Human Rights Council issuing a statement that the IAAF was breaching "international human rights norms and standards" through its practice of allowing some athletes to compete in the women's division only once they had lowered their testosterone levels through medical intervention. The IAAF and several prominent women athletes, such as Paula Radcliffe , said this

4872-417: The elite racers consistently beat the runners on foot. The speed of wheel chair racers has caused difficulties for race organisers in properly staggering their start times compared to runners. A collision between Josh Cassidy (a wheelchair racer) and Tiki Gelana (a leading female marathoner) at the 2013 London Marathon brought the issue into the spotlight again. Occasionally, athletes with a disability reach

4959-447: The entire season, and have the right to practice almost every kind of sport at the club's facilities. Registered associate member fees, attendance receipts, sponsoring contracts, team merchandising , TV rights, and athlete/player transfer fees , are usually the primary sources of sports club financing. In addition, there are sports clubs, or its teams, which are publicly listed - several professional European football clubs belonging to

5046-523: The field of competitive club sports, an athlete will typically be registered to only one club for a given discipline and will compete for that club exclusively for the duration of a competition or season. Exceptions to this include player trades and transfers, athlete loan agreements and unattached trialists. Where an athlete competes in multiple disciplines, or where club membership has social or training aspects such as local athletic clubs, then athletes may register with multiple clubs. Multiple membership

5133-511: The first athlete to publicly fail the test in 1967 and the humiliation she suffered as a result of the announcement led to sex tests becoming a confidential process. Hurdler Maria José Martínez-Patiño failed a test and was disqualified in 1985, but publicly fought the ban in court and was reinstated in 1988. In 1991, the IAAF replaced the sex chromatin test with general medical tests for athletes of all divisions, due to changes in ethical and scientific viewpoints. The question of eligibility for

5220-580: The first international Stoke Mandeville Games were organized for World War II veterans. This only included athletes in a wheelchair . This inspired the first Paralympic Games , held in 1960. Competitions would over time be expanded to include mainly athletes with amputation , cerebral palsy and visual impairment , in addition to wheelchair events. World Athletics, the sport's governing body, defines athletics in six disciplines: track and field , road running , race walking , cross country running , mountain running , and trail running . Mountain running

5307-543: The first major world competition being included at the 1924 Deaflympics . The primary impediments to the inclusion of deaf athletes in mainstream athletics are sound based elements of the sport, such as the starter's pistol . This can be a disadvantage even in Paralympic sport, as shown in by the example of Olivia Breen who failed to hear a false start in a cerebral palsy class race at the 2012 Paralympics. In wheelchair racing athletes compete in lightweight racing chairs. Most major marathons have wheelchair divisions and

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5394-451: 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 common events being the shot put , discus , javelin , and hammer throw . There are four common jumping events:

5481-543: The governance of World Athletics. The International Skyrunning Federation (ISF) governs high-altitude mountain running, defined as skyrunning , and is affiliated with the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation rather than World Athletics. Competitive stair climbing events, usually hosted in skyscrapers , has two common names: vertical running (as described by the ISF) and tower running (as described by

5568-487: The grassroots of track and field. Road running competitions are running events (predominantly long distance) which are mainly conducted on courses of paved or tarmac roads , although major events often finish on the track of a main stadium . In addition to being a common recreational sport , the elite level of the sport – particularly marathon races  – are one of the most popular aspects of athletics. Road racing events can be of virtually any distance, but

5655-880: The introduction of the metric system into the sport. Athletics competitions were held about 1812 at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst , and in 1840 in Shrewsbury , Shropshire at the Royal Shrewsbury School Hunt. The Royal Military Academy at Woolwich held an organised competition in 1849, and a regular series of closed meetings open only to undergraduates, was held by Exeter College, Oxford , from 1850. The annual Wenlock Olympian Games , first held in 1850 in Wenlock , England, incorporated athletics events into its sports programme. The first modern-style indoor athletics meetings were recorded shortly after in

5742-514: The men's division, the development of the women's division has caused regular dispute in terms of eligibility. Several intersex athletes had success in the women's division in the early 20th century, such as Stanisława Walasiewicz and Mary Weston (later Mark), and the IAAF responded by introducing sex verification for all athletes in the women's category, beginning with the disqualification of sprinter Foekje Dillema in 1950 after she refused to be tested. Olympic champion Ewa Kłobukowska became

5829-457: 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

5916-471: The most common and well known are the marathon , half marathon , 10 km and 5 km . The marathon is the only road running event featured at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics and the Summer Olympics , although there is also an annual IAAF World Half Marathon Championships . The marathon is also the only road running event featured at the World Para Athletics Championships and

6003-535: The most prominent part of major athletics championships and many famous athletes within the sport of athletics come from this discipline. Discrete track and field competitions are found at national championships -level and also at annual, invitational track and field meets . Meetings range from elite competitions – such as those in the IAAF Diamond League series – to basic all comers track meets , inter-sports club meetings and schools events, which form

6090-496: The name to the International Association of Athletics Federations in 2001, moving away from its amateur origins, before taking on its current name World Athletics in 2019. The Comité International Sports des Sourds had been formed by 1922, to govern international deaf sports, including athletics. The first organized international competitions for athletes with a physical disability (not deaf) began in 1952, when

6177-416: The purpose of playing sports . Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and may play other similar clubs on occasion, watched mostly by family and friends, to large commercial organisations with professional players which have teams that regularly compete against those of other clubs and sometimes attract very large crowds of paying spectators . Clubs may be dedicated to

6264-473: The race. Racewalking finds its roots in the sport of pedestrianism which emerged in the late 18th century in England. Spectators would gamble on the outcome of the walking competitions. The sport took on an endurance aspect and competitions were held over long distances or walkers would have to achieve a certain distance within a specified time frame, such as Centurion contests of walking 100 miles (160 km) within 24 hours. During this period, racewalking

6351-554: The safety of athletes and enjoyment for spectators. At a more basic level, many forms of athletics demand very little in terms of venue requirements; almost any open space or area of field can provide a suitable venue for basic running, jumping and throwing competitions. A standard outdoor track is in the shape of a stadium , 400 metres in length, and has at least eight lanes 1.22 m in width (small arenas might have six lanes). Older track facilities may have nonstandard track lengths, such as 440 yards (402.3 m; 1/4 mile) (common in

6438-551: The scholastic level, particularly in the United Kingdom and United States. At the professional level, the foremost competitions come under the banner of the IAAF Cross Country Permit Meetings . While cross country competitions are no longer held at the Olympics, having featured in the athletics programme from 1912 to 1924, it has been present as one of the events within the modern pentathlon competition since

6525-711: The several sports teams owned by Red Bull GmbH and collectively known as Red Bulls . Other examples of this are the several sports teams owned by Bayer AG and Philips corporations through the Bayer 04 Leverkusen and PSV Eindhoven respectively, that originally were works teams , the teams owned by the Samsung Group ( Samsung Sports ), and the teams owned by the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG). They may compete in several different sports and leagues, being headquartered in some cases across several countries. In

6612-462: The state of Pennsylvania meant that while the NFL played its games on Sunday, Pennsylvania teams would have to play on Saturday; while this prevented the state's teams from joining the NFL until 1924, Pennsylvania teams could thus schedule exhibition games against NFL teams on either one's day off (other circuits such as the eastern Pennsylvania circuit and the Eastern / Anthracite Leagues also thrived in

6699-549: 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

6786-460: The thirty-day meeting included running and stone-throwing among its sporting events. 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. The Cotswold Olympic Games ,

6873-686: The typically individual sport of road running. Cross country running is the most naturalistic of the sports in athletics as competitions take place on open-air courses over surfaces such as grass , woodland trails, and earth . It is both an individual and team sport , as runners are judged on an individual basis and a points scoring method is used for teams. Competitions are typically long distance races of 3 km (1.9 mi) or more which are usually held in autumn and winter. Cross country's most successful athletes often compete in long-distance track and road events as well. The Crick Run in England in 1838

6960-502: The umbrella of masters athletics , which has age groups spanning five years for all athletes aged 35 and above. There is no limit to the number of age groupings, hence Stanisław Kowalski holds a world record for men aged 105 years and over. For competitions where age is not taken into account, this is known as senior or open class athletics; in international rules there remain some restrictions on younger people competing in endurance events for health reasons . Athletes' eligibility for

7047-463: The women's division continued to be a contentious and public issue into the 21st century, with Caster Semenya and Dutee Chand bearing periods of ineligibility and taking the IAAF to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over their bans under the hyperandrogenism rules. An increasing number of trans men and trans women began to compete in the women's division in the 2010s, which caused other athletes in

7134-536: The women's event was first held in 1992. The most common events in modern competition are over 10 km, 20 km and 50 km on roads, although women's 3 km and men's 5 km are held on indoor tracks. The highest level racewalking competitions occur at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics and at the Summer Olympics, although the sport also has its own separate major competition –

7221-464: Was added in 2003 and trail running was added in 2015. 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 and road races, finishing positions or times of the top athletes from a team may be combined to declare a team victor. Several further forms of competitive running exist outside of

7308-522: Was frequently held on athletics tracks for ease of measurement, and the 1908 Summer Olympics in London saw the introduction of the 3500-metre and 10-mile walks. Racewalking was briefly dropped from the Olympic programme in 1928 , but the men's 50 kilometres race walk has been held at every Olympic Games but one since 1932. The men's 20 kilometres race walk was added to the Olympic athletics schedule in 1956 and

7395-425: Was included in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and it has been as one of the foremost competitions at the quadrennial multi-sport event ever since. Originally for men only, the 1928 Olympics saw the introduction of women's events in the athletics programme. Athletics is part of the Paralympic Games since the inaugural Games in 1960 . Athletics has a very high-profile during major championships, especially

7482-409: Was required in order to prevent a situation where countries deliberately sought out athletes who were intersex, transgender or had a difference in sex development in order to succeed in women's sport. Others have argued for the abolition of gender verification testing, with academic Maren Behrensen citing the harm to tested athletes' social and emotional well-being, the inaccuracy of the medical tests,

7569-679: Was the first recorded instance of an organised cross country competition. The sport gained popularity in British, then American schools in the 19th century and culminated in the creation of the first International Cross Country Championships in 1903. The annual IAAF World Cross Country Championships was inaugurated in 1973 and this remains the highest level of competition for the sport. A number of continental cross country competitions are held, with championships taking place in Asia , Europe , North America and South America . The sport has retained its status at

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