A copy of the Ancient Greek statue Discobolus, portraying a discus thrower

Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. 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. (Full article...)

The World Athletics Indoor Tour, formerly the IAAF World Indoor Tour, is an annual series of indoor track and field meetings, held since 2016. It was designed to create a Diamond League-style circuit for indoor track and field events, to raise the profile of indoor track and field, and replaced the IAAF Indoor Permit Meetings series.

The tour was announced with initially four meetings, three in Europe and one in the United States, leading to the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Portland, Oregon. Winners of the Tour enjoy similar privileges in relation to World Indoor Championships qualification as Diamond League winners do in relation to the World Athletics Championships. The tour was initially in place for two years.

The Düsseldorf leg was added for the 2017 Tour, and the Stockholm leg was replaced by the International Copernicus Cup, a long-standing indoor event in Torún, Poland. In 2018, the tour became a permanent fixture, and the Meeting Ville de Madrid was added as the sixth event on the tour. For 2020, the tour added a seventh leg in Lievin, France.

In 2021, the tour expanded by introducing three levels of competition: Gold, Silver and Bronze, mirroring the expanded outdoor World Athletics Continental Tour. In 2022, the tour expanded with the fourth tier: Challenger.

The tour is organised to allow for major indoor championships including the World Athletics Indoor Championships and the European Athletics Indoor Championships and, where appropriate, national championships and trials. (Full article...)

21 March:

• Sally Barsosio, Kenyan distance runner
• Ejegayehu Dibaba, Ethiopian sprinter
• Hauke Fuhlbrügge, German middle-distance runner
• Charlie Greene, American sprinter
• Marlies Göhr, German sprinter
• Martina Hrašnová, Slovakian hammer thrower
• Vladimir Kanaykin, Russian race walker
• Balázs Kiss, Hungarian hammer thrower
• Ingrid Kristiansen, Norwegian distance runner
• Shuhei Nishida, Japanese pole vaulter
• Walter Tewksbury, American sprinter and hurdler
• Derartu Tulu, Ethiopian distance runner
• Alfred Tysoe, British middle-distance runner
• Bärbel Wöckel, German sprinter

• ... that Ethiopian long-distance runner Atsede Habtamu set a new course record at the Eindhoven Marathon with her first marathon victory earlier this month?
• ... that 2006 National Capital Marathon winner Amos Tirop Matui was disqualified and received financial compensation due to a misplaced barrier on the course?
• ... that Australian runner Michael Shelley lost his scholarship funding and suffered a broken leg in 2009, but went on to win a silver medal in the marathon at the 2010 Commonwealth Games?
• ... that Irene Kosgei, despite injuring her knee at a drinks station early in the women's marathon at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, edged compatriot Irene Mogaka to become the first Kenyan woman to win a Commonwealth marathon title?

Walter Dix at the Olympic Trials 2008

Walter Dix (born January 31, 1986) is a retired American sprinter who specialized in the 100 meters and 200 meters. He is the sixth-fastest 200-meter runner ever with a best of 19.53 seconds, and has broken the 10-second barrier in the 100 meters, with a best of 9.88 (9.80w) seconds. He was the only track athlete from USA to win 2 individual Olympic medals in Beijing.

Dix was a highly successful amateur athlete, setting a state record in the 100 m and trying out for the US Olympic Team at the age of eighteen. He joined Florida State University and in his first year he broke the 100 m American junior record and won at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. After a fourth-place finish at the 2005 US Championships, Dix continued with his collegiate success, setting an NCAA record of 19.69 seconds in the 200 m and coming within one hundredth of the 100 m record. He completed a 100 m, 200 m, and 4×100 meter relay sweep at the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Championships, the first to do so since John Carlos in 1969. He closed his amateur career in 2008: another NCAA 200 m title made him the third most decorated track athlete in NCAA history, and he won gold and silver at the 2008 US Olympic Trials.

Dix turned professional in mid-2008, signing a multimillion-dollar contract with Nike. He reached the Olympic finals in the 100 and 200 m, and won two bronze medals; the only American track athlete to win two individual medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He suffered an injury at the 2009 US Championships, thus missing out on the World Championships, and a contract dispute with his agent resulted in only a handful of appearances that season. In 2011 he was both the 100 and 200 m American champion and won silver medals in the events at the 2011 World Championships. An injury at the 2012 Olympic trials meant he missed a second Olympic appearance. (Full article...)

• ... that at the 2022 British Athletics Championships, Daryll Neita became the first woman since 2010 to win both the 100- and 200-metre events?
• ... that the women's race at today's New York City Marathon will feature two of the medalists from this year's Olympic marathon?
• ... that when a spectator tried to help Australia's first Olympian Edwin Flack after he collapsed during the 1896 marathon event, the athlete punched him to the ground?
• ... that pole vaulter Holly Bradshaw won her eighth national title at the 2020 British Athletics Championships?
• ... that German runner Alica Schmidt, who is running in the Women's 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2020 Summer Olympics, has won multiple European junior relay medals?
• ... that at the 2022 British Indoor Athletics Championships, Lorraine Ugen equalled the championship long jump record?
• ... that Marthe Yankurije, who dropped out of school during her fourth year of secondary school, competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics?
• ... that every competitor at the 2021 British Athletics Marathon and 20km Walk Trial received a commemorative bonsai tree?

• WikiProject Athletics
• WikiProject Sports

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