Atlanta, 1 August 1996, Games of the XXVI Olympiad. American Michael JOHNSON and Namibian Frankie FREDERICKS in action during the 200m final. Credit: Getty Images/PRIOR Gary M.

Athletics is, in many ways, the embodiment of the Olympic motto, "Citius, Altius, Fortius", meaning faster, higher, stronger.

Athletics (or track and field) is about running faster, jumping higher and throwing further than your competitors. The ancient Games at Olympia began simply with foot races, only occasionally complicated by dressing the runners in infantry armour or making them carry soldiers' shields. Today, athletics remains one of the most popular Olympic sports. From the 100m dash to the 42.195km marathon, from the hammer throw to the high jump, it contains many of the Olympic Games' blue-ribbon events and many of the highest-profile competitors.

Discipline's origin

Athletics, or track and field, is the original Olympic sport. The first event contested in the ancient Olympics was the stade race, a sprint of about 192 metres. Recorded victors in this event are known as far back as 776 BC. Other athletics events in the ancient Olympics included longer foot races, a race in armour, and a pentathlon event that consisted of the stade race, long jump, discus throw, javelin throw and wrestling. Similar events were held in ancient Greece at the Isthmian, Nemean and Pythian Games.

Throughout recorded sports history, athletics has always been practised. Many of the attempted revivals of the Olympics in the 19th century consisted mostly of athletics contests. In Europe, local fairs and festivals often included running, jumping and throwing events. In Ireland and Scotland, these developed into organised sets of Tailteann and Highland Games, respectively.

Olympic history

Since the revival of the modern Olympics, athletics has been the most publicised sport on the Olympic programme. Today, athletics is rivalled only by football (soccer), basketball and volleyball as the most practised sport. There are basically six "categories" within track and field athletics: running, hurdling, walking, jumping, throwing and multi-events. Each of the categories include several different events, now fairly standardised throughout the world.

Track and field athletics has been held at every Olympics since 1896. Women's track and field athletics began at the 1928 Olympics and has been contested ever since. Although the men's programme has varied it has become fairly standardised since 1932. In addition, although women were first allowed to compete in only a few events, today they have a programme of almost the same events as the men. As of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, the only differences in the men's and women's programmes are that men contest a steeplechase event and women do not, the men have two walks (20km and 50km) and the women only one (20km), the distance for the women's high hurdles race is 100 metres and for the men's 110 metres, and the women compete in a heptathlon, while the men compete in the decathlon.

The United States' men have always been the top nation in the world in track and field athletics. Among the women, the Soviet Union and the GDR (East Germany) were the top powers prior to the dissolution of those two nations. These days, the United States continue to dominate in the sprints, hurdles and horizontal jumps. The African nations, notably Kenya, Ethiopia, and Morocco, are now the dominant forces in the distance running events. Prior to and in the early 1970s, the dominant nation in distance running was Finland.

Rules

Competitions under IAAF Rules are restricted to eligible athletes. No athlete shall be allowed to compete outside his own country unless his eligibility is guaranteed by his Member Federation from whom he has permission to compete. In all International Competitions, such guarantee of eligibility of an athlete shall be accepted unless an objection as to his status is made to the Technical Delegate(s).

Simultaneous Entries

If an athlete is entered in both a track and field event, or in more than one field event taking place simultaneously, the appropriate Referee may, for one round at a time, or for each trial in the High Jump and Pole Vault, allow an athlete to take his trial in an order different from that decided upon by the draw prior to the start of the competition. However, if an athlete subsequently is not present for any trial, it shall be deemed that he is passing once the period allowed for the trial has elapsed. In the case of the High Jump and Pole Vault, if an athlete is not present when all other a