Athletics

Athletics covers running (from 100 metres to the marathon), hurdles, jumps (high, long, triple and pole vault), throws (shot, discus, javelin and hammer), race walking and the combined events (decathlon and heptathlon). It awards more medals than any other Olympic sport.

History

In 776 BC the first — and for a long time the only — event of the ancient Olympic Games was the stadion, a sprint of about 192 metres. Athletics has been part of every modern Olympics since 1896. World Athletics (formerly the IAAF) was founded in 1912; the World Championships began in 1983 and the Diamond League in 2010.

Major competitions

The Olympic Games, the World Championships, the World Indoor Championships, the Diamond League, the European and Asian Championships and the great city marathons (Boston, London, Berlin, New York and others). Istanbul hosted the World Indoor Championships in 2012.

Athletics in the Turkic world

Hungary is a legendary school of hammer throwing: Imre Németh (1948), Gyula Zsivótzky (1968), Balázs Kiss (1996) and Krisztián Pars (2012) all became Olympic champions. Kazakhstan's Olga Shishigina won Olympic gold in the 100 m hurdles in 2000, and Olga Rypakova in the triple jump in 2012. Türkiye's Ramil Guliyev became world 200 m champion in 2017, his country's first ever world title in athletics.