Track & Field

First Olympic Appearance: 1896

by Gerry Brown and Mark Zurlo

The marquee sport at any Olympics is track and field, or athletics, as it is more widely known outside the United States. In fact, track and field is the group of events that comprised the core of the very first Olympics in ancient Greece. Today, while it might sound contradictory, track and field is more than just track and field.

The sport involves the three major themes of running, throwing, and jumping and can be divided into four disciplines: track, field, road, and combined. The track events are all measured in meters and consist of the following: the sprints (100m, 200m, 400m), the middle-distance running (800m and 1500m), long-distance running (5000m and 10,000m), hurdling (100m for women, 110m for men and 400m for both), relay racing (4x100m and 4x400m) and finally the men's 3000m steeplechase.

The field events are the long jump, triple jump, high jump, pole vault, shot put, discus, javelin, and hammer throw. The Sydney Games marked the Olympic debut of women's pole vault and hammer throw. The road events are the separate men's and women's marathons, the women's 10km race walk and the men's 20km and 50km race walks.

The combined events are held over two days. The women's heptathlon consists of seven events (200m, 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump, javelin and finally the 800m) and the men's decathlon is made up of 10 events (100m, 400m, 110m hurdles, long jump, shot put, high jump, discus, javelin, pole vault, and finally the 1500m).

Since there are such a wide variety of events under the umbrella of track and field, athletes, about 2000 of them in fact, of all shapes and sizes will compete in track and field at the 2012 Summer Games-from the oversized weight throwers to the slightly built marathon runners.

At the London Games, the majority of track and field events will take place at the Olympic Stadium, which houses a 400m oval. Beyond the Olympic Park, The Mall will be the finish for the marathon and Race Walk competitions. The marathoners will race through London to Tower Hill in a small loop of 3.57km, and 3 circuits of a larger loop of 12.875km.