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Athletics (Track & Field) at the Olympics

Athletics have been on the Olympic program for every Olympic Games. Of the men's events, 12 men’s have been contested at all Games – 100 m, 400 m, 800 m, 1,500 m, 110 m hurdles, marathon, high jump, pole vault, long jump, triple jump, shot put, and discus throw. Of the women's events, 4 events have been contested at all Olympic Games – 100 m, 4 x 100 m relay, high jump, and discus throw.

About Events

• The marathon was originally conceived as a race for the 1896 Olympics in Athens, commemorating the run of the soldier Pheidippides from a battlefield at the site of the town of Marathon. See more about the Olympic Marathon

• The Decathlon has been included in the Olympic games since 1912. Points are awarded for each event with the overall winner having the most points.

Olympic Champions

• The star of the 1912 Games in Stockholm was the American Indian Jim Thorpe, who won both the decathlon and pentathlon. However, in the following year it was discovered that he once played semi-professional baseball, and he was subsequently striped of his gold medals. In 1982, he was officially pardoned by the IOC, 29 years after his death. Replicas of his 1912 medals were presented to his family at the start of 1983.

• Charley Paddock, the American sprinter who won the 100m in 1920, died in a plane crash in 1943 while serving as a captain in the US Marines.

• American Mildred "Babe" Didriksen won medals in high jumping, hurdling, and the javelin in 1932.  She is the only athlete to ever medal in all three events.

• Holland's "Fanny" Blankers-Koen won 4 gold medals in track and field at the 1948 London Games.  Fanny was 30 years old and the mother of 2 at the time.

• In 1956, the gold medal winning hammer thrower from America, Hal Connolly, won despite a physical disability - his left arm was inches shorter and much less developed that his right.

• The Olympic torchbearer for the 1956 Olympics was a virtually unknown 19 year old at the time he carried the torch into the stadium at Melbourne. Ron Clarke went on to become the world's finest distance runner in the 1960s.

• A track and field star of the 1936 Games was Jesse Owens. The real name of the great USA sprinter was James Cleveland Owens. As a boy he was known as 'J.C.' because of his initials. That was until a new teacher mistaked the sound of J. C., and began calling him 'Jesse'. The name stuck.

• In 1952, Emil Zatopek of Czechoslovakia became the only man to win gold metals in the 5000 meters, the 10,000 meters, and the marathon in the same Olympiad. It was also his first attempt at the marathon.

• The star of the 1912 Games was the American Indian Jim Thorpe, who won both the decathlon and pentathlon. However, in the following year it was discovered that he once played semi-professional baseball, and he was subsequently striped of his gold medals.

• In Stockholm, 1912, Finland began its domination of long-distance running events, as Hannes Kolehmainen picked up three gold medals and a silver.

• Ralph Craig of the USA was 23 when he won gold medals in the 100m and 200m sprints in 1912. He returned to Olympic competition at the 1948 Olympics to compete in the yachting competition.

• In 1920, Distance runner Paavo Nurmi won three medals for Finland. In 1924, Paavo Nurmi wins five gold medals; his Finnish teammate, Ville Ritola, wins four. In 1928, Paavo Nurmi picks up three more medals, including one gold. In 1932, distance runner Paavo Nurmi was barred from the Games, on grounds that, on a trip to a German meet, he had claimed too much money in travel expenses.

• In 1920, Philip Noel-Baker of Great Britain won the silver in the 1500-meter dash. He later became the only Olympian ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

• In 1932, Babe Didrikson picks up gold medals in hurdles and javelin. She would have tied for a gold in the high-jump, but her jumping style was ruled as illegal.

• In 1948, Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen wins four gold medals, the equivalents of the ones Jesse Owens had won twelve years earlier. She holds the world records in the high and long jumps, but does not compete in those, as rules prohibit women from competing in more than three individual events.

• In Tokyo 1964, American Al Oerter won the discus throw for the third straight time, despite a cervical disc injury and torn rib cartilage.

• In Mexico City, 1968, Bob Beamon shattered the long-jump world record by more than 21 inches, Dick Fosbury revolutionized the high-jump with his back-first "Fosbury flop" technique, taking home the gold, and Al Oerter won the discus toss a fourth time.

• Also in 1668, on the winning podium after the 200-meter race, Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists in a Black Power salute; the two are immediately suspended from the Games and deported from the country.

• In 1984, American Carl Lewis repeated Jesse Owens' 1936 feat, winning gold medals in the same four events. In 1992, Carl Lewis won two more gold medals, bringing his total to eight. In 1996, he got his ninth gold medal by winning the long jump.

• In 1988, Canadian Ben Johnson beat Carl Lewis in the 100-meter dash with a world-record time of 9.79. Shortly thereafter, he tested positive for steroid use and was stripped of his medal.

• In 1988, Florence Griffith Joyner of America won four medals, three of them gold, in running events, while sister-in-law Jackie Joyner-Kersee won the long jump and heptathlon.

• In 1996, America's Michael Johnson won both the 200m and 400m races; France's Marie-José Perec did the same.

• In 2000, Michael Johnson defended his title in the 400m race.

• In 2000, American Marion Jones won five track medals, three of them gold.

• For more information about the sport of Athletics, go here.
• See also information about athletics at the Commonwealth Games.
• Running events were part of the ancient Olympic Games, as was javelin, discus and jumping events as part of the pentathlon.
• List of Olympic Sports

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