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athleticsCollectively, all the sports, exercises, and contests that utilize and promote such physical skills as speed, agility, and stamina. Among the Greeks, vase paintings show that competitive athletics were established by at least 1600 BC (see Olympic Games). Ancient athletes were well paid and sponsored; Aristotle paid the expenses of a boxer contestant at Olympia, and chariot races were sponsored by the Greek city states. Athletics have recently become dominated by the desire to set world records. This has led to the use of computer selection for the best potential competitors and the analysis of motion for the greatest speed, distance, and so forth; the specialization of equipment for maximum performance (for example, fiberglass vaulting poles, foam landing pads, aerodynamically designed javelins, composition running tracks); and the unlawful use of drugs such as anabolic steroids and growth hormones.
athletics - events| 17 July 1912 | | The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF), the world governing body for track and field, is formed in Stockholm, Sweden, with 17 founder members. | | 1928 | | Track and field events for women are introduced at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, in large part due to agitation from the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (FSFI). | | 25 May 1935 | USA | In less than an hour at the Big Ten Championships held at Ann Arbor, Michigan, US athlete Jesse Owens, of Ohio State University, breaks the world record in the long jump, the 220 yards, the 220 yards hurdles, and equals the record for the 100 yards. His jump of 8.13 m/26 ft 8 1⁄4in is the first ever over 8 metres and is not bettered until 1960. | | 6 May 1954 | UK | Roger Bannister of Great Britain, with a time of 3 min 59.4 sec becomes the first person to run a mile in under 4 minutes, at the Iffley Road Sports Ground, Oxford, England. | | 29 June 1955 | USA | Charles Dumas of the USA, aged 19, in winning the high jump at the US Olympic Trials, becomes the first person to clear the 2.1 m/7 ft barrier with a jump of 2.11m/7ft ½in. | | 12 August 1975 | New Zealand, Sweden | John Walker of New Zealand becomes the first man to run a mile in under 3 minutes 50 seconds, in Gothenburg, Sweden. | | 19–28 August 1981 | UK | In nine days the English runners Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe establish three new world records for the mile; the record is cut by over 1 second to 3 min 47.53 sec. Coe runs 3 min 48.53 sec in Zürich, Switzerland. Ovett then runs 3 min 48.40 sec in Koblenz, West Germany, before Coe regains the record with a run of 3 min 47.33 sec in Brussels, Belgium. | | 13 July 1985 | USSR, France | The Soviet pole vaulter Sergey Bubka makes the first ever 6-m/19.7-ft jump, in Paris, France. | | 23 September 1988 | South Korea, Canada | At the Seoul Olympic Games in South Korea, the Canadian runner Ben Johnson wins the 100 metres in a world record time of 9.79 seconds; he is then stripped of the title three days later when drug tests reveal traces of an anabolic steroid, stanozol. | | 7 May 1998 | Qatar | The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) launches its Year of the Woman Athlete by staging the first-ever mixed athletics meeting in the Gulf State of Qatar where strict adherence to Muslim doctrine has hitherto prevented women from taking part in sport except in segregated, closed arenas. | | 14 June 2005 | Greece | Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell sets a new world record of 9.77 seconds for the 100 metres in Athens, Greece. | | 9 September 2007 | Italy | Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell breaks his own world record for the 100 metres by running 9.74 seconds at an athletics competition in Italy. |
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