Athletics is one of the oldest and most popular sports. It is also part of the Olympic Games, at which every time athletes prove that, despite the considerable age of athletics, not all records have yet been broken and not all human abilities have been realized.
Athletics
Athletics belongs to the Olympic sports. Athletics includes running, walking, jumping and throwing. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is the governing body of 212 National Federations. According to the IAAF, athletics is defined as stadium competition, highway running, race walking, cross country running and mountain running (mountain running).
History
Athletics began, as is commonly believed, with the running competition at the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece. But it is obvious that long before the Olympic Games, for example, running was used by people in everyday life, not to mention walking. Even before the emergence of the first societies and states, people used running and throwing in the hunt for a dangerous animal, running to escape from enemies and the elements. As life gradually allowed more attention to culture and other activities, what was previously necessary for survival has now been transformed into a separate activity to maintain physical health or, for example, in the case of competition, into a way of self-affirmation and self-realization.
But the modern image of athletics has come a long way. Attempts to conceive this sport have been carried out in various countries. The beginning was laid in the English city of Rugby, which hosted competitions in running at a distance of 2 km.
Gradually, the competition program began to expand, it included short-distance running, obstacle course, gravity throwing, long and high jumps from a run. England is not in vain a country in which traditions are treated with special trepidation. In 1864, the first major competitions were held between the oldest universities in England, Oxford and Cambridge, which later became annual. And in 1880, the supreme body of athletics was created, which united all the athletics organizations of the British Empire.
Another country that paid special attention to the development of athletics was the United States of America. By the early 20th century, this sport had penetrated many countries around the world, resulting in the emergence of a large number of amateur athletics associations. In 1896, the appeal to the traditions of the ancient Greek Olympiads and the beginning of the revival of the Olympic Games had a most positive impact on the wide development of modern athletics.
