1.
Sport of athletics
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Athletics is a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running. The results of racing events are decided by finishing position, while the jumps, the simplicity of the competitions, and the lack of a need for expensive equipment, makes athletics one of the most commonly competed sports in the world. Athletics is mostly an individual sport, with the exception of relay races and competitions which combine athletes performances for a team score, organized athletics are traced back to the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BCE. The rules and format of the events in athletics were defined in Western Europe and North America in the 19th and early 20th century. Most modern top level meetings are conducted by the International Association of Athletics Federations, the athletics meeting forms the backbone of the Summer Olympics. The foremost international athletics meeting is the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, other top level competitions in athletics include the IAAF World Cross Country Championships and the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. Athletes with a disability compete at the Summer Paralympics and the IPC Athletics World Championships. The word athletics is derived from the Ancient Greek ἀθλητής from ἆθλον or ἆθλος, initially, the term was used to describe athletic contests in general – i. e. sporting competition based primarily on human physical feats. In the 19th century, the term acquired a more narrow definition in Europe. This definition continues to be the most prominent one in the United Kingdom, furthermore, foreign words in many German and Roman languages which are related to the term athletics also have a similar meaning. In much of North America, athletics is synonymous with sports in general, the word athletics is rarely used to refer to the sport of athletics in this region. Track and field is preferred, and is used in the United States and Canada to refer to most athletics events, including racewalking, Athletic contests in running, walking, jumping and throwing are among the oldest of all sports and their roots are prehistoric. Athletics events were depicted in the Ancient Egyptian tombs in Saqqara, with illustrations of running at the Heb Sed festival, the Tailteann Games were an ancient Celtic festival in Ireland, founded around 1800 BCE, and the thirty-day meeting included running and stone-throwing among its sporting events. The original and only event at the first Olympics in 776 BCE was a running event known as the stadion. This later expanded to include throwing and jumping events within the ancient pentathlon, Athletics competitions also took place at other Panhellenic Games, which were founded later around 500 BCE. The Cotswold Olimpick Games, a festival which emerged in 17th century England. Annually, from 1796 to 1798, LOlympiade de la République was held in revolutionary France, the premier event of this competition was a running event, but various ancient Greek disciplines were also on display
2.
Decathlon
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The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word decathlon is of Greek origin, from δέκα and ἄθλος, events are held over two consecutive days and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. Performance is judged on a system in each event, not by the position achieved. The decathlon is contested mainly by athletes, while female athletes typically compete in the heptathlon. Traditionally, the title of Worlds Greatest Athlete has been given to the person who wins the Olympic decathlon. This began when King Gustav V of Sweden told Jim Thorpe, You, the current decathlon world record holder is American Ashton Eaton, who scored 9045 points at the 2015 IAAF World Championships. The event developed from the ancient pentathlon, pentathlon competitions were held at the ancient Greek Olympics. Pentathlons involved five disciplines – long jump, discus throw, javelin throw, sprint, introduced in Olympia during 708 BC, the competition was extremely popular for many centuries. By the sixth century BC, pentathlons had become part of religious games, the modern decathlon first appeared on the Olympic athletics program at the 1912 Games in Stockholm. The vast majority of international and top level mens decathlons are divided into a competition, with the track. Traditionally, all decathletes who finish the event, rather than just the winner or medal winning athletes, at major championships, the womens equivalent of the decathlon is the seven-event heptathlon, prior to 1981 it was the five-event pentathlon. However, in 2001, the IAAF approved scoring tables for a womens decathlon, the current world record holder is Austra Skujytė of Lithuania. Womens disciplines differ from mens in the way as for standalone events, the shot put, discus and javelin weigh less. The points tables used are the same as for the heptathlon in the shared events, the one-hour decathlon is a special type of decathlon in which the athletes have to start the last of ten events within sixty minutes of the start of the first event. The world record holder is Czech decathlete Robert Změlík, who achieved 7,897 points at a meeting in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, in Masters athletics, performance scores are age graded before being applied to the standard scoring table. This way, marks that would be competitive within an age division can get rated, additionally, like women, the age divisions use different implement weights and lower hurdles. Based on this system, German Rolf Geese in the M60 division, using the same scale, Nadine OConnor scored 10,234 points in the W65 division, the highest decathlon score ever recorded. The decathlon tables should not be confused with the scoring tables compiled by Bojidar Spiriev, on those tables, for example, a decathlon score of 9,006 points equates to 1,265 comparison points, the same number as a triple jump of 18 m
3.
2007 World Championships in Athletics
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The 11th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007. 200 of the IAAFs 212 member federations entered a total of 1,978 athletes, sarah Brightman, the worlds best-selling soprano, performed her single Running at the opening ceremony. By the IAAFs October 1,2002 deadline, Budapest and Berlin had both withdrawn their bids, and Osaka was announced as the host city on November 15,2002 as the remaining candidate. Berlin later bid successfully for the 2009 World Championships, the IAAF stepped up its war on doping at the Osaka games, and for the first time, the number of drug tests exceeded 1,000. The IAAF lobbied the World Anti-Doping Agency to adopt stiffer penalties for first-time doping offences in WADAs code of practice, despite these fears, the IAAF announced that only one of the samples taken over the course of the Championships was suspicious and required more examination. The governing body refused to elaborate further until more was known, the IAAF later confirmed that Keïta had tested positive for testosterone in an out-of-competition test at a training camp, and labelled the World Championships drug-free. The Championships were held during a hot summer in Japan, in contrast to the cool, wet. Temperatures earlier in the month had reached 40 °C, killing several people, casualties of the heat were not as high as initially feared, but dozens of athletes failed to finish the walks and marathons and a few did require medical treatment. Some athletes in shorter events blamed poor performances on the difficult conditions, concerns had been raised in the week running up to the Championships about the low level of ticket sales - only 46% of seats had been filled by August 20. The Nagai Stadium was less than half full for the opening ceremony, a number of reasons were cited for the poor attendance, including high ticket prices, the hot weather and the disappointing performance of the Japanese team. IAAF vice-president Sebastian Coe also suggested that the length of the Championships may have to be shortened in future to sustain the publics interest, despite no world records being broken, the Championships saw a number of significant personal and team achievements. The United States dominated the overall standings ahead of Kenya and Russia, equalling its best ever medal haul with 26, the U. S. also set another Championship first by triumphing in all four relay races. Perhaps the most unlikely American medal came from 110 m hurdler David Payne, russias Tatyana Lebedeva just missed out on an unprecedented long jump/triple jump double, but still ended up with a gold and a silver medal. African countries were well represented in the middle and long-distance events. Chinese athlete Liu Xiang, the only sprinter of non-African origin to clock sub-13 second 110m hurdles, word Record Holders for the 20 km Walk, Jefferson Pérez, and 50 km Walk, Nathan Deakes, both won their respective events, confirming their dominance of the event. In Perezs case, this was his third World Championship Gold Medal in a row, host nation Japan gained its only medal on the final day with a bronze for Reiko Tosa in the womens marathon. org 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics Osaka Official Site
4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
5.
Aries Merritt
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Aries Merritt is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the 110 meter hurdles, and currently holds the world record in that event with a time of 12.80 s set on September 7,2012. He won the medal in the 110 meter hurdles at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Born in Chicago, Illinois, he moved to Marietta, Georgia at an age, attending Joseph Wheeler High School. Merritt ran for the University of Tennessee from 2003 to 2006 and had a college career. He took the 110 meter hurdles gold at the 2004 World Junior Championships, also in 2006, he won the NCAA Championships, was undefeated in all hurdles events that year, and broke Willie Gaults Tennessee Volunteers hurdles record. His victory at the NCAA Championships in 13.21 s was the second fastest ever time in the United States. He reached the World Athletics Final in 2008, finishing in fourth, Merritt is the first hurdler to ever win gold in the US Indoor Championship, the World Indoor Championship, the US Olympic Trials, and the Olympic Games all in the same year. In the final of the 110m hurdles at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, after Dayron Robles was disqualified, Merritt was promoted to 5th. His seasons best was 13.12 s, achieved in Eugene, Oregon, Merritt began the 2012 campaign by altering his approach to the first hurdle, switching from eight to seven steps. In an interview he stated, was pretty risky to make a change like that, the change allows me to maintain my momentum going into the first barrier. Merrits change was successful for the 2012 indoor season as he became the indoor world champion in the 60 meters hurdles at the 2012 World Indoor Championships in Istanbul. In the final, he beat Liu Xiang and Pascal Martinot-Lagarde with a time of 7.44 s. At the Olympic trials in Oregon, Merritt won the 110 meter hurdles final in a world leading time of 12.93 s, Merritt subsequently matched the time at two consecutive Diamond League events, at Crystal Palace and Monaco, winning both races. At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Merritt began by running the fastest qualifying time in the heats with a time of 13.07 s, in the semi-finals, he was again dominant with a time of 12.94 s. In the final, Dayron Robles and Merritt got the fastest starts and he continued to a personal best of 12.92 s and a 0.12 s win over reigning world champion Jason Richardson. On September 7,2012, at the final Diamond League meet in Brussels, Belgium, Merritt ran a time of 12.80 s in the 110 meter hurdles, merritts performance was the largest drop in the world record for 110 meter hurdles since Nehemiah in 1981. Merrit ran consistently throughout the 2012 season, the following are his times that lead-up to his world record performance in the 110 meter hurdles, Merritt finished 6th in 2013 World Championships in Athletics – Mens 110 metres hurdles. After several months of treatment, he was eventually able to return to competition on the following year
6.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
7.
Hurdling
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Hurdling is the act of running and jumping over an obstacle at speed. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle, after experimenting with different step patterns the 3-step for high hurdles, 7-step for low hurdles, and 15-step for intermediate hurdles was decided on. In the sport of athletics, hurdling forms the basis of a number track, in these events, a series of barriers known as hurdles are set at precisely measured heights and distances which each athlete must pass by running over. Failure to pass over, by passing under, or intentionally knocking over hurdles will result in disqualification, accidental knocking over of hurdles is not cause for disqualification, but the hurdles are weighted to make doing so disadvantageous. Hurdle design improvements were made in 1935, when they developed the L-shaped hurdle, with this shape, the athlete could hit the hurdle and it will tip down, clearing the athletes path. The two shorter distances take place on the straight of a track, while the 400 m version covers one whole lap of a standard oval track. Events over shorter distances are commonly held at indoor track and field events. Women historically competed in the 80 meters hurdles at the Olympics in the mid-20th century, hurdles race are also part of combined events contests, including the decathlon and heptathlon. In track races, hurdles are normally between 68–107 cm in height, and vary depending on the age and gender of the hurdler, events from 50 to 110 meters are technically known as high hurdles races, while longer competitions are low hurdles races. The track hurdles events are forms of sprinting competitions, although the 400 m version is less anaerobic in nature, a hurdling technique can also be found in the steeplechase, although in this event athletes are also permitted to step on the barrier to clear it. Similarly, in cross country running athletes may hurdle over various natural obstacles, such as logs, mounds of earth, horse racing has its own variant of hurdle racing, with similar principles. The standard sprint or short hurdle race is 110 meters for men and 100 meters for women, the standard amount of steps to the first hurdle should be 8. The standard long hurdle race is 400 meters for men and women. Each of these races is run over ten hurdles and they are all Olympic events, the mens 200 meters low hurdles event was on the Olympic athletics programme for the 1900 and 1904 Summer Olympics. These low hurdles events were widely participated in the part of the 20th century. However, beyond these two Olympic outings, they never gained a consistent place at international competitions and became increasing rare after the 1960s and this 10-hurdle race continues to be run in places such as Norway. Other distances are run, particularly indoors but occasionally outdoors, the sprint hurdle race indoors is usually 60 meters for both men and women, although races 55 meters or 50 meters long are sometimes run, especially in the United States. A60 meter indoor race is run over 5 hurdles, a shorter race may occasionally have only 4 hurdles
8.
Track and field
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Track and field is a sport which includes athletic contests established on the skills of running, jumping, and throwing. The name is derived from the sports venue, a stadium with an oval running track enclosing a grass field where the throwing and jumping events take place. Track and field is categorised under the sport of athletics, which also includes road running, cross country running. The foot racing events, which include sprints, middle- and long-distance events, the jumping and throwing events are won by the athlete who achieves the greatest distance or height. Regular jumping events include long jump, triple jump, high jump and pole vault, while the most common throwing events are shot put, javelin, discus and hammer. There are also combined events or multi events, such as the pentathlon consisting of five events, heptathlon consisting of seven events, in these, athletes participate in a combination of track and field events. Most track and field events are individual sports with a victor, the most prominent team events are relay races. Events are almost exclusively divided by gender, although both the mens and womens competitions are held at the same venue. It is one of the oldest sports, in ancient times, it was an event held in conjunction with festivals and sports meets such as the Ancient Olympic Games in Greece. The ancient Olympic Games began in the year 776 BC, when Koroibos, a cook from the city of Elis, won the stadium race. According to some traditions, this was the only athletic event of the games for the first 13 Olympic festivals. In modern times, the two most prestigious track and field competitions are athletics competition at the Olympic Games and the IAAF World Championships in Athletics. The International Association of Athletics Federations is the governing body. Records are kept of the best performances in specific events, at world and national levels, however, if athletes are deemed to have violated the events rules or regulations, they are disqualified from the competition and their marks are erased. In North America, the track and field may be used to refer to other athletics events, such as the marathon. The sport of track and field has its roots in human prehistory, Track and field-style events are among the oldest of all sporting competitions, as running, jumping and throwing are natural and universal forms of human physical expression. The first recorded examples of organized track and field events at a festival are the Ancient Olympic Games. At the first Games in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece, only one event was contested, Track and field events were also present at the Panhellenic Games in Greece around this period, and they spread to Rome in Italy around 200 BC
9.
Summer Olympic Games
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The Summer Olympic Games or the Games of the Olympiad, first held in 1896, is an international multi-sport event that is hosted by a different city every four years. The most recent Olympics were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the International Olympic Committee organizes the games and oversees the host citys preparations. In each Olympic event, gold medals are awarded for first place, silver medals are awarded for second place, and bronze medals are awarded for third, the Winter Olympic Games were created due to the success of the Summer Olympics. The Olympics have increased in scope from a 42-event competition with fewer than 250 male competitors from 14 nations in 1896 to 302 events with 10,768 competitors from 204 nations in 2012, eighteen countries have hosted the Summer Olympics. The United States has hosted four Summer Olympics, more than any other nation, four cities have hosted two Summer Olympics, Athens, Paris, Los Angeles, and Tokyo. Tokyo is the first city outside of the Western world to host the Summer Olympics multiple times, asia has hosted the Summer Olympics four times in Japan, South Korea, and China. The only Summer Olympics held in the Southern Hemisphere have been in Australia, the 2016 Games are the first Summer Olympics to be held in South America and the first to be held during the local winter season. Africa has yet to host a Summer Olympics, only five countries—Greece, Australia, France, Great Britain, and Switzerland—have been represented at every Summer Olympic Games. The only country to have won at least one medal at every Summer Olympic Games is Great Britain. The United States leads the medal table. Qualification rules for each of the Olympic sports are set by the International Sports Federations that governs that sports international competition, for individual sports, competitors typically qualify through attaining a certain place in a major international event or on the IFs ranking list. There is a rule that maximum three individual athletes may represent each nation per competition. Nations most often qualify teams for team sports through continental qualifying tournaments, each nation may be represented by no more than one team per competition a team is two people in some sports. The United States has hosted four Summer Olympic Games, more than any other nation, the United Kingdom hosted the 2012 Olympic Games, its third Summer Olympic Games, in its capital London, making London the first city to host the Summer Olympic Games three times. Australia, France, Germany, Greece, and Japan have all hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice. Other countries that have hosted the Summer Olympics are Belgium, Brazil, China, Canada, Finland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, the Soviet Union, asia has hosted the Summer Olympics three times and will host again in 2020. In 2016, Rio de Janeiro hosted the first Summer Olympics in South America, three cities have hosted two Summer Olympic Games, Los Angeles, Paris, and Athens. Stockholm has hosted events at two Summer Olympic Games, having hosted the games in 1912 and the events at the 1956 Summer Olympics—which they are usually listed as jointly hosting
Aries Merritt 12.80 (2012)
Liu Xiang 12.91 (2004)
Dayron Robles (CUB)
Omar McLeod (JAM)
Colin Jackson (GBR)
Sergey Shubenkov (RUS)
Pascal Martinot-Lagarde (FRA)
