Athletics
Athletics is, in many ways, the embodiment of the Olympic motto, "Citius, Altius, Fortius", meaning faster, higher, stronger.
Athletics (or track and field) is about running faster, jumping higher and throwing further than your competitors. The ancient Games at Olympia began simply with foot races, only occasionally complicated by dressing the runners in infantry armour or making them carry soldiers' shields. Today, athletics remains one of the most popular Olympic sports. From the 100m dash to the 42.195km marathon, from the hammer throw to the high jump, it contains many of the Olympic Games' blue-ribbon events and many of the highest-profile competitors.
Olympic history
Since the revival of the modern Olympics, athletics has been the most publicised sport on the Olympic programme. Today, athletics is rivalled only by football (soccer), basketball and volleyball as the most practised sport. There are basically six "categories" within track and field athletics: running, hurdling, walking, jumping, throwing and multi-events. Each of the categories include several different events, now fairly standardised throughout the world.
Track and field athletics has been held at every Olympics since 1896. Women's track and field athletics began at the 1928 Olympics and has been contested ever since. Although the men's programme has varied it has become fairly standardised since 1932. In addition, although women were first allowed to compete in only a few events, today they have a programme of almost the same events as the men. As of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, the only differences in the men's and women's programmes are that men contest a steeplechase event and women do not, the men have two walks (20km and 50km) and the women only one (20km), the distance for the women's high hurdles race is 100 metres and for the men's 110 metres, and the women compete in a heptathlon, while the men compete in the decathlon.
The United States' men have always been the top nation in the world in track and field athletics. Among the women, the Soviet Union and the GDR (East Germany) were the top powers prior to the dissolution of those two nations. These days, the United States continue to dominate in the sprints, hurdles and horizontal jumps. The African nations, notably Kenya, Ethiopia, and Morocco, are now the dominant forces in the distance running events. Prior to and in the early 1970s, the dominant nation in distance running was Finland.
奥运会田径发展
现代奥运会
1896年，希腊雅典奥林匹亚举行的第1届现代奥林匹克运动会，田径是核心项目，其中包括100米、400米、800米、1500米、马拉松、110米栏、跳高、撑竿跳高、跳远、三级跳远、铅球和铁饼，共计12个男子田径项目。田径作为现代奥运会的头号重点项目，始终沿着奥林匹克运动的方向走在最前头。
1928年，荷兰阿姆斯特丹第9届奥运会上首次出现了女子田径比赛，包括100米、800米、4×100米接力、跳高、铁饼五项。
至今，奥运会已经举办了28届，奥运会的田径项目也在逐渐增加。北京2008年奥运会田径将设47个项目，其中男子24项，女子23项。
现代奥运会之前
据文字记载，第1届古代奥林匹克运动会是公元前776年在希腊奥林匹亚举行的。当时的奥运会，比赛只有短跑一个项目，跑程为一个“斯泰德”，即192.05米。公元前724年第14届古奥运会出现了中跑（跑距约为384.10米）。随后，出现了长跑，跑距为7～24个斯泰德。公元前708年第18届古代奥运会出现了5项竞技比赛，即赛跑、跳远、掷铁饼、掷标枪和摔跤，其中田径项目占了4/5。
在希腊埃拉多斯山的峭壁上，刻写着公元前8世纪的被公认为是最早的一段体育格言：
如果你想强壮，跑步吧！
如果你想健美，跑步吧！
如果你想聪明，跑步吧！
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