Track and field

Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events. Track and field is categorized under the umbrella sport of athletics, which also includes road running, cross country running and race walking. Though the sense of "athletics" as a broader sport is not used in American English, outside of the United States the term athletics can either be used to mean just its track and field component or the entirety of the sport (adding road racing and cross country) based on context.

The foot racing events, which include sprints, middle- and long-distance events, race walking, and hurdling, are won by the athlete who completes it in the least time. The jumping and throwing events are won by those who achieve 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, and decathlon consisting of ten events. In these, athletes participate in a combination of track and field events. Most track and field events are individual sports with a single victor; the most prominent team events are relay races, which typically feature teams of four. Events are almost exclusively divided by gender, although both the men's and women's competitions are usually held at the same venue. One exception are mixed relays, in which two men and two women make up the four-person team. If a race has too many people to run all at once, preliminary heats will be run to narrow down the field of participants.

Track and field 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. In modern times, the two most prestigious international track and field competitions are the athletics competition at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships. World Athletics, formerly known as the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), is the international governing body for the sport of athletics.

Records are kept of the best performances in specific events, at world, continental, and national levels. However, if athletes are deemed to have violated the event's rules or regulations, they are disqualified from the competition and their marks are erased.

The sport of track and field has prehistoric roots, being among the oldest of sporting competitions, as running, jumping and throwing are natural and universal human physical expressions. The first recorded examples of organized track and field events are the Ancient Olympic include further running competitions, but the introduction of the Ancient Olympic pentathlon marked a step towards track and field as it is recognized today—it comprised a five-event competition of the long jump, javelin throw, discus throw, stadion footrace, and wrestling.

Track and field events were also present at the Panhellenic Games in Greece around this period, and they spread to Rome in Italy around 201 BC. In the Middle Ages, new track and field events began developing in parts of Northern Europe. The stone put and weight throw competitions popular among Celtic societies in Ireland and Scotland were precursors to the modern shot put and hammer throw events. One of the last track and field events to develop was the pole vault, which stemmed from competitions such as fierljeppen in North European Lowlands in the 18th century.

Discrete track and field competitions, separate from general sporting festivals, were first recorded in the 19th century. These were typically organised among rival educational institutions, military organisations and sports clubs. Influenced by a Classics-rich curriculum, competitions in the English public schools were conceived as human equivalents of horse racing, fox hunting and hare coursing. The Royal Shrewsbury School Hunt is the oldest running club in the world, with written records going back to 1831 and evidence that it was established by 1819. The school organised Paper Chase races in which runners followed a trail of paper shreds left by two "foxes"; even today RSSH runners are called "hounds" and a race victory is a "kill". The first definite record of Shrewsbury's cross-country Annual Steeplechase is in 1834, making it the oldest running race of the modern era. The school also lays claim to the oldest track and field meeting still extant, the Second Spring Meeting first documented in 1840. This featured a series of throwing and jumping events with mock horse races including the Derby Stakes, the Hurdle Race and the Trial Stakes. Runners were entered by "owners" and named as though they were horses. 13 miles (21 km) away and a decade later, the first Wenlock Olympian Games were held at Much Wenlock racecourse in 1851. It included a "half-mile foot race" (805 m) and a "leaping in distance" competition.

The first modern athletics clubs in the world were founded at the University of Cambridge in 1857, and the University of Oxford in 1860; they began an annual varsity match in 1864. The London Athletic Club became the first independent athletic club in 1863. The first modern-style indoor athletics meetings were recorded shortly after in the 1860s, including a meet at Ashburnham Hall in London which featured four running events and a triple jump competition.