First Track & Field Events

Amateurs and elite athletes around the world compete in track and field events. Participants enjoy a broad range of events today, but when the sport began, the only event was a foot race. Since that time, track and field has broadened to include multiple races, hurdles, throwing activities and jumps.

  1. Origins

    • The earliest recorded competitive foot race was a 200-yard distance and took place in Olympia, Greece in 776 B.C. A cook from the Greek city of Elis, named Koroibos, won the race. Greek scholars and historians believe "Olympic" competition started centuries earlier, around the 9th or 10th century B.C., but this game was the first one organized as a festival celebrating the peace between the city-states of Elis and Pisa. At Olympia, archaeologists have found bronze tripods that were possibly used for prizes.

    Olympic Games

    • That first race, called a stadium (Greek stadion), was a 200-yard dash. In that and subsequent games, athletes ran races in the nude, so that spectators could appreciate the runners' physique. It was the only Olympic event in the Games until the 14th Olympiad in 724 B.C., added a two-stadia, or diaulos, race of twice the stadium length, or 400 yards.

    Adding Events

    • Every four years from 776 B.C. to A.D. 391 (or possibly 435), Athens hosted Olympiads. The Greeks added the stadion (one stadium length, or 200 yards), diaulos and other foot races to the events. They incorporated additional events through the 5th century B.C., including the pentathlon events: discus, long jump, a boxing-wrestling combat event called pankration, the javelin throw and the hoplitodromos, a foot race in full battle gear.

    Roman and Medieval Events

    • In the early centuries A.D., Romans ran foot races, chariot races and mock combat events. The Apostle Paul mentions running a race for a prize in his letter to the Corinthians, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." Medieval knights incorporated tossing, throwing, racing and jousting into their recreation and festival events. Knights often traveled long distances to compete in these games and events.

    Marathon

    • The Olympic Games in 1896, hosted by Athens, Greece, added the marathon. Its original distance was roughly 42 kilometers (26.2 miles), from the city of Marathon to the Olympic Stadium in Athens. According to Athletic Scholarships, the marathon commemorates Pheidippides' (a messenger) run from Marathon to Sparta in 490 B.C. carrying news of the Persian landing. That trip was nearly 150 miles, but according to Herodotus' account, Pheidippides delivered the news to Sparta in only one day. Planners standardized the distance for the marathon used in Athens to 26 miles, 385 yards at the 1908 Olympic Games in London.

    Modern Track and Field

    • Between the 12th and 19th centuries A.D., the English hosted track and field events. The first English college track meet was in 1864, between Oxford and Cambridge. Track and field began in the U.S. in the 1860s. American and Canadian Caledonian (Latin for Scottish) clubs hosted Highland Game-style competitions with events including the standing long jump, running high leap, hitch and kick and pole vault.

    Women's Track and Field

    • In the 1920s, track and field began to modernize. In 1921, the NCAA championships added women's track and field events. The Olympic Games did not add women's track and field events until 1928.