What is athletics - history, basic disciplines

What is athletics? This sport includes a whole mass of separate competitive disciplines. Currently, athletics is one of the most popular, popular sports.

History of Athletics

It dates back to the times of Ancient Greece. Traditional Olympic games in antiquity consisted exclusively of track and field disciplines. According to the historical data that have been preserved to our time, the first Olympiads were held on the basis of competitions for running for short distances. Later the program of such competitions was somewhat different with the appearance of running in several stages, mainly round trip. Then there was a discipline called dovhodromos, which was a fairly long run for endurance.

A new twist of the history of development falls on the 12th century, when this sport gained popularity among the inhabitants of the British Isles. It was here for the first time that the first major competitions in track and field athletics began, which included races for individual distances, jumps in height and length, throwing sports equipment. It was these competitions that gave a significant impetus to the development of modern sports.

Competitions in athletics, as close to nature as possible, began to be held beginning in the second half of the 19th century, when the Greeks made their first attempts to revive the old, long-forgotten tradition. Later similar championships were held in the most numerous countries of the world.

Major athletics disciplines

What is athletics? The basis of this sport is running disciplines: sprint, running to medium, long distances, relay races, barrier races. A separate kind, deserving special attention, is sports walking, where the main emphasis, in comparison with running, is on observance of the correct technique of motion.

Currently, track and field athletics competitions for running and walking are held not only in conditions of sports arenas, but also often go beyond the stadiums.

Running disciplines are far from the only thing on which a great sport and physical culture are based. Athletics today unites a wide range of technical disciplines:

• Jumping with a pole, vertical jumps through obstacles;
• Horizontal jumps;
• Throwing a disc, a hammer, a spear, a shot put.

All of the above athletics disciplines form the structure of the compulsory Olympic program in men's competitions, beginning in 1908. Many technical disciplines are included in the program of competitions in track and field athletics.

Run

To understand what athletics is, it is enough to look at competitions in running disciplines that occupy the main part of the competitive athletics program. To date, there are several types of running programs:

1. Smooth Sprint - races at a distance of 50 to 400 m, which are the basis of major international competitions. Beginning of the races is held at the command of the judge: "At the start, attention", - then a shot is heard from the signal pistol. In case of premature start of one of the athletes, a run is stopped, and the violator of the rules is counted with a false start and a warning is issued. Repeated admission of the error at the start leads to disqualification. The same rules apply to other running disciplines.
2. The barrier sprint - the main difference from the sprint is the need to overcome obstacles. Movement of athletes takes place on separate tracks, each of which is placed a certain number of barriers, depending on the length of the distance.
3. Races for medium and long distances - are among the most dynamic and exciting disciplines in track and field athletics. The entertainment of the races consists not only in the necessity of choosing the right strategy for the athletes, but also in the high probability of the emergence of a whole mass of unforeseen moments.

Walking

In due time the International federation of track and field athletics has included sports walking in the list of the Olympic disciplines. To achieve victory in the competition in race walking, it is required not only to demonstrate the fastest result, but also full compliance with technology. So, it is forbidden to the speed skaters to resort to jogging or to lose contact with the ground, that is, to pass to the stage of flight of the body above the ground. With the admission of technical shortcomings in athletic walking, there are temporary penalties and disqualifications.

Throwing sports equipment

What is athletics, what else is included in this concept? In the competitive track and field athletics program, along with running and jumping disciplines is the throwing of all kinds of shells: a nucleus, a hammer, a disc, sometimes tennis balls and fake grenades. The last two disciplines have the character of preparatory, auxiliary and are used in the order of training.

All throwing disciplines allow for the preliminary inertial acceleration of sporting shells, which allows to increase the speed of flight when clearing from contact with the thrower's hands when flying.

All Around

A separate, one of the most interesting disciplines in track and field athletics is all-around. The classic men's decathlon includes races for short and medium distances, running with barriers, jumping in length and height, throwing sports equipment.

As for women's heptathlon, this is the discipline of the 100, 200, 800 m race, jumps in height and length, shot put and javelin throwing.

Formation of the results and the determination of the winner in both men's and women's all-around occurs by counting the total number of points scored, which are awarded for demonstrating certain results in individual disciplines.