Athletics

In the Greek we find the etymological origin of the term athletics. Specifically, we can determine that it comes from athletes, which is defined as "that person who competes in a test determined for a prize". And all this without forgetting either that said Greek word emanates in turn, is in relation to the word aethos which is synonymous with effort.

The Athletics, regarded as the oldest organized form of sport, is a set of sports events which are divided into careers, jumps Y releases. The first historical reference of athletics dates back to the year 776 BC on Greece, with a list of the winning athletes of a competition.

Within athletics we find various types of tests. Thus, there are foot races (speed, middle distance, long distance, hurdles, cross country, relays ...), long or high jumps, throws (weight, javelin, hammer ...), athletic walking, and combined tests. The latter are also known as decathlon and, as their name suggests, they consist of ten events: three throwing, three jumping and four racing.

The main Olympic event of antiquity was a test known as stadion, which consisted of traveling a distance of between 190 and 200 meters that separated two marble lines (which represented the departure and the arrival).

Over the years, other athletic events appeared, such as the diaulos (a roundtrip competition) and the pentathlon (comprising discus and javelin throws, running, long jump, and wrestling).

After conquering Greece in the 146 BC, the Romans continued to develop the Olympic tests, although in the year 394 the emperor Theodosius abolished games in a decision that spanned eight centuries.

On 1834, the English agreed to impose a series of minimum marks to be able to compete in certain athletics events. Sixty-two years later, in Athens, the Olympic Games they were restarted although with certain modifications.

Another important year for athletics was 1913, when the International Federation of Amateur Athletics (currently the International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF). Nowadays the IAAF It is the governing body of athletics competitions worldwide, in charge of establishing the rules and granting official status to the marks obtained by athletes.

Many are the athletes who have already passed into the annals of the history of this sporting discipline. This would be the case of the following:

Carl Lewis. An important American sprinter was this one who during his entire career got to get nine medals (eight gold and one bronze) in world championships and ten Olympic medals, nine gold.

Jesse Owens. Four gold medals are those obtained by this American athlete who was the great winner of the Berlin Olympics in 1936.

Usain Bolt. Jamaican is this sprinter who is one of the references in recent years. He has in his possession not only six Olympic medals and five world medals, but also various individual records in the 100 and 200 meter sprints.