History of Track

History
of Track & Field
Formalized track and field was first recorded at the Ancient Olympic Games of 776
BC in Olympia, Greece. The single event contested was a footrace of roughly 200
yards called the stade or stadion, from which we get the word “stadium.”
The Ancient Olympics, deeply seeded in Greek mythology, commanded extensive
cultural significance. Wars halted for the Games. Qualifiers swore oaths before Zeus,
their highest god, that they had adequately prepared for competition. Poets wrote
verse about each Olympic champion, and their deeds were chronicled for future
generations. Eventually, though, the Games were abolished by early Christians in an
effort to wipe out polytheism.

The marathon was not an event of the ancient Olympic Games. The marathon is a
modern event that was first introduced in the Modern Olympic Games of 1896 in
Athens, a race from Marathon—northeast of Athens—to the Olympic Stadium, a
distance of 42.195 kilometers. The race commemorates the run of Pheidippides, an
ancient “day runner” who carried the news of the Persian landing at Marathon of
490 BC to Sparta (a distance of 149 miles) in order to enlist help for the battle.
According to the fifth-century BC ancient Greek historian Herodotus, Pheidippides
delivered the news to the Spartans the next day. The distance of the modern
marathon was standardized as 26 miles and 385 yards or 42.195 kilometers in 1908
when the Olympic Games were held in London. The distance was the exact
measurement between Windsor Castle, the start of the race, and the finish line
inside White City Stadium.

From 776 BC, the games were held in Olympia every four years for almost twelve
centuries. Additional athletic events were gradually added until, by the fifth century
BC, the religious festival consisted of a five-day program. The athletic events
included three foot races (stadion, diaulos, and dolichos) as well as the pentathlon
(five contests: discus, javelin, long jump, wrestling, and foot race), pugme (boxing),
pale (wrestling), pankration (mix of wrestling & boxing), and the hoplitodromos
(armored racing with a shield). Additional events, both equestrian and for humans,
were added throughout the course of the history of the Olympic Games. Equestrian
events, held in the hippodromos, were an important part of the athletic program of
the ancient Olympic Games and by the fifth century BC included the tethrippon
(chariot racing) and the keles.

Track-and-field athletics in the United States dates from the 1860s. The
Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America, the nation’s first
national athletic group, held the first collegiate races in 1873, and in 1888 the
Amateur Athletic Union (which governed the sport for nearly a century) held its first
championships.
History of Track & Field
Beginning in the 1920s, track and field’s scope widened. The first NCAA national
championships were held for men in 1921, and women’s track and field became part
of the Olympic Games in 1928. In 1952, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR) sent its first Olympic team ever to the Summer Games in Helsinki, Finland,
where the squad captured several track-and-field medals. Over the next 30 years,
the U.S. and Soviet teams battled in one of the sport’s longest and most competitive
rivalries.

In 1936 Jesse Owens won a then-unprecedented four gold medals. He captured the
100 meter dash, 200 meter dash, long jump, and 4x100 meter relay. Owens was the
first African-American to receive sponsorship in the form of a pair of Adidas shoes
he received at the Games. Owens’ success in Berlin was all-the-louder because Adolf
Hitler, who was attempting to use the Olympics as a platform for his racial politics,
essentially ignored Owens’ dominant showing. Both the public and Olympic officials
noticed Hitler’s non-action. He was told to either greet every medalist, or none at all.
Hitler skipped the rest of the medal presentations. Owens became a worldwide star.

Roger Bannister was another big historical figure in track & field. Since July 17,
1945, Swede Gunder Hagg had held the world record in the mile. However, three
men came to the spotlight in 1953: Australia’s John Landy, America’s Wes Santee,
and England’s Roger Bannister. The trio had the audacity to intend to break the
four-minute barrier for the first time — a feat many “experts” of the time (mostly
sportswriters) deemed humanly impossible. Due perhaps to hype from these
sportswriters and perhaps to the simplicity of the undertaking — four quarter-miles
in one minute each — the race to sub-four garnered tremendous international
attention. On May 6, 1954, Bannister won the race and captured the world record in
3:59.4. Bannister received the inaugural “Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year”
in 1954.

Carl Lewis burst onto the international scene in the early 80s. The American won
nine Olympic gold medals and one silver over the span of three Olympics. He won 10
world championship medals. He was the first since Jesse Owens to win quadruple
gold in a single Games. Lewis went undefeated in 65 consecutive long jumps and it
took someone else setting a new world record to end his streak. Track and Field
News named him “Athlete of the Year” three times in a row. Sports Illustrated and
the IOC followed suit with “Olympian of the Century” and “Sportsman of the
Century,” respectively. Lewis was one of track and field’s first huge international
sporting icons.

Name ________________________________________________ Period ________________________________

Answer the following questions about track & field from the reading.

1. Where did track & field originate from? ________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. What single event was run at the original Olympics? __________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
What English word comes from that first Olympic event? _______________________________
3. How did early religion play a role in the ancient Olympic games? ____________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Who ran the original marathon? _________________________________________________________
When was the marathon first introduced into the Olympics? ___________________________
What historical event is the marathon based from? ______________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
How did the 42.195 kilometer distance become the distance used for the marathon?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. How long were the ancient games held in Olympia? ___________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
What events did athletes compete in during the ancient games in Olympia?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
6. When did track & field begin in the United States? ____________________________________
What was the nation’s first national athletic group? _____________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
7. When were women first allowed to participate in track & field at the Olympic
games? ________________________________________________________________________________________

8. What country is considered the United States biggest rivals through out Olympic
history and when & where did they first compete in the Olympic games? _____________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
9. In which Olympic games did Jesse Owens dominate in track & field? ________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why was it a considered such an important historical event? ___________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
10. How did Roger Bannister make his mark on track & field history? _________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
What country was he from? ________________________________________________________________
What award did he receive for his historical result? _____________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
11. When did Carl Lewis burst onto the scene in track & field? _________________________
How many Olympic gold medals did he earn in his career? _____________________________
What event did he go undefeated in for so long? _________________________________________
What other awards did he earn over his successful career? _____________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

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History

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