Evidence of athletic sporting events can be traced back to prehistoric times, with depictions of running and high jump appearing in cave and tomb drawings as early as 2250 BCE and events of organized athletics emerging around 776 BCE at the Olympic Games of Ancient Greece. These events began with the simple running competitions and evolved over time to include to throwing and jumping athletics.
The sport of athletics continued to develop over thousands of years leading up to the athletics events within the first modern Olympic Games held in 1896. The IAAF (Internation Association of Athletics Federations) was founded in 1912, and governs at
hletics on an international scale, setting rules and regulations for the sporting events. This association defines the major disciplines of athletics events as road running, cross country running, track and field, mountain running and race walking. While the popularity of and international participation in athletics sporting events can be majorly accredited to the Olympic Games, the IAAF World Championships in Athletics is the primary World Championship event and includes the IAAF World Indoor Championships, World Cross Country Championships (as cross country is no longer an Olympic event), and the World Half Marathon Championships.
The world of athletics is constantly evolving, with the IAAF controlling the regulations of new and existing events, and discontinuing outdated events. There are dozens of Olympic and World Championship events currently in continuation.
Here on this website, you will find a collection of articles devoted to these athletic disciplines and the events within them.