Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping and throwing. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross-country running, and race walking.

The results of racing events are decided by finishing position (or time, where measured), while the jumps and throws are won by the athlete that achieves the highest or furthest measurement from a series of attempts. The simplicity of the competitions, and the lack of a need for expensive equipment, makes athletics one of the most common types of sports in the world. Athletics is mostly an individual sport, with the exception of relay races and competitions which combine athletes' performances for a team score, such as cross country.

Organized athletics are traced back to the ancient Olympic Games from 776 BC. The rules and format of the modern events in athletics were defined in Western Europe and North America in the 19th and early 20th century, and were then spread to other parts of the world. Most modern top level meetings are held under the auspices of World Athletics, the global governing body for the sport of athletics, or its member continental and national federations. (Full article...)

The World Athletics Awards are annual awards to honor athletes participating in events within the sport of athletics. These are organised by World Athletics and include track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking.

The first athletes awarded World Athlete of the Year in 1988 were Americans, namely sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner and track and field athlete Carl Lewis.

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt is the only athlete to win the World Athlete of the Year Awards six times. Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis has also won the award four times including the inaugural World Athlete of the Year (Men's Field) award in 2023 after World Athletics Awards changed from crowning a sole male and female winner to issuing awards across six categories. Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and Morocco's middle-distance runner Hicham El Guerrouj have won the main award three times. American track and field athletes Marion Jones (sprinter), Sanya Richards-Ross (sprinter), Carl Lewis (sprinter and long jumper), Michael Johnson (sprinter), Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (hurdler and sprinter), Ethiopia's long-distance runner Kenenisa Bekele, Kenya's long-distance runner Eliud Kipchoge and Venezuela's triple-jumper Yulima Rojas have won the award twice each.

The Rising Star of the Year award was inaugurated in 1998, when Great Britain's sprinter Christian Malcolm was awarded. The first woman to be voted was 400 m and 400 m H specialist, Jana Pittman of Australia, in 2000.

Ethiopian long-distance runner Kenenisa Bekele was the first to receive Rising Star award followed by Athlete of the Year trophy in 2003 and 2004 respectively. The other athletes to achieve the feat were Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, American sprinter Allyson Felix, Belgian heptathlete Nafissatou Thiam, Venezuelan triple jumper Yulimar Rojas, American hurdler and sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, and Norwegian hurdler Karsten Warholm. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and American sprinter Erriyon Knighton are the only two athletes to be crowned Rising Star twice. (Full article...)

26 February:

• Nigel Barker, Australian sprinter
• Irina Beglyakova, Soviet discus thrower
• Frank Busemann, German decathlete
• Halina Konopacka, Polish discus thrower
• Heli Rantanen, Finnish javelin thrower
• Sanya Richards-Ross, American sprinter

• ... that Amane Gobena is the first Ethiopian runner to win the Osaka Ladies Marathon?
• ... that Oprah Winfrey completed the America's Finest City Half Marathon in 1993, running under a pseudonym and accompanied by a bodyguard, a trainer, and a video crew?
• ... that Sharon Cherop fell over at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon but got back up and ran the fastest marathon ever by a woman in Canada?
• ... that Kenyan athlete Paul Malakwen Kosgei became the World Half Marathon Champion in 2002 despite having never competed in a half marathon before?
• ... that A. K. M. Miraj Uddin set a Pakistani national record in the pole vault by clearing 12 feet 2 inches (3.71 m) with a bamboo pole instead of a carbon-fiber pole?

Sara Simeoni in 1973

Sara Simeoni (born 19 April 1953) is an Italian former high jumper, who won a gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics and twice set a world record in the women's high jump. (Full article...)

• ... that four-time NAIA scoring champion Grace Beyer has scored more career points than any female basketball player at a four-year college or university?
• ... that Femke Bol passing three runners to win the mixed 4 × 400 metres relay was called "one of Paris's signature moments"?
• ... that Ireland won the mixed 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2024 European Athletics Championships, receiving their first European gold medal in athletics since 1998?
• ... that Femke Bol successfully defended her 2021 title by winning the women's 400 metres at the 2023 European Athletics Indoor Championships?
• ... that Justyna Święty-Ersetic "snatch[ed] gold in the dying strides" of the women's 400 metres at the 2018 European Athletics Championships?
• ... that Mokulubete Makatisi placed eighth at the 2022 Commonwealth Games women's marathon despite running in new shoes that she had received on the eve of the race?
• ... that the "fall and rise of Femke Bol" refers to her fall in the mixed 4 × 400 m relay followed by her world title in the 400 metres hurdles?
• ... that Libania Grenot was the first woman in three decades to successfully defend the European 400-metres title?

• WikiProject Athletics
• WikiProject Sports
• WikiProject Running

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