Track and Field Tickets

Possibly the oldest sport in history, track and field predates the birth of Christ, to the ancient Greeks. The first Olympic games, which were held in the year 776 BC in Olympia, Greece, only featured one event: running. A footrace, called the stadion, was the only event of the Olympics for the first 13 Olympics. It was a 600-foot race, and the first champion was a man named Koroibos. While there is scattered evidence and plenty of speculation that the Olympics may have even been formulated earlier, the earliest definite indication was in 776 BC. Since that momentous race, the Olympics continued every four years for over 1000 years, adding field events as they went. The earliest events, favored by the Greeks, were wrestling, boxing, discus, javelin, long jump, and eventually, Equestrian contests.

Track and field remains an integral part of the Olympic tradition today, but has of course extended to other areas such as college athletics and other national and international competitions. At the Olympics many events are now featured, from the 100-meter dash to the high jump. A separate world championship, put together by the IAAF in 1983, was created just for track and field. This competition integrated marathon running and walking races as well. All-around competitions also, such as the All-Africa Games and the Commonwealth Games feature many track and field events. As an individual sport, participants in both the world championships and the Olympics compete against the clock, representing themselves and their respective nations.

In both the 100 and 200-meter sprints, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt recently broke the world record with times of 9.58 and 19.19, respectively. The American Michael Johnson still holds the 400-meter record at 43.18 seconds, and Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco broke the world record for a mile with a time of 3:43.13.