60 Fun Facts About Track and Field

What is Usain Bolt's 100 m world record, set at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin?

9.58 seconds: Bolt cut 0.11 from his own 9.69 of the Beijing Olympics, the largest single improvement since fully automatic timing began, and ran 19.19 for 200 m at the same Berlin meet.

How many Olympic gold medals did Usain Bolt win?

Eight: Bolt won the 100 m, 200 m and 4x100 m at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016, but the 2008 relay gold was stripped in 2017 after teammate Nesta Carter's doping disqualification.

How many events make up the decathlon?

They run over two days, from the 100 m to the 1500 m; the winner is traditionally called the world's greatest athlete, a line King Gustav V used on Jim Thorpe in 1912.

Which event closes the decathlon?

1500 metres is the tenth and final decathlon event, run at the end of day two after the javelin; each second gained or lost there is worth about six points, so it can swing the standings.

Who set the decathlon world record of 9,126 points in 2018?

Kevin Mayer scored 9,126 points at the Décastar meeting in Talence in September 2018, passing Ashton Eaton's 9,045 to become only the third man to top 9,000 points.

How many events are in the women's heptathlon?

Seven: 100 m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200 m on day one, then long jump, javelin and 800 m on day two; it replaced the five-event pentathlon in 1981.

Who set the heptathlon world record of 7,291 points at the Seoul Olympics?

Jackie Joyner-Kersee scored 7,291 points at the Seoul Games, beating her own world record, and also won the long jump gold there with a 7.40 m Olympic record.

Which Belgian became the first athlete to win three Olympic multi-event golds, in the heptathlon?

Nafissatou Thiam won the heptathlon at Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, the first three-peat in any Olympic combined event; she carried Belgium's flag at the Tokyo opening ceremony.

What is the official distance of a marathon?

42.195 kilometres equals 26 miles 385 yards, the length of the 1908 London Olympic course from Windsor Castle to the finish in front of the royal box at the stadium.

The marathon takes its name from the legend of which Greek messenger?

Pheidippides is the messenger of legend who ran about 40 km from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens in 490 BC, announced the victory over the Persians and collapsed dead.

In what year did the marathon distance become standardised at 42.195 km?

1921 is when the IAAF adopted the 1908 London Olympic distance of 42.195 km as the standard; Olympic marathons before then had varied between about 40 and 42.75 km.

Which Ethiopian won the 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome running barefoot?

Abebe Bikila, a member of Haile Selassie's imperial guard, won in Rome barefoot in a world-best 2:15:16 and defended the title in Tokyo in 1964, this time wearing shoes.

Eliud Kipchoge ran 1:59:40 for the marathon distance in Vienna in 2019 in an event with what name?

INEOS 1:59 Challenge was the name of the Vienna event; rotating pacemakers and bike-delivered drinks meant the 1:59:40 was never ratified, so his official best stayed the 2:01:09 from Berlin 2022.

Which Kenyan broke Eliud Kipchoge's marathon world record at the 2023 Chicago Marathon?

Kelvin Kiptum ran 2:00:35 in Chicago on 8 October 2023, taking 34 seconds off Kipchoge's mark; he was killed in a road accident in Kenya in February 2024, aged 24.

Which is the world's oldest annual marathon, first run in 1897?

Boston was first run on 19 April 1897, a year after the Athens Olympic marathon inspired it; 15 men started and John McDermott won in 2:55:10.

Emil Zátopek, who won three distance golds at the 1952 Olympics, had what nickname?

The Czech Locomotive earned his nickname with a grimacing, head-rolling style; at Helsinki 1952 he won the 5,000 m, 10,000 m and the marathon, the first he had ever run, within a week.

How many gold medals did Jesse Owens win at the 1936 Berlin Olympics?

Four: the 100 m, 200 m, long jump and 4x100 m relay; a year earlier, at the 1935 Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor, he had set three world records and tied a fourth inside 45 minutes.

How far did Bob Beamon jump at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics?

8.90 m added 55 cm to the previous record of 8.35 m, in Mexico City's thin air with a legal 2.0 m/s tailwind; it stood as the world record until August 1991.

Who set the men's long jump world record of 8.95 m at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships?

Mike Powell jumped 8.95 m with a 0.3 m/s tailwind in the fifth round; Carl Lewis had passed Beamon's mark earlier with a wind-aided 8.91 m and answered with a legal 8.87 m that fell short.

How many Olympic gold medals did Carl Lewis win?

Nine: four in Los Angeles, two in Seoul, two in Barcelona and one in Atlanta, including the long jump at four straight Games from 1984 to 1996, matching Al Oerter's discus run.

The back-first high jump technique that won gold at the 1968 Olympics is named after which American?

Dick Fosbury cleared 2.24 m for gold in Mexico City; a Medford Mail-Tribune caption, 'Fosbury Flops Over Bar', named the technique, which deep foam landing mats had made practical.

Whose 1993 men's high jump world record of 2.45 m is the longest-standing in the event?

Javier Sotomayor of Cuba cleared 2.45 m in Salamanca, Spain, in July 1993, a year after winning Olympic gold in Barcelona; he had first set the record at 2.43 m five years earlier.

Pole vaulter Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis competes for Sweden but was born and raised in which US state?

Louisiana: Duplantis was born in Lafayette in 1999 to an American pole-vaulting father and a Swedish heptathlete mother, and trained in the family's backyard pit before choosing to represent Sweden.

How much does the men's shot weigh in open competition?

That is 16 pounds, the same as the men's hammer; throwers use either the glide or the spin.

Who won three straight Olympic shot put titles from 2016 and threw a record 23.56 m?

Ryan Crouser won in Rio, Tokyo and Paris, and his 23.56 m at the Los Angeles Grand Prix in May 2023 beat his own 2021 world record of 23.37 m.

Why was the men's javelin redesigned in 1986?

To shorten throws and stop flat landings, the centre of gravity was moved 4 cm forward after Uwe Hohn's 104.80 m in 1984; the new spec made the javelin nose-dive sooner and land point first.

Which ancient Greek statue by Myron shows a discus thrower and gave its name to the classic pose?

Discobolus, Myron's bronze of about 460-450 BC, survives only in Roman marble copies; the Czech thrower František Janda-Suk took a rotational technique from studying its pose and won silver in 1900.

How high are the barriers in the men's 110 m hurdles?

42 inches (1.067 m) is the men's 110 m hurdles height; the women's 100 m hurdles uses 33-inch barriers, and the men's 400 m hurdles drops to 36 inches.

What is Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's 400 m hurdles world record, set at the 2024 Paris Olympics?

50.37 in the Paris final was her sixth world record in the event, after 51.90, 51.46, 51.41, 50.68 and 50.65, and 0.28 better than her own previous mark from the US Trials.

How long is the passing zone in the 4x100 m relay since the 2017 rule change?

30 metres: the old 20 m exchange box and 10 m acceleration zone were merged from late 2017, and the baton must be passed within the zone, though the outgoing runner may start anywhere inside it.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics, a reaction time faster than what was ruled a false start?

0.100 seconds is the World Athletics threshold, on the basis that no human can react to the gun faster; a 2010 rule change made a single false start a disqualification, which cost Usain Bolt the 2011 world 100 m final.

The invention of starting blocks in 1929 is credited to a father and son from which country?

Australia: Charlie Booth and his father Joseph built the first blocks in 1929 as an alternative to the holes sprinters dug in cinder tracks; American George Bresnahan patented a rival design in the same era.

How long is lane one of a standard outdoor running track?

400 metres is measured 30 cm out from the inside kerb of lane one; each lane further out adds about 7.67 m to a lap, which is why 400 m starts are staggered.

Who ran the first sub-four-minute mile, on 6 May 1954 at Oxford?

Roger Bannister, then a 25-year-old medical student, ran 3:59.4 at Oxford's Iffley Road track with Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway pacing; he went on to a career as a neurologist.

Which Moroccan set the 1500 m world record of 3:26.00 in Rome in 1998?

Hicham El Guerrouj ran 3:26.00 in Rome on 14 July 1998 and added a 3:43.13 mile in 1999; at Athens 2004 he won both the 1500 m and 5,000 m.

Which Kenyan won the women's 1500 m at the 2016, 2020 and 2024 Olympics?

Faith Kipyegon won the 1500 m at Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, the first athlete of either sex to take three Olympic titles in the event; she also set world records in the 1500 m and the mile.

Which upright-style sprinter won both the 200 m and 400 m at Atlanta 1996 in gold shoes?

Michael Johnson won the 400 m in 43.49 and then the 200 m in a world-record 19.32 in Atlanta, wearing custom gold Nike spikes; no other man had ever won both at one Games.

Which South African broke a 17-year-old 400 m world record in Rio in 2016 with 43.03?

Wayde van Niekerk ran 43.03 from lane 8 in the Rio final, beating the 43.18 set in 1999; his coach, Ans Botha, was a 74-year-old great-grandmother.

In what year did Florence Griffith Joyner set her 100 m world record of 10.49?

1988: she ran 10.49 in the quarter-finals of the US Olympic Trials in Indianapolis on 16 July, with a wind reading of 0.0 that many believe was faulty, then won three golds in Seoul.

Which American, who had polio as a child, won three sprint golds at the 1960 Rome Olympics?

Wilma Rudolph, the 20th of 22 children who wore a leg brace after childhood polio, won the 100 m, 200 m and 4x100 m relay in Rome and was hailed as the fastest woman in the world.

Which Australian lit the cauldron at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and then won the 400 m?

Cathy Freeman won the 400 m in 49.11 ten days after lighting the cauldron, then did a victory lap carrying both the Australian and Aboriginal flags; at 16 she had won Commonwealth relay gold.

How many total Olympic medals has Allyson Felix won, the most by any woman in track and field?

11: seven golds, three silvers and a bronze across five Games from Athens 2004 to Tokyo 2020, where a 4x400 m relay gold took her past Carl Lewis as the most-decorated American in the sport.

Which Finn set 22 world records and won nine Olympic golds in the 1920s?

Paavo Nurmi, the Flying Finn, won five golds at Paris 1924 alone, taking the 1500 m and 5,000 m finals within about an hour of each other while running with a stopwatch in his hand.

Which Ethiopian held both the 5,000 m and 10,000 m world records from 2004 to 2020?

Kenenisa Bekele set 12:37.35 for 5,000 m and 26:17.53 for 10,000 m, marks Joshua Cheptegei finally beat in 2020; he won both events at Beijing 2008 after 10,000 m gold in Athens.

Before Mo Farah, who was the only man to win the 5,000 m and 10,000 m at consecutive Olympics?

Lasse Virén won both in Munich in 1972, getting up from a fall to set a 10,000 m world record, and repeated the double in Montreal in 1976.

How many world records did Haile Gebrselassie set in his career?

27 is the count usually credited to Gebrselassie across track, indoor and road, including the marathon 2:03:59 in Berlin in 2008; he also won four straight Berlin Marathons from 2006 to 2009.

Which sprinter completed the 100 m, 200 m and 4x100 m triple at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest?

Noah Lyles became the first man since Usain Bolt in 2015 to sweep the sprint treble at a World Championships; he then won the Paris 2024 100 m by five thousandths of a second.

Who set the women's triple jump world record of 15.74 m in 2022?

Yulimar Rojas jumped 15.74 m at the 2022 World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, ratified as the outright world record; she had won Olympic gold in Tokyo with 15.67 m, also a record at the time.

Which Briton won Olympic decathlon gold in both 1980 and 1984?

Daley Thompson won in Moscow and Los Angeles, the first decathlete to retain the Olympic title since Bob Mathias in 1952, and added European golds in 1982 and 1986.

Which double Olympic 1500 m champion became president of World Athletics in 2015?

Sebastian Coe won the 1500 m in Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984, and his 1981 800 m world record of 1:41.73 stood until Wilson Kipketer beat it in 1997.

In which year were the first full World Athletics Championships held, in Helsinki?

1983: the Helsinki championships ran from 7 to 14 August, after partial editions in 1976 and 1980 had covered only a few events; the meeting moved to a two-year cycle from 1991.

How much does the men's discus weigh in senior competition?

2 kg is the men's discus, about 22 cm across, while the women's weighs 1 kg; the thrower releases it from a 2.5 m circle after one-and-a-half turns.

In which year did Oxford and Cambridge hold their first athletics Varsity Match?

1864: the first Oxford v Cambridge athletics match was held at the Christ Church cricket ground in Oxford on 5 March, and the fixture has been one of the sport's oldest ever since.

Relay races grew out of 1880s US charity races between which workers, who passed a red pennant?

Firemen in US charity races of the 1880s passed a red pennant to a teammate every 300 yards; a baton later replaced the flag, and the 4x100 m and 4x400 m relays joined the Olympics in 1912.

Which two steeplechase distances were run at the 1900 Summer Olympics?

2500 m and 4000 m were both run in Paris in 1900, won by Canada's George Orton and Britain's John Rimmer; later Games used 2,590 m and 3,200 m before 3000 m became standard from 1920.

Which 1950s shot putter popularised the 'glide' technique and won Olympic gold in 1952 and 1956?

Parry O'Brien began his throw facing the back of the circle and gliding across it, a method that carried him to Olympic gold in 1952 and 1956 and took him past 60 feet in 1954.

The history of the discus throw, part of the ancient pentathlon, dates back to which year?

708 BC is the traditional date of the 18th ancient Olympiad, when the pentathlon of discus, javelin, long jump, running and wrestling was added to the Games; the discus was revived at Athens in 1896.

How long was the track at the Panathinaiko Stadium for the 1896 Olympics?

333.33 metres, three laps to the kilometre, with turns so tight that the 1896 programme had no 200 m; the 1904 Olympic track at Francis Field in St. Louis was a third of a mile.

Which former athlete introduced the hollow and then the metal javelin in the 1950s?

Bud Held, the first man past 80 m with 80.41 m in 1953, designed a hollow wooden javelin that held its flight longer, then a metal version built with his brother Dick.

Which part of the body decides a runner's finishing position when it reaches the line?

The torso, excluding head, neck, arms, legs, hands and feet, is what the photo-finish camera judges at the line, which is why sprinters lunge forward with their chest at the tape.