Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. In the Olympic Games, long-track speed skating is usually referred to as just "speed skating", while short-track speed skating is known as "short track". The International Skating Union (ISU), the governing body of competitive ice sports, refers to long track as "speed skating" and short track as "short track skating".
Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross-country running, and racewalking.
A relay race is a racing competition where members of a team take turns completing parts of racecourse or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games. Relay races are common in running, orienteering, swimming, cross-country skiing, biathlon, or ice skating. In the Olympic Games, there are several types of relay races that are part of track and field. Relay race, also called Relay, is a track-and-field sport consisting of a set number of stages (legs), usually four, each leg run by different members of a team. The runner finishing one leg is usually required to pass the next runner a stick-like object known as a "baton" while both are running in a marked exchange zone. In most relays, team members cover equal distances: Olympic events for both men and women are the 400-metre and 1,600-metre relays. Some non-Olympic relays are held at distances of 800 m, 3,200 m, and 6,000 m. In the less frequently run medley relays, however, the athletes cover different distances in a prescribed order—as in a sprint medley of 200, 200, 400, 800 metres or a distance medley of 1,200, 400, 800, 1,600 metres.
Ekiden (駅伝) is a long-distance running multi-stage relay race, mostly held on roads.
Dathan James Ritzenhein is a retired American long-distance runner, and current head coach of the On Athletics Club (OAC). He held the American record in the 5,000 metres (12:56.27) from 2009 to 2010, until it was broken by Bernard Lagat. He is a three-time national cross country champion with wins at the USA Cross Country Championships in 2005, 2008 and 2010. Formerly a Nike athlete for the majority of his professional career, Dathan joined the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project team in 2017. In early May 2020, he announced his retirement from competition. He signed with the Swiss shoe brand On shortly thereafter in June 2020 and currently acts as the coach for the OAC in Boulder, Colorado.
The Houston Marathon is an annual marathon usually held every January in Houston, Texas, United States, since 1972. With thousands of runners and spectators, it is the largest single day sporting event in the city. It is run concurrently with a half marathon and a 5 km race. The 2007 race included the first-ever satellite running of the event, run simultaneously in Fallujah, Iraq.
The Penn Relays is the oldest and largest track and field competition in the United States, hosted annually since April 21, 1895 by the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. In 2012, there were 116 events run at the meet. More athletes run in the Penn Relays than at any other track and field meet in the world. It regularly attracts more than 15,000 participants from high schools, colleges, and track clubs throughout North America and abroad, notably Jamaica, competing in more than 300 events over five days. Historically, the event has been credited with popularizing the running of relay races. It is held during the last full week in April, ending on the last Saturday in April. Attendance typically tops 100,000 over the final three days, and has been known to surpass 50,000 on Saturday. The Penn Relays also holds a Catholic Youth Organization night for Catholic Middle Schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Preliminaries are run on the Tuesday during Carnival Week, and the Finals are run on Friday.
Galen Rupp is an American long-distance runner. He competed in the Summer Olympics in 2008 in Beijing, 2012 in London, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and 2021 in Tokyo. He won the silver medal in the men's 10,000 meters in London and the bronze medal in the men's marathon in Rio de Janeiro. Rupp competed for the University of Oregon and trained under Alberto Salazar as a member of the Nike Oregon Project. He won the 2017 Chicago Marathon, becoming the first American to do so since Khalid Khannouchi in 2002. Rupp won the marathon at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials in Atlanta with a time of 2:09:20, and qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, where he finished eighth.
The Peachtree Road Race is an American 10-kilometer run held annually in Atlanta. After being held on Independence Day from 1970 to 2019, the race was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic after originally being set for Thanksgiving. It is the world's largest 10k race, a title it has held since the late 1970s. The race has become a citywide tradition in which over 70,000 amateur and professional runners try to register for one of the limited 60,000 spots. The event also includes a wheelchair race, which precedes the footrace. In recent years, the race also has a special division for soldiers stationed in the Middle East. The race attracts some of the world's elite 10K runners and has served as both the United States' men's and women's 10K championship.
Shalane Grace Flanagan is an American long-distance runner, Olympic medalist and New York City Marathon champion. She was the first American woman to win the New York City Marathon since 1977. She holds the NACAC area records in both the 10k and 15k road races.
The 500 Festival Mini-Marathon is an annual road half marathon usually held the first Saturday in May in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States.
The Pittsburgh Marathon is an annual road marathon usually held on the first Sunday in May in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States, first held in 1985. The hilly course runs through the city center and crosses each of Pittsburgh's three main rivers. Generally, over 3,000 runners finish the marathon each year. The weekend's events also include a half marathon, marathon relay, and 5K.
Ryan Shay was an American professional long-distance runner who won several USA championships titles. He was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and attended the University of Notre Dame. He was married to Alicia Craig, also an American distance runner.
Brian Sell is a retired American long-distance runner who specialized in various long-distance track events before specializing as a marathoner in his professional career with Hansons-Brooks Distance Project. Sell represented the United States at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the men's marathon. He attended Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania, where he ran on the Saint Francis University cross country team.
Gordon Edmund McKenzie was an American athlete who competed in the 10,000 meters at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia and the marathon at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. McKenzie, running 2:28:18, finished second to Paavo Kotila in the 1960 Boston Marathon, an Olympic trials race. In 1961, he finished fourth at Boston, in 2:25:46.
Jason Hartmann is an NCAA coach and a former American long-distance runner who specializes in marathon races. He won the Twin Cities Marathon in 2009. He was the top American finisher at the 2010 Chicago Marathon and was fourth at the Boston Marathon in both 2012 and 2013. His personal record for the event is 2:11:06.
The Walt Disney World Marathon is an annual marathon held every January in Bay Lake, Florida by runDisney. The race has been held since 1994. The marathon is part of a weekend race series that also includes a 5K, a 10K, and a half marathon, as well as a number of challenges involving one or more of these races.
Christo Landry is a United States distance runner who has won multiple USA Road Championships and holds the American record in the 25 km distance.
The North American Men's Marathon Relay Championships was a men's international team long-distance running competition between North American nations. It was held on two occasions, in 2003 and 2004, both of which were incorporated into the annual Akron Marathon.
Athletics at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are scheduled to run on 1 to 11 August 2024, featuring a total of 48 medal events across three distinct sets: track and field, road running, and racewalking. Four venues are to be used: Pont d'Iéna for race walking, Hôtel de Ville and Les Invalides for the start and end points of the marathon races, and Stade de France for the track and field events.
Kenya
Belarus
Ethiopia
United States
Russia
Peru
Turkey