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.
Elizabeth Alyse Cuthbert,, was an Australian athlete and a four-time Olympic champion. She was nicknamed Australia's "Golden Girl". During her career, she set world records for 60 metres, 100 yards, 200 metres, 220 yards and 440 yards. Cuthbert also contributed to Australian relay teams completing a win in the 4 × 100 metres, 4 × 110 yards, 4 × 200 metres and 4 × 220 yards. Cuthbert had a distinctive running style, with a high knee lift and mouth wide open. She was named in 1998 an Australian National Treasure and was inducted as a Legend in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Athletics Australia Hall of Fame in 2000.
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations, is the international governing body for the sport of athletics, covering track and field, cross country running, road running, race walking, mountain running, and ultra running. Included in its charge is the standardization of rules and regulations for the sports, certification of athletic facilities, recognition and management of world records, and the organisation and sanctioning of athletics competitions, including the World Athletics Championships. The organisation's president is Sebastian Coe of the United Kingdom, who was elected to the four-year position in 2015 and re-elected unopposed in 2019 for a second four-year term, and then again in 2023 for a third and final 4 years.
The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has more than 700,000 members nationwide, including more than 100,000 volunteers. The philosophy of the AAU is "Sports for All, Forever."
USA Track & Field (USATF) is a United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking. The USATF was known between 1979 and 1992 as The Athletics Congress (TAC) after its spin-off from the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), which governed the sport in the US through most of the 20th century until the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 dissolved its responsibility. Based in Indianapolis, USATF is a non-profit organization with a membership of more than 130,000. The organization has three key leadership positions: CEO Max Siegel, Board of Directors Chair Steve Miller, and elected president Vin Lananna. U.S. citizens and permanent residents can be USATF members, but permanent residents can only participate in masters events in the country, and they cannot win USATF medals, prize money, or score points for a team, per World Athletics regulations.
Susan O'Neill, is an Australian former competitive swimmer from Brisbane, Queensland, nicknamed "Madame Butterfly". She achieved eight Olympic Games medals during her swimming career.
Kurt Harry Fearnley, is an Australian wheelchair racer, who has won gold medals at the Paralympic Games and crawled the Kokoda Track without a wheelchair. He has a congenital disorder called sacral agenesis which prevented fetal development of certain parts of his lower spine and all of his sacrum. In Paralympic events he is classified in the T54 classification. He focuses on long and middle-distance wheelchair races, and has also won medals in sprint relays. He participated in the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Paralympic Games, finishing his Paralympic Games career with thirteen medals. He won a gold and silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and was the Australian flag bearer at the closing ceremony.
Alix Louise Sauvage, OAM is an Australian paralympic wheelchair racer and leading coach.
Peter George Norman was an Australian track athlete. He won the silver medal in the 200 metres at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, with a time of 20.06 seconds, which remains the Oceania 200m record. He was a five-time national 200-metre champion.
Sports in the Philippines is an important part of the country's culture. There are six major sports in the Philippines: basketball, boxing, tennis, football, billiards, and volleyball.
Jacquilyn Louise "Jackie" Fairweather was an Australian world champion triathlete, long-distance runner, coach and Australian Institute of Sport high-performance administrator.
Denise Margaret Robertson-Boyd is an Australian former Olympic sprinter, who reached two Olympic finals in the 200 metres sprint. The first was Montreal 1976, then Moscow 1980. She was also a member of the Australian sprint relay team, that reached the final in 1976.
The Union of French Athletic Sports Societies was a former sports governing body in France. During the 1890s and early 1900s it organised numerous sports including athletics, cycling, field hockey, fencing, croquet, and swimming. However it is perhaps best known for being the principal governing body of both football and rugby union until it was effectively replaced by the French Football Federation and the French Rugby Federation. The USFSA rejected any form of professionalism and were strong advocates of amateur sport.
Athletics is a popular sport in Australia, with around 34,000 athletes, officials and coaches currently registered with the national association.
Paralympics Australia (PA) previously called the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) (1998–2019) is the National Paralympic Committee in Australia for the Paralympic Games movement. It oversees the preparation and management of Australian teams that participate at the Summer Paralympics and the Winter Paralympics.
Kimberley Jean "Kim" Brennan is an Australian retired rower. She is a sixteen-time national champion, two-time World Champion, three-time Olympian and Olympic gold medallist.
Madison de Rozario, is an Australian Paralympic athlete and wheelchair racer who specialises in middle and long-distance events. She competed at the 2008 Beijing, 2012 London, 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Summer Paralympics, winning two gold medals, three silver and a bronze. She has also won ten medals at the World Para Athletics Championships and four gold at the Commonwealth Games. De Rozario holds the world record in the Women's 800m T53 and formerly in the Women's 1500m T53/54.
Disability sport in Australia encompasses individuals with different disabilities, of all ages and skill levels from recreational to professional, participating in sport in Australia. The apex of disability sport in Australia is the Paralympics. Australia's participation at the Paralympics began with the inaugural 1960 Summer Paralympics and 1976 Winter Paralympics. Australia hosted the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney.
The Underwater Society of America (USOA) is the peak body for underwater sport and recreational diving in the United States.
Maxine Fay Corcoran was an Australian sprinter and middle-distance runner. She won a silver medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada and also won medals in the national Australian athletics competitions. Corcoran worked as a coach at grassroots levels in educational institutions, worked as a mentor to younger athletes while on the committee of Athletics International, and was Sport Australia Hall of Fame's operations manager.
