At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, 43 events in athletics were contested, 24 events by men and 19 by women. The competition ran from July 31, 1992, to August 9, 1992. Fourteen world record-holders were among the contenders. Thirty former Olympic champions competed, and a total number of 1725 athletes from 156 countries.
At the 2004 Summer Olympics, the athletics events were held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 18 to August 29, except for the marathons, the race walks, and the shot put. A total of 46 events were contested, of which 24 by male and 22 by female athletes.
The 7th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held in the Green Dome Maebashi stadium in Maebashi, Japan from March 5 to March 7, 1999. It was the first time the Championships were staged outside Europe or North America. Primo Nebiolo, president of the IAAF, characterized the championships as "the greatest ever". There were a total number of 487 participating athletes from 115 countries.
The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics were held in Berlin, Germany from 15 to 23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg Gate.
The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011.
Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics were held during the last ten days of the games, from August 15 to August 24, 2008, at the Beijing National Stadium. The Olympic sport of athletics is split into four distinct sets of events: track and field events, road running events, and racewalking events.
The athletics competition at the 2007 Summer Universiade was held in the Main Stadium at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand, between 9 August and 14 August 2007.
The 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics was the 14th edition of the global-level indoor track and field competition and was held between March 9–11, 2012 at the Ataköy Athletics Arena in Istanbul, Turkey. It was the first of four IAAF World Athletics Series events in 2012, which includes the World Race Walking Cup, the World Junior Championships and the World Half Marathon Championships.
The athletics at the 1997 Summer Universiade took place in the Stadio Cibali in Catania, Sicily (Italy) at the end of August 1997, shortly after the World Championships in Athens, Greece. New events were the women's hammer throw, pole vault and half marathon competition. The marathon was dropped from the programme in favour of the half distance. A total of 23 men's and 22 women's events were contested.
The athletics competition at the 1981 Summer Universiade was held at the National Stadium in Bucharest, Romania, in July 1981. The programme featured 23 events for men and 16 for women. A total of fourteen Universiade records were broken during the 1981 Games.
The 2015 IAAF World Championships, the fifteenth edition of the IAAF World Championships, were held from 22 to 30 August at the National Stadium in Beijing, China. Forty-three nations won medals, 144 of which were awarded. Kenya topped the medal table for the first time, with 7 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze medals. The United States won 18 medals, six gold, six silver and six bronze, which was the highest tally. Host nation China, finished 11th on the medals table, while Russia finished ninth.
The 2010 Ibero-American Championships in Athletics was an athletics competition which was held at the Estadio Municipal Bahía Sur in San Fernando, Cádiz, Spain from 4–6 June. A total of 44 events were contested, of which 22 by male and 22 by female athletes. A total of 459 athletes from 29 nations participated in the championships. Twelve championships records were set at the fourteenth edition of the competition.
At the 1994 Goodwill Games, the athletics events were held in July at the Petrovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg, Russia. A total of 44 events were contested, of which 22 were by male and 22 by female athletes. The marathon event was dropped for the 1994 edition and racewalking events took place on the track, making the entire athletics programme a track-and-field-onlyaffair. The United States won the most gold medals (18) in the athletics competition, but Russia had the greatest total medal haul, winning 41 medals, 10 of which were gold. Cuba, Great Britain and Kenya were the next best achievers in the medal count.
At the 2005 Jeux de la Francophonie, the athletics events were held at the Stade Général Seyni Kountché in Niamey, Niger, from 11–16 December 2005. A total of 43 events were contested, of which 23 by male and 20 by female athletes. France sent the largest squad and topped the medal table with 19 gold medals and 39 medals in total. Morocco was the next most successful nation, having won 11 golds and 31 medals altogether. This was large as a result of their middle- and long-distance running dominance which saw them take all three medals in four events, as well as three separate Moroccan 1–2 finishes. Canada and the Ivory Coast were third and fourth in the medal tally. Twenty of the 37 nations competing won a medal, although hosts Niger went empty-handed in the athletics competition.
The 2004 Ibero-American Championships in Athletics was the eleventh edition of the international athletics competition between Ibero-American nations which was held at the Estadio Iberoamericano in Huelva, Spain on 6–8 August 2004. A record high of 27 nations took part while the number of participating athletes (430) was the second highest in the competition's history after the 1992 edition. The programme featured 44 track and field events, 22 each for men and women, and 16 championship records were broken or equalled at the three-day competition.
The 2000 Ibero-American Championships in Athletics was the ninth edition of the international athletics competition between Ibero-American nations which was held at the Estádio Célio de Barros in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 20 and 21 May. With a total of 308 athletes, the number of competitors was the lowest since 1990. The Spanish team was much smaller than previous delegations as most of the Spaniards chose to focus on the 2000 Sydney Olympics instead. Other national teams used the competition as a chance to gain an Olympic qualifying mark.
At the 1995 Summer Universiade, the athletics events were held at the Hakatanomori Athletic Stadium in Fukuoka, Japan from 29 August to 3 September. A total of 43 events were contested, of which 23 by male and 20 by female athletes.
The 17th IAAF World Indoor Championships was held from 1 to 4 March 2018 in Birmingham, United Kingdom. This was the city's second hosting of the event as it previously did so in 2003.
Hugues Fabrice Zango is a Burkinabé athlete who specialises in the triple jump and the long jump. He is the world indoor record holder in the triple jump with a jump of 18.07 m set in 2021 and the reigning world champion, winning the gold medal in the triple jump at the 2023 World Championships. Zango competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and won the bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, in the triple jump event, the first ever Olympic medal for Burkina Faso. He has also competed in World Championships, two African athletics championships, a Jeux de la Francophonie, two Summer Universiades and two African Games. He became Burkina Faso's first-ever Olympic medalist, earning a bronze medal in Tokyo, and set the African triple jump record at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha.
Athletics events at the 2016 Summer Paralympics were held in the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from September 2016. 177 events were held across both genders where 1,100 athletes competed. The athletics programme was the largest element of the Games programme in terms of entrants and medals awarded.
