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.
Race walking, or racewalking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Race judges carefully assess that this is maintained throughout the race. Typically held on either roads or running tracks, common distances range from 3,000 metres (1.9 mi) up to 100 kilometres (62.1 mi).
Athletics has been contested at every Summer Olympics since the birth of the modern Olympic movement at the 1896 Summer Olympics. The athletics program traces its earliest roots to events used in the ancient Greek Olympics. The modern program includes track and field events, road running events, and race walking events. Cross country running was also on the program in earlier editions but it was dropped after the 1924 Summer Olympics.
Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics were held during the last ten days of the Games. They were due to be held from 31 July – 9 August 2020, at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the games were postponed to 2021, with the track and field events set for 30 July – 8 August. The sport of athletics at these Games was split into three distinct sets of events: track and field events, remaining in Tokyo, and road running events and racewalking events, moved to Sapporo. A total of 48 events were held, one more than in 2016, with the addition of a mixed relay event.
Racewalking events at the Summer Olympics have been contested over a variety of distances at the multi-sport event. There were three race walking events in the 2020 Summer Olympics: a men's and a women's 20 kilometres race walk, and a men's 50 kilometres race walk. The races were held in a final-only format.
Athletics competitions at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto were held from July 19 to 26 at the newly built CIBC Pan Am and Parapan Am Athletics Stadium, located on the campus of York University. The racewalking and marathon events were held on the temporary circuits around the Ontario Place West Channel. The sport of athletics is split into distinct sets of events: track and field events, road running events, and racewalking events.
For the athletics competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, the following qualification systems were in place. Qualification ended on 11 July 2016.
Jemima Montag is an Australian Olympic racewalker. She won the silver medal in the 2023 World Athletics Championships, won bronze medals in the 20 km walk and the Marathon walk relay in the Paris 2024 Olympics, and is a two-time Commonwealth Games champion.
For the athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics competitions, the following qualification systems were in place. Qualification ended on 29 June 2021, but for marathon and 50 km race walking, it ended on 31 May 2021. Some 1900 athletes, from 196 countries, competed. 103 countries qualified also through Universality places.
The men's 50 kilometres walk event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 6 August 2021 in Sapporo. 59 athletes competed; the exact number was dependent on how many nations use universality places to enter athletes in addition to the number qualifying through time.
The World Athletics Rankings are an individual athlete ranking system for the sport of athletics, managed by World Athletics. It is used to establish the number one athlete within an athletics event and to partially determine qualification into the World Athletics Championships and the athletics at the Summer Olympics. The rankings are published weekly by World Athletics on Wednesday. WA President Sebastian Coe said the goal of this system is so athletes and fans "have a clear understanding of the hierarchy of competitions from national through to area and up to global events, allowing them to follow a logical season-long path to the pinnacle of athletics' top two competitions".
Athletics competitions at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile will be held on October 22, between October 29 and November 4, 2023 at the Athletics Stadium in the Julio Martínez National Stadium Coliseum, with the marathon and walks being held in the Santiago streets.
Athletics competitions at the 2022 South American Games in Asunción, Paraguay will be held from 12 to 15 October 2022 at the Athletics National Center in the Parque Olímpico cluster in Luque, a sub-venue outside Asunción, with the marathon and 35 km racewalks being held at Costanera José Asunción Flores.
This article details the qualifying phase for swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics. 852 swimmers will compete in thirty-five swimming pool events at the Games, with forty-four more racing through the 10-kilometre open water marathon. The qualification window for swimming pool events will occur between 1 March 2023 and 23 June 2024.
The cycling competitions of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris occurred at four different venues, from 27 July to 11 August, featuring twenty-two events across five disciplines.
This article details the qualifying phase for athletics at the 2024 Summer Olympics. More than 1,800 athletes, with an equal split between men and women, will compete across forty-eight medal events at the Games. The qualification window for the marathon races will occur from 1 November 2022 to 30 April 2024; for the 10,000 metres, combined events, racewalks, and relays from 31 December 2022 to 30 June 2024; and for the remaining events on the program lineup from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024.
The 2024 World Athletics Relays was held in Nassau, Bahamas on 4 and 5 May 2024.
The marathon race walk mixed relay is a racewalking mixed relay event over the marathon distance that was first contested at the 2024 Summer Olympics on 7 August.
Akshdeep Singh is an Indian athlete from Punjab who competes in the 20 kilometres race walk. He holds the Indian National record in 20km race walk. He qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in the 20 km race walk and the mixed marathon race walking, along with Priyanka Goswami.
