The 10th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held in the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland, the site of the first IAAF World Championships in 1983. One theme of the 2005 championships was paralympic events, some of which were included as exhibition events. Much of the event was played in extremely heavy rainfall.
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.
DécaNation is an annual track and field meeting organized by the French Athletics Federation since 2005. The competition comprises national teams of athletes competing in a decathlon, with each athlete competing in their specialised event to score points for their respective countries. The first five editions took place at the Stade Charléty in Paris, but in 2010 it was held at Annecy, in 2011 at Nice and in 2012 it was at Albi. It is sponsored by SEAT and is referred to as the SEAT DecaNation.
The Doha Diamond League is an annual one-day track and field meeting held at the Suheim bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, Qatar. It is part of the Diamond League – the top level international circuit for the sport. It is typically held in May as the first leg of the Diamond League series.
The Diamond League Shanghai is an annual athletics event at the Shanghai Stadium in Shanghai, China, as part of the Diamond League. The meeting was founded as the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix in 2005. The meet assumed its current name in 2010.
The Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athlétisme de Rabat is an annual track and field competition at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat, Morocco as part of the IAAF World Challenge Meetings. It was first organized in 2008, and in 2014 and 2024 it was instead held in Stade de Marrakech in Marrakech. Its name honours Mohammed VI of Morocco, the present king of Morocco. In 2016 the meeting replaces Adidas Grand Prix in New York for the 2016 IAAF Diamond League season.
The Seiko Golden Grand Prix, formerly known as the Golden Grand Prix Kawasaki, is a track and field competition at the International Stadium Yokohama, Japan as part of the World Athletics Continental Tour. It was first organized in 2011 at the Todoroki Athletics Stadium in Kawasaki and sponsored by Seiko. It replaced the Osaka Grand Prix as the major athletics meet in Japan.
The 1998 IAAF Golden League was the first edition of the annual international track and field meeting series, held from 9 July to 5 September. It was contested at six European meetings: the Bislett Games, Golden Gala, Herculis, Weltklasse Zürich, Memorial Van Damme and the Internationales Stadionfest (ISTAF). The series tied in with the 1998 IAAF Grand Prix Final, with the jackpot of US$1,000,000 being decided at that competition. The million-dollar prize represented the single largest prize pot ever in athletics at that point.
The 2016 IAAF Diamond League was the seventh season of the annual series of outdoor track and field meetings, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
In 2017, the foremost athletics event was the World Championships in London. The other major global-level competition in 2017 was the World Cross Country Championships.
In 2018, no world outdoor athletics championships was held. Major events held during the year included the 2018 IAAF World Indoor Championships, 2018 IAAF Continental Cup, 2018 IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships, and 2018 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships.
The Nordic Athletics Championships is an international athletics competition between Nordic countries – Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. In its original form, it was held on three occasions, in 1961, 1963 and 1965.
Finland competed at the 2019 World Championships in Athletics in Doha, Qatar, from 27 September to 6 October 2019.
In 2019, the main athletic events were the 2019 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, the 2019 IAAF World Relays, and the 2019 World Athletics Championships.
The South African Athletics Championships is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Athletics South Africa, which serves as the national championship for the sport in South Africa.
The Belarusian Athletics Championships is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Belarusian Athletic Federation, which serves as the national championship for the sport in Belarus.
The Ethiopian Athletics Championships is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Ethiopian Athletics Federation, which serves as the national championship for the sport in Ethiopia. The competition was first held in 1971. Separate annual championship events are held for cross country running, road running and racewalking events.
The Match Europe v USA was an international two-day outdoor track and field competition between the United States and Europe. It took place 9–10 September 2019 in Minsk, Belarus, three weeks prior to the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, a few days after the conclusion of the 2019 Diamond League and three months after the 2019 European Games.
The Finnish Indoor Athletics Championships is an annual indoor track and field competition organised by the Finnish Amateur Athletic Association, which serves as the Finnish national championship for the sport. First held in 1962, the competition was open to non-Finnish athletes and several foreign athletes were crowned as Finnish champions. The championship titles were restricted to Finnish nationals from 1987 onwards, with foreign competitors reduced to guest status only.
