 | It has been suggested that Athletics in the United States be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since August 2019. |
| Track and field in the United States | |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Governing body | USA Track & Field |
| National team(s) | United States Olympics team |
National competitions | |
International competitions | |
A track and field in the United States in the United States is a sport which has only limited popular support. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
The sport was first organized in the by the New York Athletic Club in 1876. [6] [7] [8]
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics runs track and field at the college level. [9]
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) is a college athletics association for small colleges and universities in North America. For the 2018–2019 season, it has 251 member institutions, of which two are in British Columbia, one in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the rest in the conterminous United States. The NAIA, whose headquarters is in Kansas City, Missouri, sponsors 26 national championships. The CBS Sports Network, formerly called CSTV, serves as the national media outlet for the NAIA. In 2014, ESPNU began carrying the NAIA Football National Championship.
The sport is not popular in the United States its athletes dominate at the Summer Olympics. [10] [11]
Athletics is a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking.
Track and field is a sport which includes athletic contests established on the skills of running, jumping, and throwing. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events. Track and field is categorized under the umbrella sport of athletics, which also includes road running, cross country running, and race walking.
Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. Sometimes the runners are referred to as harriers (dogs). The course, typically 4–12 kilometres (2.5–7.5 mi) long, may include surfaces of grass, and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road. It is both an individual and a team sport; runners are judged on individual times and teams by a points-scoring method. Both men and women of all ages compete in cross country, which usually takes place during autumn and winter, and can include weather conditions of rain, sleet, snow or hail, and a wide range of temperatures.
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the 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.
Harvey Edward Glance is a former American track athlete, winner of gold medal in 4 × 100 m relay at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Sports in the United States are an important part of American culture. American football is the most popular sport to watch in the United States, followed by baseball, basketball, and soccer. Hockey, tennis, golf, wrestling, auto racing, arena football, field lacrosse, box lacrosse and volleyball are also popular sports in the country.
The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. Stanford's program has won 123 NCAA team championships, as well as 25 consecutive NACDA Directors' Cups, awarded annually to the most successful overall college sports program in the nation. As of February 15, 2019, Stanford-affiliated athletes have won 270 Olympic medals. Stanford's teams compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Pac-12 Conference, along with other schools from the western third of the United States.
Payton Jordan was the head coach of the 1968 United States Olympic track and field team, one of the most powerful track teams ever assembled, which won a record twenty-four medals, including twelve golds. He was born in Whittier, California. Jordan was exceedingly successful as a collegiate track coach for a decade at Occidental College and for 23 years at Stanford University. A star three-sport athlete in his youth, Jordan more recently became one of the most dominant track athletes of all time, as a sprinter, in senior divisions. Jordan died of cancer at his home in Laguna Hills, California on February 5, 2009.
Kip Janvrin is an American former decathlete. Janvrin is a native of Panora, Iowa and is now the Co-Head Track & Field Coach at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, Missouri.
Tora Lian-Juin Harris is an American high jumper. He is a Princeton University engineer of Taiwanese and African-American descent. Harris is an Olympian, a four-time national champion and two-time bronze medalist in international competition. He represented Team USA twice in the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, three times in the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics and has served as a representative once in the IAAF Continental Cup. He spent two years as the No. 1 ranked high jumper in the United States.
Otis Ray Norton is a former American sprinter who competed in the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
Clifford 'Cliff' Wiley is a former American track and field athlete, who competed in the sprints events during his career. He is best known for winning the men's 400 metres event at the 1981 Athletics World Cup in Rome and the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas.
The USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships is an annual track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field, which serves as the American national championships for the sport. Since 1992, in years which feature a Summer Olympics, World Athletics Championships or a IAAF Continental Cup, the championships serve as a way of selecting the best athletes for those competitions.
Willie Smith is an American athlete who was the national champion 400 metres runner in 1979-80, and a gold medal winner at the 1984 Olympics in the 4 × 400 m relay.
Philip Roy "Phil" Mulkey is an American track and field athlete, primarily known for the multi-event decathlon. Mulkey was the second place American behind Rafer Johnson at the 1960 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships which served as Olympic Trials. He failed to finish the 1960 Olympic competition, dropping out after the discus throw. Mulkey had been a competitor at the 1952 Olympic Trials finishing 17th as a high schooler from Purdy, Missouri and the 1956 Olympic Trials finishing 7th representing the University of Wyoming.
Dalilah Muhammad is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the 400 meter hurdles. She is the current world record holder with a time of 52.20 seconds set at the USATF 2019 national championship meet held at Drake Stadium. She was also the 2013, 2016, and 2017 American national champion. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she won gold in the 400 meter hurdles. Muhammad is only the second female 400 meter hurdler in history, after Sally Gunnell, to have won the Olympic title and broken the world record.
Frances Theresa Kaszubski was an American born, Polish track and field athlete known for her participation in weight throwing, discus and shot put. During World War II she officially represented Poland, but competed primarily in the United States. A contemporary on her Polish Women's Olympic Club at the time in Cleveland, was Stanisława Walasiewicz who also represented Poland. After her marriage and after the war she chose to represent the United States, as did Walasiewicz, who changed her name to Stella Walsh.
Bernard Ernst "Barney" Berlinger was an American decathlete. He competed in the 1928 Summer Olympics and won the James E. Sullivan Award in 1931.
Miranda Melville is a female race walker from the United States. She competed in the women's 20 kilometers walk event at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, China. Melville represented the United States of America in the 2016 Olympic Games in the women's 20k Race Walk where she finished in 34th place.
The history of sports in the United States shows that most sports evolved out of European practices. However, basketball, volleyball, skateboarding, and snowboarding are American inventions, some of which have become popular in other countries. Lacrosse and surfing arose from Native American and Native Hawaiian activities that predate Western contact.
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