S T N E V E K C A R T The Summer Olympic Games are held every four years and showcase the fastest strongest and most skilled sportspeople on the planet The world’s swiftest runners compete in the track events held in and around the Olympic Stadium The fastest races the 100 meters m 200 m and 400 m are called sprints They are over in just a few exciting seconds The runners start from blocks and must stay in eight numbered lanes marked on the track Sensors are installed in the starting gun and the blocks and if they detect that a runner has started less than 0 1 seconds after the gun is fired it counts as a false start To win runners must get their torso the body between the head to waist across the line first Middle and Long-Distance Events The 800 m and 1,500 m are called middle-distance races The 5,000 m and 10,000 m are called long distance races The athletes begin a race spread across Jamaican record-breaker Usain Bolt prepares himself before the final of the Beijing 100 m sprint in 2008 6
In track relay events the athletes must get the baton handover technique perfect steeplechasers staggered lanes the ones in the outer lanes begin farther forward to compensate for the bends in the track Then after a certain distance all the competitors are allowed to bunch together in one lane The Olympic Stadium track is 400 m long so in the longer events the athletes run around again and again Hurdles Steeplechases and Relays Hurdlers Hurdlers and steeplechasers must jump hurdles as they race Some of the steeplechase hurdles have pools of water in front of them and landing in the water will slow down an athlete so the steeplechasers need to clear the hurdle as well as the pool Track relay events have four runners in a team Each one takes a turn running with a baton They must hand the baton over to the next athlete in a changeover box 20 m in length marked on the track but if they fumble the handover race will be lost Amazing Olympics In the Paralympics there are different track-event categories including wheelchair races and events for runners with amputated limbs or visual impairment OlympicFactsandStats All track races are run counterclockwise Each race can have one false start and then anyone who makes a false start after that is disqualified banned from the race The longest Olympic running race is the marathon at more than 26 miles 42 km It is run on roads outside the Olympic Stadium The longest Olympic track race of all is the 31-mile 50-km men’s walk 7
D L E I F EVENTS Field events are held in the middle of the Olympic Stadium They include jumping competitions throwing events and combined events which include a combination of sports such as throwing jumping and running The jumping events include the high jump long jump triple jump and pole vault The high jumpers must clear a bar that is gradually raised higher during the competition The pole vaulters sprint toward the high bar plant their pole and try to sail over the bar If the high jumpers or pole vaulters knock the bar off three times at the same height they are out of the competition The long jumpers sprint along a runway and leap over a sandpit from the front of a takeoff board If their takeoff foot goes over the front of the board the judges wave a red flag and the jump doesn’t count The triple jumpers take a long hop and a step before they jump over the sandpit Throwing Events The throwing events include the discus hammer shot put and javelin These sports are among the oldest in Olympic history The ancient Greeks who invented the Olympic Games in 8 Australian Steve Hooker clears the bar on his way to winning the pole vault gold medal at Beijing in 2008
Amazing Olympics In 1986 javelins had to be redesigned to make them go shorter distances because competitors were in danger of throwing them too far and hitting other athletes 776 B C E threw spears and the discus in their competitions When they are throwing the competitors must stay inside a specifically marked area Combined Events The Olympic combined events are the decathlonfor men the heptathlonfor women and the modern pentathlon Decathletes compete in ten different track and field sports in two days The overall winner is the athlete with the most points The heptathletes try seven events over two days and the modern pentathlon competitors have just one day to combine a 3-km-cross country run with shooting fencing swimming and horseback riding events Aksana Miankova from Belarus wins the Beijing Olympics women’s hammer gold medal with a new Olympic record distance of 76 34 m about 250 5 feet Olympic Facts and Stats Pole-vaulting competitions where the athletes vaulted over live bulls were held in ancient Greece and Crete Pole vaulters used to be able to climb up their poles as they jumped but this is now against the rules Throwing equipment such as shot puts discus and hammers is heavier for the men’s events than for the women’s Ancient Greek Olympic long jumpers carried weights in their hands as they jumped This helped propel them forward so they may have jumped farther than today’s athletes 9
