Contents 4 Going for Gold 6 Sprint Races 10 Relay Races 12 Hurdles 14 Longer Races 16 The Marathon 18 Long Jump 20 High Jump 22 Discus 24 Javelin 26 Other Field Events 28 Gold Medal Greats 30 Glossary 31 Books and Web Sites 32 Index
Going for Gold The Olympics is the greatest sporting event on Earth More than 10,000 athletes Olympians flock to one country every four years to compete in their sport during 17 action-packed days Winning an Olympic gold silver or bronze medal for finishing first second or third in an event is the highlight of many athletes sports careers The U S 4 x 400m relay team from left to right LaShawn Merritt Angelo Taylor David Neville and Jeremy Wariner with their gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics Ancient Athletics The ancient Olympics began in Greece in 776 BC At first there was just one event a race over a distance called a stade about 623 ft or 190 m from which the word stadium comes Over time other events were added Most were track and field events such as races run over varying distances or throwing and jumping events including the discus and long jump Modern Games The ancient Olympics were held for more than 1,000 years before they were banned by the Roman emperor Theodosius He was a 4
Most Olympic athletes train for years to take part in the Olympics American Bob Mathias began training for the decathlon event just four months before the 1948 Olympics Amazingly he won the gold medal He repeated the feat in 1952 Superstar Christian who believed that the games were pagan Then in 1896 the Olympics were revived at the first modern Olympic games held in Athens Greece Athletes competed in swimming and other sports but track and field was center stage and has remained so ever since Track events include running and racewalking and field events involve jumping throwing and vaulting competitions Decathlon and Heptathlon Athletes compete on both track and field in two events The seven-event heptathlon for women and the ten-event decathlon for men are both held over two days of intense competition Each athlete’s time in a race or distance covered in a jump or throw is converted into points and the winner is the athlete with the most points British athlete Jessica Ennis competes in the long jump at the 2010 World Indoor Championships As a leading heptathlete Ennis is trying for a medal at the 2012 Olympics 5 FEATS AND RECORDS The first modern Olympic games event was a field event the triple jump The winner American James Connolly came in second in the high jump and third in the long jump
