Athletics. Concept and main types.

Introduction
Athletics is a complex sport that includes various types of disciplines. She is rightfully considered the queen of sports, not without reason, two out of three calls in the motto "Faster, higher, stronger" can be attributed without hesitation to athletic disciplines. Athletics formed the basis of the sports program of the first Olympic Games. Athletics managed to win its positions due to the simplicity, accessibility and, if you like, the naturalness of its competitive disciplines. This is one of the main and most mass species sports.

History of occurrence
Athletics is one of ancient species sports. So, many centuries before our era, some peoples of Asia and Africa organized athletics competitions. But the true heyday of this sport came in Ancient Greece. Wrestling, fisticuffs, and in general all the exercises that developed sipu, the Greeks attributed to weightlifting. It is clear that the name "athletics" today is rather conditional, because it is difficult to call, for example, ultra-long distance running - a marathon or hammer throwing "light" physical exercises. The oldest competition among athletes is undoubtedly running.

First Olympic Games the antiquities, of which a reliable record has been preserved, took place in 776 BC. Then the competition program included only running for 1 stage (192 m 27 cm). In 724 BC there was a run already at the 2nd stage, and four years later the first Olympic long-distance race took place - the 24th stage. Winning the games was highly valued. Champions were given great honors, elected to honorary positions, and monuments were erected in their honor.

Types of athletics and their characteristics

Athletics - a sport that combines such disciplines as: walking, running, jumping (long, high, triple, pole vault), throwing (disc, javelin, hammer, and shot put) and athletics all-around. One of the main and most popular sports.

Race walking - 20 km (men and women) and 50 km (men). Race walking is a cyclic locomotor movement of moderate intensity, which consists of alternating steps, in which the athlete must constantly make contact with the ground and at the same time the extended leg must be fully extended from the moment it touches the ground to the moment the vertical.
Run - for short (100, 200, 400 m), medium (800 and 1500 m), long (5000 and 10,000 m) and extra long distances (marathon run - 42 km 195 m), relay race (4 x 100 and 4 x 400 m), hurdles (100 m - women, PO m - men, 400 m - men and women) and steeplechase (3000 m). Running is one of the oldest sports to have formal competition rules and has been on the program since the very first Olympic Games in 1896. For runners, the most important qualities are: the ability to maintain high speed over a distance, endurance (for medium and long), speed endurance (for a long sprint), reaction and tactical thinking.
Running high jump - discipline of track and field athletics related to vertical jumps of technical types. The components of the jump are the run-up, preparation for repulsion, repulsion, crossing the bar and landing. Requires jumping ability and coordination of movements from athletes. Held in the summer and winter season. It has been the Olympic athletics discipline for men since 1896 and for women since 1928.
Pole vault - a discipline related to vertical jumps of technical types of track and field athletics program. It requires jumping ability, sprint qualities, coordination of movements from athletes. Men's pole vault is an Olympic sport with First Summer Olympics 1896, among women - from the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
long jump - a discipline related to horizontal jumps of technical types of an athletics program. Requires jumping ability, sprint qualities from athletes. The long jump was part of the competitive program of the ancient Olympic Games. It is the modern Olympic discipline of athletics for men since 1896, for women since 1948.
Throwing - shot put, javelin throw, discus throw and hammer throw. In 1896, discus throwing and shot put were included in the program of the Games; in 1900 - hammer throwing, in 1906 - javelin throwing.
All-around - decathlon ( masculine appearance) and heptathlon ( feminine look), which are held for two consecutive days in the following order. Decathlon - Day One: 100m run, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400m run; second day: PO m hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1500 m run. Heptathlon - first day: 100 m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 m run; second day: long jump, javelin throw, 800 m run. For each type, athletes receive a certain number of points, which are awarded either according to special tables or empirical formulas.

In this article we will try to tell you about all the subtleties of such a sport as Athletics. Let's answer the question what sports are included athletics , and find out why this discipline is considered the king of sports. Athletics is one of the most popular and spectacular sports. It includes many different athletics disciplines. There is an expression "Faster, higher, stronger." At the ancient Greek Olympiad, athletics was the most main program. Since the time of the ancient Greeks, she has been the king of all sports.

Such excessive popularity is due to the fact that any person on earth can do their favorite athletics. There is no need to buy expensive equipment to run or jump. Thus, many of the winners are from Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Athletics received great honor and the title of "Queen of Sports" in the 20th century. The development and popularization of this discipline contributed to the progression. There was no hint of changing the title, as the king remained on his throne for a very long time.

History of athletics

The interesting news is that this discipline was known before the ancient times of Greece. The peoples of Asia and Africa often held athletics competitions. For the first time, they learned about this sport from old vessels, clay tablets that said that it was necessary to develop running, strength, and others. The oldest sport is running. Running competitions were held as early as 776 BC. Power sports were naturally attributed to. The ancient Greeks even considered a long-distance marathon to be weightlifting. Since then, much has changed after the event of the century, namely the revival of the Olympic Games in 1986.

Athletics, what does it include

The basic exercises of athletics are: jumping, throwing, walking and all-around. All types are carefully classified according to such criteria as: male and female disciplines for different ages. In the Olympic Games, men can participate in 24 types of light athletics, and women in 23 events. So, to better explain it is worth disassembling everything into parts.

• Running - competitions are held from various types, hurdles, hurdles, relay races, sprints. All species have different distances;
• Walking - this type requires a lot of willpower and stamina. Since the runs require the athlete to walk 3,5,20,35,50 kilometers;
• Jumping - jumping consists of long jump, high jump, running jump, and pole vault;
• Throwing - this discipline will require speed, strength, flexibility, and agility from the athlete. Throwing various projectiles of the disk, core, spear, hammer;
• All-around - here the athlete needs versatile development, since the all-around consists of various types. For example, men compete in the decathlon and women compete in the heptathlon. So, the all-around includes such types as: shot, javelin, height, 100 m, 400 m, 1500 m, 110 m hurdles, pole, length, disk.

Doping in athletics

Getting better, stronger, faster is the goal of athletes. But thanks to the technology of the 21st century, doping has reached colossal proportions. Even 50 years ago, many experts and professional athletes claimed that the maximum results had already been achieved. But today the situation has changed dramatically. Every year world records are updated. Every new Olympic Games, a large number of athletes test positive for doping, despite the plague of sports in the 21st century. It is unlikely that anyone can remove doping from sports.

Many athletes take steroids to become champions, despite the fact that doping is very harmful human body. Experts and doctors in the field of doping issues are trying to bypass the control. There is a hidden opinion in the sports society that modern competitions are the struggle of doctors, not athletes. And all because the person who has a lot of money will win. Agree that it is hard for a simple athlete to win an athlete, in which more than fifty thousand dollars are pledged.

Athletics is a complex sport, which includes many types of different disciplines, it is not for nothing that it is considered the queen of sports, and even the expression “Faster, higher, stronger” by 2/3 can be attributed to it. At the first ancient Greek Olympic Games, athletics was the main sports program. And from that time to this day, it has been the most popular and main of the sports. Basically, such popularity is due to the fact that there is no need for expensive equipment for playing sports. Thus, the countries of Latin America, Africa and Asia to this day become winners in various disciplines.

It is thanks to the worldwide development, great popularity and constant evolutionary progression that athletics is the “queen of sports” (a title that she received in the second half of the 20th century). For several decades, there has not been a day that this title could be canceled. continues to be "at the head" of the sports world and is highly respected.

History of occurrence

In fact, athletics was known long before ancient Greece, thus, many centuries BC. e. peoples from Africa and Asia regularly held competitions. But the first documentary records, dishes, clay tablets, frescoes and drawings, which spoke about the first exercises that develop strength (running and others), of course, have come down to us from ancient Greece. But here's the paradox, the Greeks attributed all power sports to and this is no accident, because hammer throwing or marathons over long distances can hardly be called athletics, so the division is rather arbitrary. By the way, running is one of the most ancient competitions of athletes; it was the only sport in which dates back to 776 BC. e. Since then, much has changed, and now, thanks to the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896, this is also reflected in athletics to a large extent.

Origin in Russia

The development of sports took place all over the world, and athletics in Russia did not stand aside. The first running competition was held in 1888. This year is considered the beginning of athletics in Russia. The first All-Russian championship was held in 1908, since then the Russian Athletics Federation has constantly held competitions in these sports, the winner of which is the athlete or team that was able to demonstrate the best result in the final attempts of technical disciplines or races. All championships take place in several stages, with the exception of running, all-around and walking.

Types of athletics

Athletics is a sport that combines a lot of different disciplines, among them are:

Naturally, among all sports, running disciplines have achieved the greatest popularity. This is due to their availability and ease of maintaining their health and body in sportswear, but this does not mean at all that athletics is just running. Other sports are also common throughout the world, but if they require optional equipment or a sports uniform, then for running you will need only comfortable clothes and shoes.

Gymnastics

Artistic and rhythmic gymnastics also belong to athletics, the only differences are that the first is multidisciplinary, and the exercises in it are performed on apparatus and on the floor. At the same time, there are specific women's sports and there are men's. Gymnastics competitions are held within the framework of the Olympic Games, European and world championships, where both individual and team competitions are held. Thus, they are included in the mandatory, and it can be safely stated that athletics -

Modern athletics: doping

If you look at the root of the emergence of sports, it will be seen that this is not only a test of one’s capabilities and improvement of results during honest training, but also thanks to various drugs that modern world referred to as doping. Even 40 years ago, doctors and professional athletes declared that athletics is a sport in which people have already reached their maximum potential.

Even though doping causes great harm to the body as such, it destroys the whole idea of ​​fair competition and bringing out the best. The “plague of modern sports”, as doping is called, is unlikely to be stopped by anyone. Doctors come up with new methods to bypass control. There is even an opinion that modern competitions are not a struggle of athletes, but of their doctors, because due to the introduction of commerce in sports, it is not the personal achievements of the athlete that come first, but his profitability in return on investment.

Pakharenko Kirill Vladimirovich

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Pakharenko Kirill. "Athletics. The main types of athletics»

Report on physical culture:

"Athletics. The main types of athletics "

Prepared by:

Pakharenko Kirill Vladimirovich

8th grade student "A"

MBOU "Secondary school p. Pionersky"

Supervisor:

Physical education teacher:

Zhuravleva Tatyana Anatolyevna

MBOU "Secondary school p. Pionersky"

Urban Pioneer

2016

1. Project passport……………………………………………………………3
2. Introduction…………………………………………………………………….3
3. Types of athletics and their characteristics……………………………..4
4. Calendar of competitions and the Form of their holding……..………………...8
5. World and Olympic records in athletics. Outstanding Athletes ………………………………………………………………….10
6. Development of athletics in Russia………………………………………...13
7. The Huge Problems of Athletics……………………………………..18
8. Conclusion………………………………………………………………..22
9. Used Literature……………………………………………..22

Introduction

1. Reporter:Pakharenko Kirill.
2. The purpose of the report:

• Studying the history of athletics andits development in Russia;
• Learn about types of athletics and their characteristics;
• To understand the problems of athletics in our time;

1. Report objectives:

• make a list of questions of interest;
• study theoretical material on the topic;
• make a sample according to the read data and display the result;
• compare the received data and analyze them;
• raise an issue on the topic;
• present your report.

Athletics is a complex sport that includes various types of disciplines. She is rightfully considered the queen of sports, not without reason, two out of three calls in the motto "Faster, higher, stronger" can be attributed without hesitation to athletic disciplines. Athletics formed the basis of the sports program of the first Olympic Games. This is one of the main and most popular sports.

Athletics has been able to gain its popularity due to the fact that it does not require expensive equipment to practice. Due to this, athletics could become popular even in countries such as Asia, Africa and Latin America. It was in connection with the wide development that she received the title of "Queen of Sports". Athletics really rules the sports world, it is loved and revered in the most remote corners of the planet.

Types of athletics and their characteristics

Athletics is a sport that combines many disciplines. One of the main and most popular sports.Athletics is a very conservative sport. So the program of men's disciplines in the program of the Olympic Games (24 types) has not changed since 1956. The program of female species includes 23 species. The only difference is the 50 km walk, which is not on the women's list. Thus, athletics is the most medal-intensive among all Olympic sports.

The indoor championship program consists of 26 events (13 men's and 13 women's). At official competitions, men and women do not participate in joint starts.

The types of athletics are usually divided into five sections: walking, running, jumping, throwing and all-around. Each of them, in turn, is divided into varieties.

Race walking - 20 km (men and women) and 50 km (men). Race walking is a cyclic locomotor movement of moderate intensity, which consists of alternating steps, in which the athlete must constantly make contact with the ground and at the same time the extended leg must be fully extended from the moment it touches the ground to the moment the vertical.

Running is one of the oldest sports to have formal competition rules and has been on the program since the very first Olympic Games in 1896. For runners, the most important qualities are: the ability to maintain high speed over a distance, endurance and tactical thinking.

Cross-country sports are included both in the disciplines of athletics and in many popular sports in separate stages (in relay races, all-around). Running competitions are held at special athletics stadiums with equipped tracks. Summer stadiums usually have 8-9 lanes, winter stadiums have 4-6 lanes. The width of the track is 1.22 m, the line separating the tracks is 5 cm. Special markings are applied to the tracks indicating the start and finish of all distances, and corridors for passing the baton. As shoes, athletes use special running shoes - spikes that provide good grip on the surface. Running competitions are held in almost any weather. In hot weather, long-distance running can also organize food stations. During the run, athletes should not interfere with each other, although when running, especially for long and medium distances, contacts between runners are possible. At distances from 100 m to 400 m, athletes run each in their own lane. At distances from 600 m - 800 m, they start on different lanes and after 200 m they go to the common track. 1000 m and more start the start with a general group at the start line. The athlete who crosses the finish line first wins. At the same time, in case of disputable situations, a photo finish is involved and the first athlete is considered, whose part of the body was the first to cross the finish line. Starting with the 1966 European Championships and the 1968 Olympics, electronic timing has been used to record running results in major competitions, evaluating results to the nearest hundredth of a second. But even in modern athletics, electronics are duplicated by judges with a manual stopwatch. World and lower level records are held in accordance with IAAF rules.

The results in running disciplines at the stadium are measured with an accuracy of 1/100 sec., in road running with an accuracy of 1/10 sec.

Jumps are divided into vertical (high jump and pole vault) and horizontal (long jump and triple jump).

The high jump with a running start is an athletics discipline related to vertical jumps of technical types. The components of the jump are the run-up, preparation for repulsion, repulsion, crossing the bar and landing. Requires jumping ability and coordination of movements from athletes. Held in the summer and winter season. It has been the Olympic athletics discipline for men since 1896 and for women since 1928. An athlete can start jumping from any height, after informing the judges about it. The distance between the bar holders is 4 m. The dimensions of the landing area are 3 x 5 meters. When trying, the athlete must push off with one foot. An attempt is considered unsuccessful if: as a result of the jump, the bar did not stay on the racks; the athlete touched the surface of the sector, including the landing site, located beyond the vertical projection of the near edge of the bar, or between or outside the uprights with any part of his body before he cleared the bar.

A successful attempt is marked by the referee by raising the white flag. If the bar falls off the posts after the white flag is raised, the attempt is considered valid. Usually the judge fixes the taking of the height not earlier than the athlete left the landing place, but the final decision on the moment of fixing the result formally remains with the judge.

Pole vault is a discipline related to vertical jumps of technical types of track and field athletics program. It requires jumping ability, sprint qualities, coordination of movements from athletes. Pole vault has been an Olympic sport for men since the First Summer Olympics in 1896, and for women since the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Included in the athletics all-around. The athlete at the preliminary stage and the final is given three attempts at each height. The increase in height during the competition is determined by the judges, it cannot be less than 5 centimeters. Usually at low altitudes the bar is raised in steps of 10-15 cm and then the step goes to 5 cm. The distance between the bar holders is 4 m. The dimensions of the landing area are 5 x 5 meters. The length of the track for the run is not less than 40 meters, the width is 1.22 meters. The athlete has the right to ask the judges to adjust the position of the bar posts from 40 cm in front of the rear surface of the pole box, up to 80 cm towards the run-up point. An attempt is considered unsuccessful if: as a result of the jump, the bar did not stay on the racks; the athlete has touched the surface of the sector, including the landing site located beyond the vertical plane passing through the far edge of the box for support, with any part of the body or with a pole; the athlete in the flight phase tried to keep the bar from falling with his hands. A successful attempt is marked by the referee by raising the white flag. If the bar fell off the racks after the white flag was raised, it no longer matters - the attempt is counted. If the pole breaks during the attempt, the athlete has the right to try again.

Long jump - a discipline related to horizontal jumps of technical types of track and field athletics program. Requires jumping ability, sprint qualities from athletes. The long jump was part of the competitive program of the ancient Olympic Games. It is the modern Olympic discipline of athletics for men since 1896, for women since 1948. Included in the athletics all-around. The task of the athlete is to achieve the greatest horizontal length of the running jump. When performing a jump, athletes in the first stage take a run along the track, then push off with one foot from a special board and jump into a sand pit. The jump distance is calculated as the distance from the special mark on the take-off board to the start of the hole from landing in the sand. The distance from the take-off board to the far edge of the landing pit must be at least 10 m. The take-off line itself must be located up to 5 m from the near edge of the landing pit. In world-class male athletes, starting speed when repulsed from the board, it reaches 9.4 - 9.8 m / s. The optimal angle of departure of the athlete's center of mass to the horizon is 20-22 degrees and the height of the center of mass relative to the usual position when walking is 50-70 cm. Athletes usually reach the highest speed in the last three or four steps of the run. The jump consists of four phases: run-up, repulsion, flight and landing. The greatest differences, in terms of technique, affect the flight phase of the jump.

Throwing - shot put, javelin throw, discus throw and hammer throw. In 1896, discus throwing and shot put were included in the program of the Games; in 1900 - hammer throwing, in 1906 - javelin throwing.

The All-Around is a decathlon (men's event) and a heptathlon (women's event), which are held on two consecutive days in the following order. Decathlon - Day One: 100m run, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400m run; second day: PO m hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1500 m run. Heptathlon - first day: 100 m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 m run; second day: long jump, javelin throw, 800 m run. For each type, athletes receive a certain number of points, which are awarded either according to special tables or empirical formulas. Between species, an interval for rest is necessarily determined (usually at least 30 minutes). When conducting certain events, there are amendments specific to the all-around events: in running events it is allowed to make two false starts (instead of one as in ordinary running events); in the long jump and throwing, the participant is given only three attempts each.

In addition to the listed Olympic types, running and walking competitions are held at other distances, cross-country, in the athletics arena; in throwing for young men, lightweight projectiles are used; all-around is carried out in five and seven types (men) and five (women).

The rules in athletics are quite simple: the winner is the athlete or team that has shown top scores in the final heat or the final attempt of technical disciplines.

The first place in all types of athletics, except for all-around, marathon and walking, takes place in several stages: qualification, ½ finals, ¼ finals. Then the final is held, in which the participants who won prizes are determined. The number of participants is determined by the rules of the competition.

Competition calendar and form

non-commercial competitions.

Summer Olympic Games - athletics has been on the program of the Games since 1896.

The World Championship in open stadiums has been held since 1983, every two years in odd years. Another world championship 2011 years will pass in Daegu (Republic of Korea).

The World Indoor Championships has been held since 1985, every two years in even years. The next championship will be held in 2010 in Istanbul (Turkey).

The European Open Stadium Championship has been held every four years since 1934. The next European Championship was held in 2010 in Barcelona (Spain).

The European Indoor Championships has been held since 1966, every two years in odd years.

World Cup in open stadiums (team competition) - held every four years. The next World Cup will be held in 2010.

Commercial competitions:

Grand Prix - a cycle of summer competitions held annually and ending with the Grand Prix final (special prize "Jackpot" of 1 million dollars).

Golden League.

Diamond League - a cycle of competitions has been held annually since 2010.

The difference between commercial and non-commercial competitions mainly lies in the approach to the selection of athletes and the different interpretation of the rules. At the commercial starts of the competition

are usually held in one round; any number of participants from the country, including wildcard can be received by participants from the organizer's country; the use of pacemakers in running disciplines is allowed; it is allowed to reduce the number of attempts in technical disciplines to 4 (instead of 6); men and women can participate in the same race; non-standard selection of types in athletics all-around.

Competitions, warm-ups and workouts can be held outdoors and indoors. In this regard, two seasons of athletics are distinguished, in the regions where this sport discipline is most popular: in Europe and in the USA. Competition:

The summer season, as a rule, April - October (including the Olympic Games and the World and European Championships) are held in open stadiums. The winter season, as a rule, January - March (including the World and European Winter Championships) are held indoors.

Competitions in race walking and running (cross) on the highway have their own calendar. So the most prestigious marathon races are held in spring and autumn.

In most cases, an athletics stadium is combined with a football (in the US, American football or lacrosse) stadium and a field (for example, the Luzhniki stadium). The standard includes an oval 400 meter track, which usually consists of 8 or 9 separate tracks, as well as sectors for jumping and throwing competitions. The track for the 3000-meter obstacle course has a special marking, and the obstacle with water is placed on a special turn.

It is customary to measure distances in stadiums in meters (for example, a 10,000-meter run), and on a highway or open area in kilometers (for example, a 10-kilometer cross). Tracks at the stadiums have special markings marking the start of all running disciplines, and corridors for passing relay races.

Sometimes throwing competitions (usually hammer throwing) are separated into a separate program, or even taken out of the stadium, as potentially a projectile that accidentally flies out of the sector can injure other competitors or spectators.

The indoor stadium (arena) as a standard includes an oval 200-meter track, consisting of 4-6 separate tracks, a 60-meter run track and sectors for jumping. The only type of throwing included in the program of the winter indoor season is the shot put and, as a rule, it does not have a special sector and is organized separately on the site of other sectors. Official IAAF competitions are held only on the 200 meter track, but there are also stadiums with a non-standard track (140 meters, 300 meters and others).

In arenas on bends, a certain slope angle is laid (usually up to 18 °), which makes it easier for runners to pass the distance on turns with a small radius of curvature. For the first time these competitions were held in 1985 in French Paris. True, they were then called "World Indoor Games" (World Indoor Games), but, since 1987, they have received the familiar name "World Indoor Championships" (World Indoor Championships). World Championships are held every two years, and only once an exception was made to this rule, when the competitions were held in 2003 and 2004. This was done in order to separate the summer and winter championships for different years.

Since 2006, the distance of 200 meters has been excluded from the program of the World and European Championships due to the fact that the participants are placed in very unequal conditions, that is, the one who runs on the outer track is in the most favorable conditions. However, in other competitions and in most national championships, 200-meter competitions are still held.

World and Olympic records in athletics. Outstanding Athletes

The concept of world records in athletics means obtaining and achieving the highest results that can be shown either by one individual athlete or by a whole team of several athletes, while the conditions must be comparable and repeatable. New records can also be set directly during the IAAF world competitions in full accordance with the list of disciplines available for this sport.

The concept of the highest world achievement is also quite common. This achievement belongs to the category of those achievements that do not belong to the list of athletics disciplines that are in the list of athletics disciplines. Such athletics sports include such disciplines as running 50 meters and throwing various weights.

In all disciplines that are approved records are measured in accordance with the metric system, which includes meters and seconds. The only exception to this rule is running the mile.

The first highest world achievements are historically attributed to the middle of the 19th century. At the Olympics in Mexico City in 1968, for the first time, they began to use fully automated system time measurements accurate to hundredths of a second (Jim Hines, 9.95 s in the 100 m run). Since 1976, the IAAF has made the use of automatic sprint timing mandatory.

The oldest world record in the disciplines of athletics included in the program of the Olympic Games is the record in the women's 800 meters in open stadiums (1:53.28), set on July 26, 1983 by Jaromila Kratokhvilova (Czechoslovakia).

The oldest world record recorded in the disciplines included in the program of the world championships is the winter record in the women's shot put (22.50 m), set on February 19, 1977 by Helena Fibingerova (Czechoslovakia).

The IAAF practices the payment of bonuses for setting a world record. So, in 2007, the prize money was 50,000 USD. The organizers of commercial starts can set additional prize money for breaking the world record, which attracts spectators and sponsors.

Athletics fans often discuss records in vertical jumps, especially in pole vaults. In this discipline, athletes have the opportunity to add one centimeter to the previous result, which is impossible in other types. The record holder for the number of records is pole vaulter Sergey Bubka (USSR, Ukraine), who setfrom 1984 to 1994 35 world records.

Yelena Isinbayeva - the owner of 27 world records, for the first time in the world in 2005 conquered a height of 5 meters.

American Dick Fosbury won in 1968 in Mexico City, jumping in a hitherto unknown way (flying over the bar with his back, not his stomach), the world record in this form was blocked only in 1973 by the efforts of Dwight Stones who took 2 meters 30 centimeters. Then only one person beat the world record in the old flip way - a phenomenally talented Vladimir Yaschenko . Undoubtedly, the technique has improved among pole vaulters, among throwers of all four types - hammer, shot, spear and discus. But the technique of long jumpers and triple jumpers has improved over the past 20-40 years to a lesser extent, among runners - even less. For example, Michael Johnson held the 200m world record for 12 years ( Usain Bolt in Beijing in 2008 broke his world record in the 200m), and in the 400m his unsurpassed achievement is already 10 years old.

On the one hand, there is an increasing number of countries and athletes involved in athletics at a high level. In pre-war times, more than 80 percent of world records in sprinting, jumping, and throwing were held by Americans. And only in the endurance race they were pressed by the Europeans. Moreover, the Americans themselves, some 40 years ago, believed: sprinting is the lot of blacks, medium and long distances - whites. In those years, a blond New Zealander owned the world records for 800 meters. Peter Snell , at 1500 - a phenomenal Australian record Herb Elliot lasted 7 years until he was beaten by a white American Jim Ryan.

At 5000 and 10000 meters world records first passed from the British to the RussiansVladimir Kuts and Petr Bolotnikov, and then - to the Australian Ron Clark . But now the records have been taken over by the natives of Africa, where physical culture is gradually penetrating and modern methods workouts. What is surprising: not all countries of the Black Continent supply the champions, but only some. Moreover, in that multinational Kenya with a population of 30 million, all the famous runners, including numerous record holders and Olympic winners, represent only one Kalenjin people. There are less than 10% of the population in the country, although 70% of Kenyans live in the midlands and highlands. Even more interesting is that most of the Kenyan champions were born in the highland town of Eldoret with a population of 80 thousand people, or in the villages closest to it. And many of them are related to each other. As the Beijing Olympic champion in the 800 run told our correspondent Wilfred Bungei , cousins ​​\u200b\u200bhe is the world record holder Wilson Kipketer and multiple world record holder Henry Rono, distant cousins Kepchogo Keino, Pamela Jelimo . Moroccan record holders and former world record holdersKhalid Skah, Said Aouita and El Geroujalso come from the same small mountainous province.

The world elite of endurance running still includes young natives of Sudan. Well, our Yuri Borzakovsky, contrary to all logic, has been beating talented natives of Africa (more precisely, some of its regions) for 10 years, who also take citizenship of the USA, Denmark, Turkey, the Emirates, France, Sweden.

The situation is similar for sprinters. In the 100 meters, the last white world record holder was a German Armin Hari half a century ago. After him (plus another 30 years before him), only black Americans invariably improved the record for the fastest distance. AT recent times they are increasingly competing with the dark-skinned inhabitants of the islands near the American continent - mainly Jamaica. Usain Bolt confirmation of this. He covered the 100m in 9.58 seconds. This is a phenomenal result. Athletes who have won the most gold medals in Olympic history:Carl Lewis (USA) and Paavo Nurmi (Finland)- 9 gold medals.

Outstanding results in the history of world sports have been shown by such athletes as:

• Robert Korzeniowski (Poland)
• Jesse Owens (USA)
• Valery Brumel (USSR)
• Al Orter (USA)
• Sergey Bubka (USSR-Ukraine)
• Michael Johnson (USA)
• Hisham El Guerrouj (Morocco)
• Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia)
• Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia)
• Usain Bolt (Jamaica)
• Nina Ponomareva-Romashkova (USSR)
• Tatyana Kazankina (USSR)
• Irena Shevinskaya (Poland)
• Heike Drechsler(GDR)
• Wilma Rudolph (USA)
• Stefka Kostadinova (Bulgaria)
• Jackie Joyner-Kersee (USA)
• Meseret Defar (Ethiopia)
• Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia)
• Elena Isinbayeva (Russia)

The development of athletics in Russia

The beginning of the development of athletics in Russia is associated with the organization in 1888 of a sports circle in the village of Tyarlevo near St. Petersburg. The organizer of the circle was P.P. Moskvin. The members of the circle were mostly young students who spent their summer holidays in Tyarlevo. In the 90s of the XIX century, the circle held a number of major competitions for that time.

The following year, the circle received the name "Society of Runners", and since 1893. - "Petersburg circle of sports fans". The members of the circle began jogging in early spring on Petrovsky Island, and with the onset of summer - in Tyarlevo. The competition program was supplemented in 1893 with long jumps from a run, since 1895 with shot put, high jumps, hurdles and steeplechases. A little later, there are competitions in cross-country and pole vaulting, discus throwing and javelin throwing.

The program of a large sports festival organized by the circle in 1895, which, thanks to free admission, was attended by about 10,000 spectators, in addition to cycling races, included running at different distances, running long jumps, running with barriers, throwing a ball and a cast-iron shot.

For the first time, the Russian athletics championship, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the founding of a sports club in Tyarlevo, was held in 1908. This championship, despite the fact that about 50 athletes from St. Petersburg and Riga participated in it, served as an incentive for the further development of athletics. athletics. Sports clubs appeared in Moscow, Kyiv, Samara, Odessa.

In 1911, the All-Russian Union of Athletics Amateurs was created, uniting about 20 sports clubs from various cities. In 1912, a team of Russian athletes (47 people) took part for the first time in the V Olympic Games, which were held in Stockholm (Sweden). The low level of track and field athletics in Russia compared to other countries, weak preparatory work, shortcomings in the recruitment of the team affected the unsuccessful performance of Russian athletes - none of them took a prize. The unsuccessful performance at the Stockholm Olympics forced the organizers of Russian sports to take measures to identify capable athletes and involve them in training.

Before World War I, two All-Russian Olympiads were held. The results shown by athletes at these Olympiads testified that there were many gifted athletes in Russia. At the same time, in pre-revolutionary Russia, sports were the privilege of the propertied classes. The broad masses of the people did not have access to them. Therefore, although there was some rise in athletics, it was not massive.

In 1913, the first All-Russian Olympiad, for the first time a marathon run and a women's championship in athletics were played on it. The second All-Russian Olympiad took place in 1914 in Riga. Vasily Arkhipov, a young runner from Moscow, became the hero of this Olympics. On the sandy track of the Riga hippodrome, he showed an outstanding result for that time in the 100 m run - 10.8. I must say that with the same result in 1912, the American sprinter R. Craig won the title of champion of the V Olympic Games.

The first World War, then the revolution pushed back sports competitions for many years. The first championship of the country in athletics was held in Moscow in 1922, 200 athletes from 16 cities and regions of the country participated. The following fact speaks about the state of sports at that time: at the individual championship of Moscow in athletics in 1921, one of the participants broke a spear, the competition had to be stopped, since there was no second spear in Moscow.

Beginning in 1924, the official registration of track and field athletics records began in the USSR, which stimulated the growth of sports achievements.

Of great importance for the development of athletics was the All-Union Spartakiad of 1928, in which athletes from all regions and republics of the country and representatives of workers' sports unions from 15 foreign countries took part. About 1,300 athletes participated in athletics competitions, 38 all-Union records were set. Athletes took first place in the team standings Russian Federation, the second - Ukraine and the third - Belarus.

The introduction of the All-Union GTO complex in 1931, in which athletics was the most widely represented of all sports, greatly contributed to the development of athletics. The introduction of the TRP complex contributed to a significant improvement sports work, the growth of mass. Millions of people began to engage in athletics, who were preparing to pass the standards of the TRP complex. During the preparation and in the process of passing the norms, many gifted athletes were revealed, who subsequently, systematically engaged in athletics sections, became popularly known. For example, the brothers Seraphim and Georgy Znamensky.

In the 1930s, the development of the theory and methodology of athletics made significant progress. There are a number of guides and teaching aids. In 1936, through the joint efforts of the Moscow and Leningrad Institutes of Physical Culture, the first Soviet textbook on athletics was created, which reflected the experience practical work leading trainers, teachers, as well as the results of scientific work.

In 1938, one of the prominent theoreticians and practitioners of athletics G.V. Vasiliev defended the first in our country Ph.D. thesis on this sport ("Throwing in athletics")..

In 1941, a unified All-Union sports classification was introduced, which, due to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War could not be widely disseminated.

For the first time, Soviet athletes took part in the European Championship in 1946 in Norway, and in 1948 the All-Union Athletics Section became a member of the International Athletics Federation. Two years later, the USSR athletes at the European Championship in Brussels won the most points for prizes. In 1952, for the first time after the revolution of 1917, the USSR national team took part in the Olympic Games. The debut was successful: 2 gold, 10 silver and 7 bronze Olympic medals.

A golden shower of medals fell on Soviet athletes at the Olympics in Rome (1960). Vera Krepkina (long jump), sisters Tamara and Irina Press, Lyudmila Shevtsova (800 m), Pyotr Bolotnikov (10,000 m), Vladimir Gopubnichy (20 km walk), Robert Shavlakadze (high jump), Vasily Rudenkov ( hammer throw), Viktor Tsybulenko (javelin), Nina Ponomarev a (disc), Elvir a Ozolina (javelin). Record number of gold medals.

At the subsequent Games there were also separate bright performances (Viktor Saneev, Svetlana Masterkov oh, Valery Borzov, Tatyana Kazankina, Sergey Bubka, etc.), but the Roman achievement is still unsurpassed. Since 1996 Russia has been an independent team. At the Games in Sydney (2000), Russian athletes won three gold medals (Sergey Kpyugin - high jump, Irina Privalova - 400 m hurdles and Elena Yepesina - high jump).

At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Russian athletes won six gold medals. Valery Borchin, Olga Kaniskina, Andrey Silnov, Elena Isinbayeva, Gulnara Galkina-Samitova and the women's relay team in the 4x100 meters became champions. In addition, athletes brought five silver and six bronze medals to the Russian team. In terms of the number of medals in this sport, only the United States could compete with Russia. In general, the performance at the Olympics for our team can be considered quite successful.

In the team standings at the 2010 World Championships in Barcelona, ​​the Russians took first place. This result is inferior to the Russian triumph in Gothenburg-2006 (12 gold and 34 medals of all merits). In gold (10), the Russians repeated their second result in recent history(since the 1994 European Championship) after Helsinki 1994. In terms of the total number of medals (24), the current result is the third after Gothenburg 2006 (34) and Helsinki 1994 (25). The same number of awards in the total was in Munich 2002 (24).

If we analyze the training of the Russian team in the types of athletics, then the results will be far from equivalent.

As for women, it is worth noting the remarkable performance of the “weak” half of the Russian team at the largest competitions of the four-year anniversary. Even in the absence of well-known athletes: Elena Soboleva, Daria Pishchalnikova, Gulfiya Khanafeeva, Tatyana Tomashova, Yulia Fomenko and Svetlana Cherkasova, who were disqualified due to a DNA mismatch in doping samples taken back in 2007 and claiming prize money based on the results of the current season places, our women showed an excellent "medal" result following the results of the Olympic track and field athletics forum.

Of course, there is some backlog of Russian athletes in the sprint (100 and 200m), but given the performance in the 4x100m relay, in which they won first place, we can say that only American and Jamaican athletes can compete with our girls in the team fight.

Another picture is observed when analyzing the preparation for these competitions of the men's team. At the moment, in such events as 100, 200 and 400 meters, it is quite difficult for our runners to compete with the strongest athletes from other countries and show results that allow them to get into the final races, where the fight for the top eight is being fought. The same situation is observed in the following types: 1500m, 3000m with obstacles, 5000m, 10000m and marathon. But if we really lag behind other countries in the first four of these types, then the situation with the marathon is somewhat different.

If we analyze the results of the performances of Russian runners at a distance of 42,195m, then it is worth noting the fact that they compete quite successfully with the masters of ultra-long distances and often take prizes at commercial starts. In addition, in terms of time, the results themselves are quite high. So, in 2007, Alexei Sokolov set a new Russian record, previously owned by Leonid Shvetsov and lasted about ten years. But when the time comes for performances at major competitions (European or world championships, as well as the Olympic Games), Russian athletes may not always show decent results.

As for the cross-country types of athletics described above, the lag of Russian athletes behind runners from other countries can also be explained by an inefficient training system. It's about not that we have bad coaching staff, unable to cope with the tasks. In fact, qualified trainers are currently working, whose names are known throughout the world. However, most of the traditions have been lost. This applies to both men's sprints and middle and long distance running. For example, at present, Russian athletes perform at the level at which more than 50 yearsago our strongest runners competed: Vladimir Kuts, Petr Bolotnikov and others.

"Treading on" in the place of runners from Russia, when there is no increase in sports results from year to year, makes us think about the effectiveness of modern training in a number of track and field events. In addition to the training system, there are also other reasons that hinder the development of athletics in our country. The question concerns young personnel, the inability of coaches to interest children and involve them in athletics, the lack of modern equipment, etc. In most cases, everything, one way or another, is connected with insufficient funding.

Another problem hindering the development of athletics in Russia is the lack of specialized training centers for athletes or their poor supply of inventory and equipment. At the moment, the Russian athletics team has only two sports bases at its disposal, which are designed to prepare for major competitions: Adler and Kislovodsk. However, these bases do not meet modern requirements for a long time, which should provide full-fledged training. For example, at the Olympic base in Kislovodsk there is still a "track" that was laid and intended to prepare Soviet athletes for the Olympics - 80. But the shelf life of such a track is only 5 years, so at the moment it is so traumatic that many prefer not to conduct training at the "Upper Stadium" of the city of Kislovodsk. In this regard, Russian athletes were forced to train abroad.

The Huge Challenges of Athletics

Currently, world athletics is in a dual position - on the one hand, successful development, on the other - the fire of criticism. In sports, there are many problems, the solution of which seems not quite real. Athletics, originally held in Europe and North America, have become a world sport. It is this, in addition to success, that causes obvious skepticism. Moreover, while the expansion of athletics was originally seen as a sure success, it is now the subject of emerging problems.

It is important that spectators usually pay for the upcoming entertainment and thus finance, directly or indirectly, athletics competitions. In order to highlight the problem in this matter, it is necessary to consider different categories of viewers.First categoryare those who purchase tickets in order to be present at the competitions. Second – TV viewers who indirectly pay for watching competitions. Third group , which calls itself the "athletics family", tries to attend all competitions, but for free.Fourth groupis present at the competition, as it is the sponsor of the competition. They may not be very interested in the course of the competition, but being at the competition is their job. Fifth group - guests and their presence - a gift from sponsors who, by showing hospitality, do their own business. Sixth group consists of schoolchildren who, of course, watch the competitions for free, their function is to fill the stadium and thus show interest in athletics.

Considering in more detail the spectator audience at athletics competitions, one can notice that the first two groups of spectators are decisive in the promotion of sports. However, the ratio between paying and "free" viewers begins to grow catastrophically in favor of the latter. Even at competitions such as the World Championships in Athletics, the number of spectators who paid for tickets was 60%. With the exception of the Olympic Games and the World Championships, other athletics events gather a fairly modest number of spectators. The live show of the Grand Prix by Eurosport gathers from 80,000 to 200,000 spectators, which is not considered effective enough.

It is also necessary to pay attention to the structure of high-class results. Athletes try to extend their career as long as possible in order to earn more money, so now many of them show high results, reaching the age of 30. However, the situation of having a significant number of high-class athletes can halt the development of the sport. A career can go on for a long time, but there are constant changes at the very top of the list of the most outstanding athletes. New stars appear regularly from various regions, but their life as idols is usually short. Experienced stars tend to plan their performances, focusing on the largest possible income, which often conflicts with the planning of competition programs. In such a semi-professional situation, the role of managers increases significantly to resolve conflicts.

Turning to the future of today's coaches, we can note their minor role. Coaches must rely only on themselves, be completely dependent on the success of their students and be prepared to receive income in exceptional cases. Athletes are still organized semi-professionally, but for coaches there is no organizational structure does not exist. Athletics is a particularly problematic area and we can easily identify problems in the overall structure and rules of the competition. Many spectators complain of boredom during the competition. There are quite a few reasons they complain about - unequal competition conditions, bad information, the information board is too far away and often breaks, too many different events are running at the same time, many events are too far from the spectators. And this list is endless.

Next, the hierarchy of our competitions. Many athletes can compete in the Golden League and then take part in the Grand Prix II within a few days. In other sports, it is not possible to compete in the amateur league on Wednesday and then in the professional league on Sunday. And only in athletics is this possible. It is also difficult to compare one competition with another. Some focus on running types, others on throwing, it is also possible to combine different types of athletics in one competition. Not surprisingly, it is often impossible to evaluate the rating of the competition and announce it to the audience.

Now about the rules. A special example is the use of leaders or "hares" to show high or record results in middle and long distance running. Looking at the rules making process, the IAAF Congresses, held every two years, are constantly having long debates about changing the competition rules. Athletics is perhaps the only sport where the rules of the competition are constantly changing. Perhaps such changes may reduce interest in athletics. Sometimes a change has just been made, and the next one is already being prepared.

The problems of competitions in open stadiums are also quite relevant. Football associations are completely abandoning the coexistence with athletics that has been in Europe for over 100 years. Modern football stadiums do not have space for a running track, and the creation of specialized athletics stadiums is not yet considered.

Interestingly, athletics is moving away from traditional stadiums, moving to the street. High jumping to music, pole vaulting on the beaches or in the markets, shot put in shopping malls. Such competitions are not held under the auspices of the IAAF and often do not follow the rules. This suggests that perhaps the future of athletics will be outside the stadium. This is a very risky path. The whole history of athletics has evolved as a sport with a variety of sports exercises, and pulling it apart into separate types in the interests of certain groups is a danger and a loss of our unity.

The issue of advertising and support for athletics is very painful, as the situation in this matter is extremely negative. Sports are currently working very closely with advertising companies. However, the distribution of advertising often does not achieve the necessary goals and does not lead to increased sales of the advertised products. And here we need new ideas. So far, there are no long-term advertising programs using multiple information channels. The possibilities of television and the Internet are not used enough, and we do not learn from our mistakes. Without regret, it should be noted that the image of great athletes, who are of great potential in terms of stimulating the involvement of sponsors in athletics, is not used enough. The IAAF has a number of sponsors: Adidas (contract until 2019), Seiko, Epson, TDK, Samsung has recently joined these ranks.

AT easy athletics there is a cultural conflict that is rarely discussed nowadays. This is, first of all, a question of competitions in the halls. The conflict between Europe and North America and the countries of Asia, South America and Africa. If Africans take part in our summer competitions, then Europeans do not want to do the same during the African summer. It is clear that this issue is primarily economic in nature, and in the future, athletics will depend more and more on world economic markets for its development. With rare exceptions, such markets are currently located in the regions of Europe and North America. From these positions, holding competitions in the halls is quite productive, but from the standpoint of world culture, it is undoubtedly unprofitable. Usually these issues are not often discussed, but as the global economy changes, and some economic markets move to other regions, a discussion is needed on a new regional athletics policy.

Today, the demographic ratio of age categories in some regions is real danger for the development of athletics.

Modern athletics faces numerous challenges. Main headache international federation Athletics (IAAF) remains the problem of doping, which continues to attack athletics from all sides. The use of chemicals and physiological stimulation methods to artificially increase performance has been around for as long as there has been in professional sports. The first cases of the use of stimulant drugs are rooted in antiquity. Until the 1980s, cases of doping were isolated, did not find full confirmation and did not involve public opinion, being the exception to the rule. In 1968, the world record holders Irina and Tamara Press left the sport, after the Olympic Games, as an additional procedure, introduced the determination of the sex of athletes. Beginning in the 1980s, the IAAF decided to fundamentally change its approach to the use of doping by athletes and sanctions. Anti-doping checks have existed for a long time, but the procedure for conducting them was such that athletes could prepare in advance. In 1984, Tatyana Kazankina, during a competition in Paris, was suddenly invited to a doping test, refused and was disqualified.

After the reunification of Germany, especially big number caught and voluntarily confessed athletes and coaches fell on the former representative of the avant-garde athletics of the German Democratic Republic. Heike Drechsler, Ruth Fuchs, Ilona Slupianek added voluntary confessions to the list of doping users. Heidi (Andreas) Krieger (European champion in 1986 in the shot put) has become one of the symbols of the struggle for the purity of the sport. In 1997, she underwent sex reassignment surgery, as the use of illegal drugs led to a change in sexual characteristics.

A significant number of world records in athletics arouse the legitimate suspicions of experts, although the athletes were not caught and did not themselves confess. This is especially true in women's athletics. These include, for example, the 400 m world record by Marita Koch (GDR), the 100 and 200 m records by Florence Griffith-Joyner, the 3000 m and 10,000 m records. The problem is that modern athletes cannot even come close to the results 1970-1980s. In athletics, the experience of weightlifting is inapplicable, where a new grid of weight categories was introduced and thereby simply canceled all previous world records. Nordic countries propose to annul world records in athletics set before 2000. With such an initiative, the athletics federations of these countries intend to speak on August 20 at the congress International Association athletics federations /IAAF/, timed to coincide with the World Championships in Paris.

"The records that were set in the 1980s and 1990s cannot be beaten because they were achieved by doped athletes," said Svein Arne Hansen, president of the Norwegian Athletics Federation. He claimed that "many world records were shown with the use of doping. This is not a secret, in some cases there were litigation. Now we have to cross out all these pre-2000 records."

As the Norwegian Telegraph Bureau notes today, Norway and several others European countries back in 1999, advocated the elimination of a number of world records. But then this was not possible. The Nordic countries are now joining new stage wrestling led by the president of the Norwegian Athletics Federation.

"I consider this action extremely timely," said Svein Arne Hansen. He believes that many European states will support this proposal, but this is not enough. For the proposal to be accepted, it is important that the United States also joins it.

Since January 1997, a special identification card has been issued for each athlete ranked among the top twenty in the world, in which all information about the athlete passing outside the competitive doping control is entered. The card was named "IAAF Elite Athletes Club". Only the possession of this document opens the way to receiving cash prizes at the championships. On the card, the athlete also signs under the obligation: "As one of the best athletes in the world, I agree to support the governing body of world athletics - the IAAF in its efforts to establish clean and fair athletics. As my contribution to this noble struggle, I undertake to be guided by the rules and the laws of the IAAF."

Conclusion

Athletics is a sport that combines natural physical exercises for a person: running, jumping and throwing.

Thanks to athletics, a person learns the correct motor skills of walking, running, jumping, overcoming obstacles, etc., which are necessary for him in everyday life. Agility, speed, strength and endurance, accuracy and beauty of movements develop.
Athletics is one of the main and most popular sports.
Athletics is accessible to the public due to the variety of its types, a huge number of easily dosed exercises that can be practiced everywhere and at any time of the year.

It can be considered that complex classes in athletics are one of the "mechanisms" for the implementation of goals and objectives for the prevention of diseases, bad habits and offenses, as well as health promotion, maintaining high human performance, establishing a healthy lifestyle, shaping the needs of the individual in physical and moral improvement, developing the volitional qualities of the individual .

References

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Athletics is the queen of sports

Athletics- one of the most popular sports, to say the least. Indeed, in a wide circle of sports fans, she bears the title - the Queen of Sports.

The history of athletics began its countdown from the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece. Their program then consisted mainly of track and field events. At the very first Olympiads, they competed only in the race for the length of the stadium (192.27 m). Later, diaulos appeared in the program - running in two stages (back and forth). After that, endurance running appeared - dolichodromos.

In 708 BC athletes have already competed in the pentathlon (pentathlon), and later in the lampaderiomas - relay race, the participants of which passed a burning torch to each other.
It is believed that athletics was very popular in the British Isles. From the 12th century there began to be held competitions in running at various distances, long jumps, high jumps and pole vaults, and weight throwing. These competitions formed the basis of most types of modern athletics.

Athletics received its second birth in 1859, when the Greeks tried to revive the Olympic Games. Athletics took the main place in the program of the first national competitions. In 1866, the first track and field athletics championship of Great Britain was held, and 10 years later a similar competition was held in the USA. Athletics appeared in Russia in 1888.

Athletics disciplines

The queen of sports includes a large number of disciplines: running at various distances, walking, long and high jumps, throwing various projectiles (javelin, discus, hammer and shot). Consider some of the disciplines of athletics in more detail.

Race walking

This discipline differs from running in that in order to to achieve victory, it is necessary not only to show the fastest result at a distance, but here it is very important to observe the walking technique. The fast walker is forbidden to start running, the mind is not allowed to lose contact with the ground, i.e. the flight phase characteristic of running is prohibited. At the next step, the athlete's leg should be straightened at the knee. An athlete may be disqualified for breaking the rules. Race walking competitions can be dramatic because high speed or because of fatigue it can be difficult not to switch to a slow run. It happened that the athletes leading during the race were disqualified because of this, it happened that this happened already at the finish line or even after the competition.
Fast walkers compete at distances of 5-50 km. The program of the largest competitions (Olympics, championships and World and European Cups) includes the following distances: 20 km. (for women and men), 50 km. (in men).

Smooth sprint

This type of sprint includes distances of 50, 60, 100, 200 and 400 m, included in the program of major competitions. Major tournaments are held in arenas with eight running tracks. The same number of athletes take part in the race. Before the start of the race, the judge pronounces the commands to the athlete: “To the start”, “attention” and a shot upwards from a signal revolver, after which the athletes start the race. In case of a premature start, the race is stopped, and the athlete who committed this fault is counted as a false start and issued a warning, for two warnings the runner is disqualified.

Barrier sprint

It differs from smooth in that runners on a distance overcome obstacles - barriers. Hurdlers compete at distances of 110 and 400 m (for men), 100 and 200 m (for women). Athletes run along separate lanes, each of which has 10 barriers. Participants of these races can unintentionally knock down the barriers, but if the barrier was knocked down on purpose, the athlete who did this would be disqualified.
The program of international competitions includes sprint relay races for 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m, both for men and women.

Middle distance running

It is one of the most exciting and dynamic competitions in athletics, full of surprises, which are associated not only with the speed of the athletes, but even more important factor in this competition is the tactics chosen by the runners. This group of running includes distances of 800, 1000, 1500, 1609 and 2000 m. All of them are included in the program of international competitions.
Long distances are 3000, 5000, 10000 and 20000 m.