The word athletics comes from the Greek โAthlon” meaning struggle, competition, combat. Nothing is known about the first sports tournaments, but it could very well have started in a pedestrian race. For more than three thousand years, athletic tests have been carried out. They were part of the original Olympics held in Greece from 776 BC. from Christ to 394 A.D. of Christ. These were held on the occasion of the institution of Panathenaic Games in honor of Palas Athena. The Walking race was the most practiced exercise by Greek athletes, who at the age of 12, began their preparation on the track or in the gym.
The first tracks drawn on flat surfaces averaged 192.27m and were covered with thick and loose sand that made it challenging to run freely. The test that consisted of covering that distance was called seasonal and the double lap to the track, diluvium; the examination of 4500 meters, Doric race. The long jump was practiced by competitors who carried heavy objects in their hands. The release was started with stone discs, and later bronze was used.
The athletic games that during the Greek-Latin civilization (and mainly in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. of Christ) they reached great splendor and declined noticeably during the Middle Ages.
Among the sports and games practiced in pre-Hispanic Mexico during specific religious festivals, foot races were the most popular. Distance and resistance races are still the favorite recreations among several indigenous communities in the country, including the Tarahumaras and the Yankees. The first, natives of the Sierra of the northwest of the state of Chihuahua, retain the habit today of hunting deer running after them until they tire and then apprehend them. This curious fact is due to his fame of being extraordinary cross-country runners.
The resurgence of athletics occurred in England from the 15th century. In 1617, King James I issued the famous Book of Sports, which authorized the practice of certain athletic games until then prohibited. At the beginning of the 19th century, new instruments appeared that helped to disseminate them: precision chronographers, who were responsible for regulating the time spent by runners. During this period, it was held in Hammersmith, England, one of the first essential tests of modern athletics. From then on, it acquired a charter of nature in the most famous sports competitions.
Track and field programs were organized in Cambridge and Oxford, and in 1864 the two universities held the first inter-collegial meeting in modern history. The intense and regulated practice of Athletics moved from England to other countries. It was in the United States that it gained the most vigorous impulse to the point that in 1868 the first Athletics club was founded that same year that organized the first national track and Field Championship. September 21, 1895, is one of the most memorable dates of World Athletics, since then the first international athletic encounter between the leading clubs of the United States and England took place.
Since the first modern Olympiad (that of Greece in 1896) athletics has fully realized the Olympic motto Citius, Altius, forties (Faster, Higher, Stronger) with such success that it has advanced more in the last 70 years than in 2500 between the victory of Cerebus and the resumption of the games.
On August 20, 1913, in Berlin was born the International Amateur Athletics Association, 16 countries were the founders. Today, this partnership has 137 member countries. Much of the rapid progress is due to the improvement of the tracks and the innovations introduced by the equipment such as grubbing wedges, fiberglass clubs.
The Tracks of athletics of the United States
Athletics Tracks are the ultimate foundation with which the United States reaches a World Cup or an Olympic game. This year, from 1 to 10 July, at the iconic stadium Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, developed the tests qualifying for the final composition of the American team that participated in the Olympic Games of River of Janeiro. There, on the stage of that small town of 160,000 inhabitants, the best of the track and the field ruled the three athletes by discipline who would be the Olympic representatives.
No matter what was done during the season, no injury is taken into account: The Tracks are the only gateway to dress up and represent the country’s colors with the most Olympic medals since the start of the modern era Olympic Games. From Athens 1896 to Rio 2016, the United States accumulates 797 presets (334 gold, 258 silver, and 205 bronze).
No one, no matter what name or world record he has, can escape this voracious and ruthless but effective way to define the names of the national athletics team. It is that in the United States, there are no excuses or illustrious names with their weight that serve as a springboard for being an Olympic representative. It was enough to see the tears of sadness Saniya Richards-Ross, who in Brazil failed to win their Olympic titles in the 400 meters and the relay 4 ร 400 relays in London in 2012, to understand the ruthless that can result in high-performance sport. The continental plus marker retired injured in the qualifiers, and the audience that filled the capacity of the University of Oregon Stadium fired her with warm and close applause in what would mean her possible departure from professional athletics. “I had an amazing career. Let my last test be here, at 31 and in this stadium. It’s a wonderful thing that I’m going to remember forever,” said the athlete born in Kingston, Jamaica, but who has lived in the United States since childhood and at 16 accepted the proposal to join the junior team of her adopted country. Neither did the scrolls of the champion Allyson Felix, who achieved the rankings for the 400 meters, but did not get his ticket for the 200 meters, in which he only lacked a hundredth to make it.
Also, the short-fence Trials left one of the biggest surprises of the entire competition: among the men stood out Ryan Wilson, world medalist; Omo Osaghae, World Champion in Sopot 2014. Jason Richardson, world champion in 2011 and silver medal in London 2012; David Oliver, world champion in 2013 and Olympic bronze in Beijing 2008; and Aries Merritt, Olympic champion in London 2012 and world champion in the specialty. While women did not get their Olympic Ticket Dawn Harper-Nelson, Olympic runner-up in London 2012 and winner in Beijing 2008; and Kendra Harrison, owner of the second best brand of all time, neither was Tyson Gay. The second fastest athlete in history failed to the classification or in 100 or 200 meters. While he was part of the 4×100 team, the United States received a hard double by being disqualified in the final. Evidence that serves as an example. To be an Olympic athlete from the United States must revalidate the access credential in the Trials.