Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics were held during the last ten days of the Games. They were due to be held from 31 July – 9 August 2020, at the
Olympic Stadium
''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...
in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
, Japan. Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, the games were postponed to 2021, with the track and field events set for 30 July – 8 August.
The
sport of athletics
Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping, throwing sports, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and racewalking ...
at these Games was split into three distinct sets of events:
track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. 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 ...
events, remaining in Tokyo, and
road running
Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road. This differs from track and field on a regular track and cross country running over natural terrain.
These events are usually classified as long-distance ac ...
events and
racewalking
Racewalking, or race walking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Referee, Race judges careful ...
events, moved to
Sapporo
( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...
. A total of 48 events were held, one more than in 2016, with the addition of a mixed relay event.
Olympic stadium and venues
![New national stadium tokyo 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/New_national_stadium_tokyo_1.jpg)
Road events (marathons and racewalks) will take place at
Odori Park
is a park located in the heart of Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. means "large street" in Japanese. It stretches east to west through Nishi 1 chōme, Ōdōri to Nishi 12 chōme, Ōdōri ("Nishi" means west, and "chōme" is a block in Japanese), and d ...
in
Sapporo
( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...
, but the
National Stadium
Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadiu ...
, which will be known as the Olympic Stadium during the games, completely rebuilt and inaugurated on 21 December 2019, will be the venue of all the
track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. 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 ...
events.
Italian company
Mondo equipped the stadium with a new track, a Mondotrack WS surface which was given a seal of approval with a
World Athletics
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...
"Class 1 certificate" in December 2019. The Mondotrack WS surface in Tokyo's National Stadium is an improved version of the product that was provided and installed for the
2016 Summer Games in Rio.
Odori Park
is a park located in the heart of Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. means "large street" in Japanese. It stretches east to west through Nishi 1 chōme, Ōdōri to Nishi 12 chōme, Ōdōri ("Nishi" means west, and "chōme" is a block in Japanese), and d ...
is the traditional venue of
Hokkaido Marathon
The Hokkaido Marathon held in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan, is one of the prominent marathon races of the year.
The staging area as well as both the start and finish lines are in Odori Park starting between Nishi 3-chome and Nishi 4-chome and the fi ...
. From the 2012 edition of the race, the start of the race was moved from
Nakajima Park
is a city park in Chūō-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. The park has a lake, two streams, a museum, a concert hall, an observatory, a historical building housing a tea shop, and several lawns and forests. At the south end, there are two shrines.
...
to Odori Park.
Sapporo
( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...
, which hosted the
1972 Winter Olympics, lies 800 km from Tokyo, but was named as the venue for the Olympic marathons and racewalking in October 2019. This decision, taken before COVID-19
crisis
A crisis ( : crises; : critical) is either any event or period that will (or might) lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affair ...
, was made due to fears about high temperatures in Tokyo. Odori Park will be the start and the arrival for both marathons. Its route features a large loop which is about the length of a
half-marathon
A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcut ...
(20 km), followed by a second smaller loop (10 km) which was completed twice.
Schedule
Apart from the race walks and marathon, nine track and field events will hold finals in the morning session to ensure that they receive maximum visibility for the sport across all time zones.
On 16 October 2019, the IOC announced that there were plans to re-locate the marathon and racewalking events to
Sapporo
( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...
due to heat concerns. The plans were made official on 1 November 2019 after
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike
is a Japanese politician who currently serves as the Governor of Tokyo since 2016. She graduated from the American University in Cairo in 1976 and was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan from 1993 until 2016, when she resigned to ...
accepted the IOC's decision, despite her belief that the events should have remained in Tokyo.
Qualification
The 2020 athletics qualifying system for individual events was fundamentally different from previous versions. Instead of being only based on set qualifying standards, the new qualifying system is also based on
IAAF World Rankings
The World Athletics Rankings are an individual athlete ranking system for the sport of athletics, managed by World Athletics. It is used to establish the number one athlete within an athletics event and to partially determine qualification into t ...
. Qualifying standards provided an alternate pathway, but are to be set high enough that only exceptional performances will meet them. Maximum entries per event were set (unlike previous years where entries were based on how many athletes met the qualifying standard), with the world rankings being used to fill the quota after the standards-based entrants and universality entrants are set.
On 2 June 2021,
Sebastian Coe
Sebastian Newbold Coe, Baron Coe, (born 29 September 1956), often referred to as Seb Coe, is a British politician and former track and field athlete. As a middle-distance runner, Coe won four Olympic medals, including 1500 metres gold medal ...
, president of
World Athletics
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...
, declared that "our tracking suggests that about 70 percent of athletes in most events will qualify by entry standard. This is above the 50 percent rate we aimed for in devising the system, but we believe this is due to the extended qualifying period created after the postponement of the Olympic Games from 2020 to 2021."
For relays, the qualification is somewhat similar to previous years. Eight teams will be selected through the results at the
2019 World Championships in Athletics, then adding the finalists of
2021 World Athletics Relays if different ones and some more selected through top lists' rankings, up to 16 teams by event.
[
]
Record figures
3 world records and 12 Olympic records
Olympic records are the best performances in a specific event in that event's history in either the Summer Olympic Games or the Winter Olympic Games, including:
* Archery (list)
* Alpine skiing (records recognized only by FIS)
* Athletics (list)
...
were set.
28 continental (area) records were set along with 151 national ones.
According to the international governing body for the sport of athletics, World Athletics
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...
, their performance ranking system concludes that the 2020 Olympic Games were the "highest quality major event in history".
Medal summary
Medal table
;Key
Men
* Indicates the athlete only competed in the preliminary heats and received medals.
* On 18 February 2022 team of Great Britain was disqualified for doping use and officially stripped of the silver medal. Medals have not yet been reallocated.
Women
* Indicates the athlete only competed in the preliminary heats and received medals.
Mixed
* Indicates the athlete only competed in the preliminary heats and received medals.
Competitors
Placing table
The Placing table assigns points to the top eight athletes in the final, with eight points to first place, seven to second place, and so on until one point for eighth place. Teams or athletes that did not finish or were disqualified do not receive points.
See also
*Athletics at the 2018 Asian Games
Athletics at the 2018 Asian Games was held at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, Jakarta, Indonesia from 25 to 30 August 2018.
Schedule
Medalists
Men
Women
Mixed
Medal table
Participating nations
A total of 688 athletes from 43 nations compet ...
*Athletics at the 2018 Commonwealth Games
Athletics was one of ten core sports that appeared at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast. As a founding sport, athletics has appeared consistently since its introduction at the 1911 Inter-Empire Games; the recognized precursor to the C ...
*Athletics at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics
Athletics at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics was held from 11 to 16 October. The events took place at the Parque Olímpico de la Juventud in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
For the first time, every athletics' event featured 2 stages – 2 separate comp ...
*Athletics at the 2019 African Games
Athletics at the 2019 African Games was held from 26 to 30 August 2019 in Rabat, Morocco.
Medal summary Men
Women
Medal table
Schedule
Participating nations
* (11)
* (3)
* (5)
* (23)
* (15)
* (7)
* (13)
* (5)
* (1)
* (6)
* (8) ...
*Athletics at the 2019 European Games
Athletics (sport), Athletics at the 2019 European Games took place at the Dinamo Stadium (Minsk), Dinamo Stadium between 23 and 28 June 2019. For the first time in an international event, a new competition format called ''Dynamic New Athletics ( ...
* Athletics at the 2019 Pacific Games
* Athletics at the 2019 Pan American Games
*Athletics at the 2020 Summer Paralympics
Athletics at the 2020 Summer Paralympics were held in the National Stadium in Tokyo. There was 167 medal events: 93 for men, 73 for women and one mixed event. It was the largest contest of the Games programme regarding athlete numbers and meda ...
References
External links
Results book
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics At The 2020 Summer Olympics
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...
2020 Summer Olympics events
Olympics
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
International athletics competitions hosted by Japan
2020 Olympics