Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics were held during the last ten days of the

Games A game is a Structure, structured type of play (activity), play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an Educational game, educational tool. Many games are also considered to be Work (human activity), work (such as p ...

. 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 The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Japan. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, 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 and throwing. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, cross-country running, and racewalking. ...

at these Games was split into three distinct sets of events:

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

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 ru ...

events and

racewalking Race walking, or racewalking, 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. Race judges carefully asses ...

events, moved to

Sapporo is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in Hokkaido, Japan. Located in the southwest of Hokkaido, it lies within the alluvial fan of the Toyohira River, a tributary of the Ishikari River. Sapporo is the capital ...

. A total of 48 events were held, one more than in 2016, with the addition of a mixed relay event.

Olympic stadium and venues

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 ...

, which was known as the Olympic Stadium during the games, completely rebuilt and inaugurated on 21 December 2019, was the venue of all the

events, while road events (marathons and racewalks) took place at Odori Park in

. 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 and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

"Class 1 certificate" in December 2019. The Mondotrack WS surface in Tokyo's National Stadium is a better and updated version of the track that was provided and installed for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Due to the risk of a heat wave during the period of the Games, the IOC, Organizing Committee and IAAF decided in October 2019 that the Race Walking and Marathon events would be moved to

, which hosted the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside ...

. The route started and arrived at Odori Park and is the traditional venue of Hokkaido Marathon until 2012, featuring a large loop which is about the length of a half-marathon (21,095 km), followed by a second smaller loop (10,540 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

due to heat concerns. The plans were made official on 1 November 2019 after Tokyo Governor

Yuriko Koike Yuriko Koike (小池百合子, Koike Yuriko; born 15 July 1952) is a Japanese politician who has served as the Governor of Tokyo since 2016. Previously, she was also served as a member of the House of Councillors from 1992 to 1993, a member o ...

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. 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 sports administrator, former politician and retired track and field athlete. As a middle-distance runner, Coe won four Olympic medals, incl ...

, president of

, 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 The 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships () was the seventeenth edition of the biennial, global sport of athletics, athletics competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), since renamed World Athleti ...

, 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. Summer Olympics * Archery (list) * Athletics (list) * Cycling (list) * Rowing (list) * Shooting ...

were set. 28 continental (area) records were set along with 151 national ones. According to the international governing body for the sport of athletics,

, 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. The medals were reallocated on 19 May 2022.

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.

References

External links

Results book
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics At The 2020 Summer Olympics

2020 The year 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 even ...

Events at the 2020 Summer Olympics

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

International athletics competitions hosted by Japan

2020 Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...