The Bislett Games is an annual

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 eve ...

meeting at the Bislett Stadium in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now part of the

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

History

The first international athletics meeting at Bislett was held in 1924. Until 1937 the competitions are known as "The American Meetings". Different organizers staged the meetings between 1947 and 1965 until the three athletics associations BUL, Vidar and Tjalve formed the Bislett Alliance. At this year Arne Haukvik founded the Bislett Games. He was a former politician and director of the meeting, who used to invite the athletes, sponsors and the press to his home for his traditional "strawberry party" the day before the event each year. He died of cancer in 2002 at age 76. The tradition however is continued. Bislett Stadium was used for

speed skating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skati ...

events at the

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 vari ...

, but nowadays it is better known for its Bislett Games athletics meeting. Bislett Games attract the best track and field athletes from all over the world, and 65

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

s have been set on its forgiving, brick-coloured track so far. Due to the building of the new Bislett Stadium in Oslo, which started in April 2004, the 2004 edition of the traditional athletics meeting was staged on Fana stadion in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, secon ...

under the name Bergen Bislett Games. In 2009, a severe storm delayed proceedings and even caused damage to the track-side clock display. Sanya Richards recorded the fastest women's

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is o ...

time since 2006 while the

Dream Mile The Dream Mile may refer to the annual Diamond League race in Oslo at Bislett Stadium, or several historic individual races featuring top middle-distance runners. Dream Mile (Bislett) The Dream Mile is an annual mile race run at Bislett Stadium, ...

brought a number of records with winner

Deresse Mekonnen Deresse Mekonnen Tsigu (Amharic: ደረሠ መኮንነን; born 20 October 1987) is an Ethiopian middle distance runner, who specializes in the 1500 metres. He is a two-time World Indoor champion and was the silver medallist at the 2009 World ...

improving upon his Ethiopian record, Kenyan

William Biwott Tanui William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

setting a world junior record and third-placed

Augustine Choge Augustine Kiprono Choge (born 21 January 1987) is a Kenyan middle distance and long distance runner. He won world youth and junior titles on the track in 2003 and 2004, eventually going on to set a world junior record for the ...

beating his personal best. Former javelin winners

Andreas Thorkildsen Andreas Thorkildsen (born 1 April 1982) is a retired Norwegian track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. He was the Olympic Champion in 2004 and 2008, European Champion in 2006 and 2010, and World Champion in 2009. He is the fir ...

and

Tero Pitkämäki Tero Kristian Pitkämäki (born 19 December 1982) is a Finnish retired track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. He is a World Champion, having won gold in 2007. His personal best throw of 91.53 m, set in 2005, ranks him eleve ...

continued their five-year shared dominance of the Bislett Games, with Pitkämäki taking the victory this time.

Alternative events

During 2020 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 identi ...

prevented Bislett Games from taking place, instead an event called ''Impossible Games'' was held. In 2021 there were still restrictions which caused the main event to be postponed. A restricted event called ''Night of Highlights'' was held instead on June 4th 2021.

World records

Over the course of its history, numerous

world records A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book '' Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizat ...

have been set at the Games and former athletics meetings at Bislett stadium. 1985 three new records was set at the same evening.

Bislett Games

Differently named meetings

American meetings

Meeting records

Men

Women

References

External links

Diamond League – Oslo Official Web Site
{{Diamond League navbox Diamond League Recurring sporting events established in 1965 International sports competitions in Oslo Athletics competitions in Norway IAAF Golden League 1965 establishments in Norway IAAF World Outdoor Meetings