One of the most iconic and enduring Olympic sports, Team GB boast an athletics record few other countries can match.
Indeed, only the USA has won more track and field medals in a history that's littered with iconic British moments.
The next crop of athletes will hope to write yet more history in Paris this summer – here is all you need to know about how it all works.
What are the different athletics events at the Olympics?
There are 48 medal events in athletics, split across track, field, and the road.
On the track, both men and women compete in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, and 10,000m as well as the 400m hurdles while men contest the 110m hurdles and the women 100m hurdles.
Both also compete in the 3000m steeplechase, while relays take the form of 4x100m, 4x400m, and a mixed 4x400m event.
Field events comprise a mixture of jumping and throwing events. High jump and pole vault are all about who can reach the highest, while long jump and triple jump are both about who can reach the furthest in the sand pit.
Hammer throw, shot put, discus throw and javelin throw test who can throw the furthest.
Two events combine events from track and field, with men competing in the decathlon and women in the heptathlon.
Outside the stadium, the 20km race walk and the marathon race walk mixed relay takes place before the athletics programme concludes with the marathon.
How do Olympic relays work?
Relays are some of the most exciting events in the athletics schedule, but they are not always as simple as they may seem.
Olympic relays consist of four team members, who each run a quarter of the total distance, known as a leg, as well as ensuring the safe passage of a baton between each runner from start to finish.
Teams that drop the baton are disqualified, meaning smooth changeovers that are both quick and safe are of the utmost importance.
These changeovers must take place, for both 4x100m and 4x400m relays, in a 20m changeover zone. Changeovers that take place before or after, this zone also lead to disqualification.
In the 4x100m relay, runners must also take care to stay in their designated lane or risk disqualification.
However, the 4x400m relay sticks to eight lanes for only the first lap, the next three runners can break from their lanes once the second runner reaches the back straight.
What events make up the heptathlon?
Made up of seven events, the heptathlon has provided some of Team GB’s finest Olympic moments with Denise Lewis and Jessica Ennis-Hill both winning gold in the 21st century.
Split over two days, the heptathlon begins with the 100m hurdles before the high jump, shot put, and 200m complete the first day of competition.
The long jump, javelin, and 800m complete the set on the second day, with medals rewarded after the final event.
What events make up the decathlon?
Comprised of 10 events, the decathlon’s events are split equally across two days of competition.
The 100m is the first event before the long jump, shot put, high jump and 400m follow.
Day two begins with the 110m hurdles before the discus, pole vault, and javelin leave the 1500m as the last and potentially decisive event.
How heavy is a javelin/shot put/hammer/discus?
Grouped together as the four throwing events, each of the javelin, discus, hammer, and shot put require subtly different skillsets.
That is in no small part down to the different weights of each piece of equipment.
A discus weighs 2kg for men and 1kg for women, and is typically thrown by athletes rotating their body inside the throwing circle and releasing from a hold that sees the discus gripped on the top and sides.
A men’s javelin weighs 800g and is between 2.6 and 2.7m in length, while a women’s javelin must be 600g and between 2.2 and 2.3m in length. Athletes take a run up before throwing the javelin as far as they can.
The hammer throw and shot put both use a metal ball of the same weight, 7.26kg for men and 4kg for women, but have different methods of propulsion.
The hammer throw uses a steel wire to help throw the ball, while the shot put sees athletes use one hand to ‘put’ – more akin to a push than a throw – the ball.
How do fouls work in jumping events?
In all four jumping events, athletes must produce a legal jump in order for their effort to count.
Jumps that are not legal are known as fouls, and the way fouls work differs between the two horizontal jumps and two vertical jumps.
In the long jump and triple jump, athletes have a set number of attempts to produce the biggest jump possible.
The most common way of fouling is when athletes begin their jump too late.
The place where athletes must take their jump is designated by the take-off board, with any part of the athlete’s foot touching the ground beyond it causing a foul.
In the triple jump, athletes must also follow a specific sequence when performing their three jumps, landing on the same foot that they took off from for the first jump, the hop, followed by landing on the opposite foot for the second, the step, before finishing with the jump off the original foot.
In the two horizontal jumps, the number of fouls has no impact on the outcome of the event as long as the athlete records a valid jump.
In the two vertical jumps, high jump and pole vault, fouls work differently. Rather than having a set number of efforts, athletes have three attempts at a specific height. These efforts then reset for each new height attempted.
If an athlete produces three fouls at a height, they are eliminated from the competition and cannot progress to a greater height.
Fouls also come into play if athletes are tied at the same height at the end of competition, with the athlete with the fewer fouls ranking higher.
Athletes in both disciplines most commonly foul by knocking off the bar that they are trying to jump over.
Jumps that see an athlete touch the bar are valid, so long as the bar is not fully dislodged.
In the pole vault, a foul also occurs if the bar is knocked off by the pole even if the athlete jumps clear.
✨ East District cross country relay champions….
— British Athletics (@BritAthletics) August 24, 2023
to World Champions! pic.twitter.com/Rf2qSgmmfJ
How does the steeplechase work?
The steeplechase is a unique event in the athletics programme; it is the only one to incorporate the element of water.
It is the only distance event to include barriers, with athletes navigating a number of wet and dry jumps across 3000m.
The event is also the only one that sees athletes leave the track, with the water jump often placed inside a bend.
The total requirements of the 3000m steeplechase see athletes clear 28 barriers and seven water jumps.
In the men’s event, the barriers are 91.4cm high and in the women’s event, 76.2cm.
How do repechage events work?
A big change to the Paris 2024 athletics programme is the introduction of repechage rounds.
Previously, qualification from heats and semi-finals in track events was determined by a number of automatic qualification spots alongside a small number of ‘lucky losers’.
These lucky losers were the athletes with the fastest times that did not finish in automatic qualification spot, often the top two or three places in a race.
However, these lucky loser spots have been replaced by repechage rounds with those athletes who miss out on automatic qualification now forced to race again for a place in the next round.
This will only apply to 200m, 400m, 400m hurdles, 800m, and 1500m races and only apply to the first round of qualification.
Sportsbeat 2024