Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics

Athletics

Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics will be held during the last 10 days of the games starting August 15. The events will take place at Beijing National Stadium, which is currently under construction for the games. The Olympic sport of Athletics is split into four distinct sets of events: track events, field events, combined events, and road events.

Both men and women have very similar schedules of events. Men will compete in 24 events and women will compete in 23, as their schedule lacks the 50 km race walk. In addition, both the men's 110 m hurdles and decathlon are replaced in the women's schedule by the 100 m hurdles and heptathlon, respectively.

Track events

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The track portion of Athletics will include, as it has in the past, sprints (100 m, 200 m, 400 m), middle-distance running (800 m and 1500 m) and long-distance running (5000 m and 10,000 m). Obstacled events will include hurdling (100 m and 400 m for women, 110 m and 400 m for men), relays (4 x 100 m and 4 x 400 m) and the 3000 m

Field events

The field portion will include the long jump, triple jump, high jump, pole vault, discus, shot put, javelin throw, and hammer throw for both men and women.

Combined events

Combined events will include the decathlon for men and the heptathlon for women. Each competition takes place over two days. The heptathlon combines 100 m hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump, javelin, 200 m, and 800 m. The decathlon combines 100 m, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400 m, 110 m hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, and 1500 m.

Road events

The road portion of Athletics will include a marathon and a 20 km race walk for both men and women. In addition, the men compete in a 50 km race walk.

Qualifying Criteria

An NOC may enter up to 3 athletes per event if they all have met the A qualifying standard, or 1 athlete per event if he/she has met the B qualifying standard only. An NOC may also enter up to 1 relay team per event. The qualifying standards must be reached during the respective qualifying period at the competitions approved by IAAF.

For individual events, except marathon, the qualifying standards must be obtained in the period of January 1, 2007 to July 23, 2008. For Marathon, the qualifying period starts on September 1, 2006 and ends on July 23, 2008. NOCs without qualified athletes may enter 1 athlete in 1 athletic event with the exception of the 10000m, 3000m Steeplechase and combined events. For relay events, a maximum of 16 teams per event will qualify based on the aggregate of the two fastest times achieved at IAAF events in the period of January 1, 2007 to July 16, 2008.

Beijing 2008 Olympics

2008 Olympics Sports