The History and Evolution of Horizontal Track and Field Events

Abstract

Running, jumping and throwing, were, at the beginning, fundamental movements, and later on became basic exercises in athletics. A series of existing ethnographic data helps us to understand better the historical process of exercise, the position and evolution of track and field events of the most distant times. The long jump was part of the „Pentathlon” event at the Olympics in Ancient Greece, in 708 B.C. The rest of the events of the pentathlon were fights, disk and spear throwing. The competitors used weights called dumbbells made of stone.