Athletics is, in many ways, the embodiment of the Olympic motto, "Citius, Altius, Fortius", meaning faster, higher, stronger.

Athletics (or track and field) is about running faster, jumping higher and throwing further than your competitors. The ancient Games at Olympia began simply with foot races, only occasionally complicated by dressing the runners in infantry armour or making them carry soldiers' shields. Today, athletics remains one of the most popular Olympic sports. From the 100m dash to the 42.195km marathon, from the hammer throw to the high jump, it contains many of the Olympic Games' blue-ribbon events and many of the highest-profile competitors.

In order to unify the rules and create a forum for international meetings, the leaders of the eight attending countries (Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hungary and Sweden) met on 19 July 1908 at the Manchester Hotel, London, on the occasion of the Games of the IV Olympiad, and resolved to form a world-wide swimming association.

Priority decisions or goals were clear: to standardise the rules for swimming, diving and water polo; to obtain control of world records and to maintain an up-to-date list of these records; and finally, to ensure the direction of Olympic Games competitions for swimming, diving and water polo.

Outstanding accomplishments in the last 40 years have included the introduction of the World Championships (1973), the first World Cups (1979), the Olympic debut of synchronised swimming (1984), the Short Course World Swimming Championships (1993), the Diving Grand Prix (1994), advances in the use of technology, specifically of electronic timing equipment; and the rapid development of the swimming programme to include new events such as Masters and Open Water Swimming.

Track events
Include sprints (100m, 200m, 400m), middle-distance running (800m and 1500m) and long-distance running (5000m and 10,000m), hurdling (100m and 400m for women, 110m and 400m for men), relays (4 x 100m and 4 x 400m) and the men's 3000m steeplechase.
 

Field Events
At the Sydney 2000 Games, archers shot at targets 70 metres away in four events - men's and women's individual and team competitions. The target is 1.22 metres in diameter and marked with 10 concentric rings. From where the archers stand, it looks about the same size as the head of a thumbtack held at arm's length.

The centre ring, or bullseye, measures 12.2 centimetres in diameter, and counts 10 points. The outer ring counts one, and the rings in between increase by one point in value as they near the centre.

Archers, or teams, compete in head-to-head matches in single elimination after being ranked from one to 64. The semi-finals winners decide the gold and silver medals in the final, and the semi-finals losers shoot for the bronze.
 

Road Events
Consist of the men's and women's marathons, the men's 20km and 50km race walks and the women's 10km race walk.
 

Combined Events
The heptathlon for women and the decathlon for men - athletes compete in a series of track and field events over two days. Points are based upon their finishes in each event, and the person with the most points wins.