If you think about it, track and field is not really as famous as other sports in the arena today, such as basketball, American football, baseball, and the like. This can be because the events comprising track and field are not really that exciting to watch, save for the racing part, of course.

Still, there are a lot of people who are into watching and participating in track and field events. The lack of attention is most likely attributed to the lack of exposure for the sport. Unlike basketball, where the playoffs are advertised on the many sports channels all over cable TV, you don’t really get to see this much exposure for track and field.

With this in mind, let us proceed to giving the sport much-needed exposure. Firstly, track and field involves a lot of events, which include running, jumping, and throwing. Running, of course, is to determine who the fastest runner for a particular distance is. Jumping is done for height and distance measurements, and throwing is done for distance. Standard equipment is used for throwing, so that the standards would be met as well.

The competitions for track and field are termed as meets. These are often held in the outdoors. Of course, there are also indoor tracks, but the lot of its participants prefer the outdoors to indoors. For the running events, they would usually take place on the track itself. It can be for just a portion of the track, or even the whole of it, depending on the requirements of the event. The track itself can be made of different materials, including clay, cinder, or synthetic compounds.

The field events, which include the jumps and the throws, would then take place within the circumference of the track itself. This would be the area that the track itself encloses. Both track and field events can take place simultaneously. The season for outdoor track usually takes place from March to June in America. In Europe and Asia, this season would take place on September. But when it comes to cross-country season, this would take place from September all the way to December in America. In Europe, however, the meets take place during the winter season, right down to the time when the outdoor track season would start. Indoor meets take place during the winter months, which are from December to March. But for road races, these are held all throughout the year. This holds true even when weather conditions become a bit rough.

Now that we are done tackling the background of track and field, we can then move on to cool facts about this sport. Firstly, the 100-meter dash was once known as the 100-yard dash. All the races were then measured in yards. The 200-meter dash was once known as the 220-yard dash, the 400-meter was the 440-yard, and so on.

The 200-meter dash once took place on a straightaway. Back then, it was usually laid out on the track’s curve. The 400-meter dash was once deemed as a middle distance. But over time, the participants became so good at the event that it became a bit hard to tag it as just middle distance. Nowadays, the event has been changed into a sprint. The 800-meter dash can even be termed as a sprint today! That is, if the participants would steadily run this event as fast as they do now.

Another interesting fact about the crouch start is associated with Serril of Yale, way back in 1888. Since then, the crouch start has been used in a global sense. Back then, holes were dug in the track for the crouch start, but today, starting blocks are now being utilized.

Twenty years ago, shoes being used for track and field events did not have any spikes. Today, you would not find such shoes anymore because they all come with spikes.