Athletics have been used for physical fitness and competition since ancient times. However, the history of athletics is widely believed to have begun with the running events at the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece (776 BC).
Modern athletics began with individual attempts in different countries to hold competitions in running, jumping and throwing. It is believed that the beginning of the history of modern athletics was marked by a 2 km running competition held by college students in Rugby (UK) in 1837, after which such competitions were held in other educational institutions in the UK.
Later, the competition program began to include short-distance running, hurdles, weight throwing, and in 1851, long and high jumps from the start. In 1864, the first competitions were held between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which became annual events and established traditional bilateral matches.
In 1865, the London Athletic Club was founded to popularize athletics, organize competitions and monitor compliance with the status of amateurism. The supreme body of athletics was the Amateur Athletic Association, which united all athletic organizations of the British Empire.
A little later than in the UK, athletics began to develop in the United States (the New York Athletic Club was organized in 1868, the Student Athletic Union in 1875), where it quickly became widespread in universities. This ensured the leading position of American athletes in the world in the following years (until 1952). By 1880-1890, amateur athletics associations were organized in many countries around the world, uniting individual clubs and leagues and obtaining the rights of higher athletics bodies.
The widespread development of modern athletics is associated with the revival of the Olympic Games (1896), in which, paying tribute to the ancient Greek Olympics, it was given the most important place. And today, the Olympic Games are a powerful incentive for the development of athletics around the world.