International heavy athletics federation

Certified Athletic Facilities

Main article: List of World Athletics-certified Athletic Facilities
World Athletics provides approval certificates to venues of athletic facilities: Class 1, Class 2 and Indoor.^[35] To receive certification, venues are required to submit measurement reports of their track and field facilities.
Class 1 venues are fully certified along with in-situ tests of the actual synthetic track surface, whilst Class 2 venues only ensures that the synthetic surface has a valid Product Certificate (from an accredited synthetic track surface manufacturer) and the facility conforms to the stringent requirements for accurate measurement contained in World Athletics Rules and Regulations.
Doping controversy
Main article: Doping in Russia
In 2015, a whistleblower leaked World Athletics' blood test records from major competitions. The records revealed that, between 2001 and 2012, athletes with suspicious drug test results won a third of the medals in endurance events at the Olympics and World Championships—a total of 146 medals including 55 golds—but the World Athletics caught none of them.^[54] After reviewing the results, Robin Parisotto, a scientist and leading "anti-doping" expert, said, "Never have I seen such an alarmingly abnormal set of blood values. So many athletes appear to have doped with impunity, and it is damning that the IAAF appears to have idly sat by and let this happen."^[54] Craig Reedie, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), said his organisation was "very disturbed by these new allegations ... which will, once again, shake the foundation of clean athletes worldwide", and that its "independent commission will investigate the claims".^[54]
Around the same time, the University of Tübingen in Germany claimed that World Athletics suppressed publication of a 2011 report in which "[h]undreds of athletes", as many as a third of the world's top athletes, "admitted violating anti-doping rules".^[55]
On 1 November 2015, former World Athletics president Lamine Diack was arrested in France and is under investigation on suspicion of corruption and money laundering.^[56][57] Diack allegedly accepted "$1.2 million from the Russian athletics federation to cover up the positive doping tests of at least six Russian athletes in 2011."^[56] The IOC provisionally suspended Diack,^[58] and he resigned his position as an IOC Honorary Member.^[59] In 2016, the World Anti-Doping Agency reported that with his influence,^[60] Diack was able to install two of his sons and a friend into positions that exerted influence over the IAAF.^[60] The report says that Lamine Diack "was responsible for organizing and enabling the conspiracy and corruption that took place in the IAAF."^[60] In 2018, Diack was handed an additional charge of "breach of trust" by French prosecutors.^[61] On 18 June 2020, the trial of Diack and five other people, including his son, concluded. Diack was sentenced to jail for four years, two of them suspended.^[62]
In November 2015, WADA published its report, which found "systemic failures" in the World Athletics had prevented an "effective" anti-doping programme and concluded that Russia should be banned from competing in international competitions because of its athletes' test results.^[63] The report continued that "the World Athletics allowed the conduct to occur and must accept its responsibility" and that "corruption was embedded" in the organization.^[64]
In January 2016, as a result of the doping scandal and WADA's report, the World Athletics' biggest sponsor, Adidas, announced that it was ending its sponsorship deal with the World Athletics four years early. The BBC reported that as a result World Athletics would lose $33 million (£23 million) worth of revenue. The 11-year sponsorship deal with Adidas was due to run until 2019.^[65] World-record holding sprinter Michael Johnson described the scandal as more serious than that faced by FIFA.^[64] In February 2016, Nestlé announced that it was ending its World Athletics sponsorship.^[66]
In June 2016, following a meeting of the IAAF's ruling council, World Athletics upheld its ban on Russia's track and field team from entering the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.^[67] In February 2017, All-Russia Athletic Federation was disqualified by decision of the World Athletics Council for 8 years for the creation of a doping system.
World Athletics has since resisted demands that Russia be re-instated, on the basis that the country repeatedly failed to satisfy all the agreed criteria. The decision was supported by Sean Ingle of The Guardian who wrote in a column that World Athletics should maintain their ban on Russia through the 2016 Olympics in Rio.^[68] That meant Russian athletes could compete at all major events in the following years, including the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London^[69] and the 2018 European Championships in Berlin. In September 2018, World Athletics faced a legal challenge by Russia to overturn the suspension after the reinstatement of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, but Hugo Lowell of the i newspaper reported the country's status would not change.^[70] The legal case was later dropped.
The results of racing events are decided by finishing position (or time, where measured), while the jumps and throws are won by the athlete that achieves the highest or furthest measurement from a series of attempts. The simplicity of the competitions, and the lack of a need for expensive equipment, makes athletics one of the most common types of sports in the world. Athletics is mostly an individual sport, with the exception of relay races and competitions which combine athletes' performances for a team score, such as cross country.
Organized athletics are traced back to the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BC. The rules and format of the modern events in athletics were defined in Western Europe and North America in the 19th and early 20th century, and were then spread to other parts of the world. Most modern top level meetings are held under the auspices of World Athletics, the global governing body for the sport of athletics, or its member continental and national federations.
The athletics meeting forms the backbone of the Summer Olympics. The foremost international athletics meeting is the World Athletics Championships, which incorporates track and field, marathon running and race walking. Other top level competitions in athletics include the World Athletics Cross Country Championships and the World Half Marathon Championships. Athletes with a physical disability compete at the Summer Paralympics and the World Para Athletics Championships.
The word athletics is derived from the Ancient Greek ἀθλητής (athlētēs, "combatant in public games") from ἆθλον (athlon, "prize") or ἆθλος (athlos, "competition").^[2] Initially, the term described athletic contests in general – i.e. sporting competition based primarily on human physical feats. In the 19th century, the term athletics acquired a more narrow definition in Europe and came to describe sports involving competitive running, walking, jumping and throwing. This definition continues to be prominent in the United Kingdom and the former British Empire. Related words in Germanic and Romance languages also have a similar meaning.
In much of North America, athletics is synonymous with sports in general, maintaining the historical usage of the term. The word "athletics" is rarely used to refer to the sport of athletics in this region. Track and field is preferred, and is used in the United States and Canada to refer to athletics events, including racewalking and marathon running (although cross country running is typically considered a separate sport).