Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics

Athletics mostly took place at the Japanese National Stadium, which had been built for the 1964 Olympic Games but had been significantly updated for the 2020 Olympics. Because of the summer heat in Tokyo, there was concern about athletes in the long-distance events and, even before the pandemic postponement, the marathons and the race walks had been moved to Sapporo on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, which had hosted the 1972 Olympic Winter Games.

The program had little changes from recent Olympics, with only the addition of a mixed 4 x 400 metre relay. Men still had one more event than women, as the women did not contest the 50 km race walk, but that was to end after Tokyo, as the 50 km was planned to be dropped from the program, with an expected mixed race walk relay to be added.

As was now common, athletics was the highlight of the second week of the Tokyo Olympics. There were three individual world records set, with the first coming on the final attempt of the women’s triple jump, when Yulimar Rojas leapt 15.67 metres, surpassing the long-standing world record of Inesa Kravets, who had jumped 15.50 at the 1995 World Championships.

On Tuesday of the second week one of the most anticipated match-ups was in the men’s 400 metre hurdles, featuring Norwegian Karsten Warholm, the 2017 and 2019 World Champion who had recently bettered the world record. His big rival was expected to be American Rai Benjamin. Benjamin ran superbly, far under Warholm’s world record with a time of 46.17, but it was not enough as Warholm took the event to a new level with his gold medal winning mark of 45.94.

The next day, the women’s 400 hurdles also featured two stars, this time both from the USA. Dalilah Muhammad was the defending gold medalist and had won the 2019 World Championships, but Sydney McLaughlin had defeated her at the US Olympic Trials, running 51.90 to break Muhammad’s world record. As with the men, the event lived up to its billing, with Muhammad running under the world record with 51.58, only to finish second, as McLaughlin broke her own world record with a time of 51.46.

Other top performers were Canadian Damian Warner, who won the decathlon and became the fourth person to better 9,000 points. Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan attempted an unprecedented triple of winning the 1,500, 5,000, and 10,000 metres. She won the 5 and 10Ks, but had to settle for bronze in the 1,500, beaten by Kenyan Faith Kipyegon and Great Britain’s Laura Muir.

The sprints were the first since the 2000 Sydney Olympics without Usain Bolt. With no Bolt, the 100 fell to the surprise Italian Lamont Marcell Jacobs, while Canadian Andre De Grasse, coming back from injuries, won the 200. On the women’s side, Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah won both the 100 and 200 as she had done at Rio de Janeiro in 2016, leading a Jamaican sweep in the 100. With Jamaica also winning the 4x100 relay, Thompson-Herah came away with three gold medals in the sprint events, equaling the feats of Fanny Blankers-Koen (NED-1948), Betty Cuthbert (AUS-1956), Wilma Rudolph (USA-1960), and Florence Griffith Joyner (USA-1988).

As they usually do, the United States won the most medals and gold medals, but noticeably their men won only two gold medals, and no individual running events for the first time ever at the Olympics. On the men’s side, the big winner was Italy, which claimed four titles.