Athletics comes from the Greek word, namely “atlon”, which means competition or struggle. According to the Indonesian Encyclopedia, athletics refers to matches and sports in track and field. Athletics is a sport that consists of running, jumping, walking and throwing.

Athletics was first popularized by the Greeks around the 6th century BC. The people who are credited with popularizing it are Iccus and Herodicus. Famous athletics are now different from what the Greeks used to do.

Even so, the basics remain the same, namely walking, running, jumping and throwing. Because it has these different elements, athletics is considered the mother of all sports. Contains various daily motion items.

In primitive times, it was important to earn a living and support oneself. They lived by hunting wild animals, requiring dexterity, speed and strength.

The vision of life at that time was of the strong, the powerful, so that in order to stay alive and defend themselves, they had to train physically. The ancient Greeks and Romans saw the direction of physical exercise.

The term athletics can also be found in different languages, including “Athletic” (English), “Ateletique” (French), “Atletiek” (Dutch), “Athletik” (German).

To be able to understand the concept of athletics, it is incomplete if you do not know the history or history of the term athletics and its development as one of the sports from ancient times to modern times.

Understanding history is not only to understand and know, but to know and follow sports developments from antiquity to the present day.

By knowing the events of the past, lessons can be learned to determine next steps.