Rethinking Athletics

M.

When de Coubertin, in 1890, went to Much Wenlock to visit William Brookes, he did not know anything about the ancient Olympic Games.

It happens from time to time: performances stagnate and, all of a sudden, everything changes, with records falling one after another.

I have mixed feelings about this year’s European Athletics Championships.

In a recent article, where I returned to the subject of (nonexistent) innovation in Athletics, I wrote that I had seen a steeplechase mile only once.

The 2026 edition of World Women's Decathlon Championships were held in Oberlin (Ohio) on July 8&9.

World Athletics loves the word innovation.

Soutsos’ appeal for the revival of the Olympic Games struck a chord in many Greek hearts.

In writing this title, I realized that it may become unintelligible to future generations.

This year’s Diamond League season has marked the return of Miltiadis Tentoglou to the top of the men’s long jump hierarchy.

This is not the first time I have highlighted this excellent site.

In 393 AD, Emperor Theodosius I issued an edict putting an end to pagan festivals.

When Jessica Schilder threw a world-leading 21.09 m in May, I realized that it had been 15 years since a woman had gone beyond 21 m—the 21.24 m achieved by Valerie Adams in 2011.

It has been quite some time that my friends Frédéric and Pierre Gousset had not published a long article in their WordPress blog.

It began as a supposed revolution in sport, an enterprise not merely challenging the establishment but seeking to dismantle it altogether.

The genesis of the ancient Olympics is lost in the mists of time.

Everybody remembers the Olympic fiasco of 2024; you would have to be living in an alternate universe to have missed it.

I had not planned to write this article.

I hadn't followed last year's World Relays.

Unless you are living in an alternate reality you have certainly been exposed to the de Coubertin myth, a myth created by himself, peddled by a bunch of sycophants and sanctified by the multinational mastodon that has become the IOC.

That was the only occasion on which I disagreed with Ross Tucker.

From time to time, I publish an article that is not directly related to Athletics but still concerns physical activity.

Some days ago, World Athletics published an article about the 2026 World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships.

Let us start with the most important result of the championship, the men’s heptathlon world record.

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