Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics


Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics will be held during the last ten days of the Games. They were due to be held from 31 July – 9 August 2020, at the Olympic Stadium, Tokyo, Japan. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the games have been postponed with the track and field events set for 30 July – 8 August 2021. The sport of athletics at these Games is split into three distinct sets of events: track and field events, road running events, and racewalking events. A total of 48 events will be held, one more than in 2016, with the addition of a mixed relay event.

Schedule

events will be held at the Olympic Stadium, while the race walk and marathon courses were expected to cover at Odori Park in Sapporo. Apart from the race walks and marathon, nine track and field events will hold finals in the morning session to ensure that they receive maximum visibility for the sport across all time zones. On 16 October 2019, the IOC announced that there were plans to re-locate the marathon and racewalking events to Sapporo due to heat concerns. The plans were made official on 1 November 2019 after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike accepted the IOC's decision, despite her belief that the events should have remained in Tokyo.

Qualification

The 2020 athletics qualifying system for individual events was fundamentally different from previous versions. Instead of being based on set qualifying standards, the new qualifying system was primarily based on IAAF World Rankings. Qualifying standards provided an alternate pathway, but are to be set high enough that only exceptional performances will meet them. Maximum entries per event were set, with the world rankings being used to fill the quota after the standards-based entrants and universality entrants are set.
For relays, the qualification is similar to previous years. Eight teams will be selected through the results of a world competition and eight more selected through rankings.

Medal summary

Medal table

Men

* Indicates the athlete only competed in the preliminary heats and received medals.

Women

* Indicates the athlete only competed in the preliminary heats and received medals.

Mixed

* Indicates the athlete only competed in the preliminary heats and received medals.

Participation

Participating nations

Competitors