Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics

Athletics
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Athletics; at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Stadium; (track and field events); Odori Park (Sapporo); (marathon and race walk)
Dates	30 July – 8 August 2021
No. of events	48
	← 2016 2024 →

Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics were 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 in Tokyo, Japan. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the games were postponed to 2021, with the track and field events set for 30 July – 8 August.^[1] The sport of athletics at these Games was split into three distinct sets of events: track and field events, remaining in Tokyo, and road running events and racewalking events, moved to Sapporo. A total of 48 events were held, one more than in 2016, with the addition of a mixed relay event.^[2]

Olympic stadium and venues

The National Stadium, which was known as the Olympic Stadium during the games, completely rebuilt and inaugurated on 21 December 2019, was the venue of all the track and field events, while road events (marathons and racewalks) took place at Odori Park in Sapporo.^[3] ^[4]

Italian company Mondo equipped the stadium with a new track, a Mondotrack WS surface which was given a seal of approval with a World Athletics "Class 1 certificate" in December 2019. The Mondotrack WS surface in Tokyo's National Stadium is a better and updated version of the track that was provided and installed for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.^[5]

Due to the risk of a heat wave during the period of the Games, the IOC, Organizing Committee and IAAF decided in October 2019 that the Race Walking and Marathon events would be moved to Sapporo, which hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics. The route started and arrived at Odori Park and is the traditional venue of Hokkaido Marathon until 2012, featuring a large loop which is about the length of a half-marathon (21,095 km), followed by a second smaller loop (10,540 km) which was completed twice.^[6]

Schedule

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.^[7]^[8] 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.^[9] 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.^[10]

Legend
P	Preliminary round	Q	Qualification	H	Heats	½	Semi-finals	F	Final

Ref^[8]^[11]
Men's
Date	Jul 30		Jul 31		Aug 1			Aug 2		Aug 3		Aug 4		Aug 5		Aug 6		Aug 7		Aug 8
Event	M	E	M	E	M	E		M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E
100 m			P	H		½	F
200 m										H	½		F
400 m					H				½						F
800 m			H			½							F
1500 m										H					½				F
5000 m											H						F
10,000 m		F
110 m hurdles											H	½		F
400 m hurdles	H					½				F
3000 m steeplechase	H								F
4 × 100 m relay														H			F
4 × 400 m relay																	H		F
Marathon																				F
20 km walk															F
50 km walk																F
Long jump				Q				F
Triple jump										Q				F
High jump	Q					F
Pole vault			Q								F
Shot put											Q			F
Discus throw	Q			F
Javelin throw												Q							F
Hammer throw								Q					F
Decathlon												F
Women's
Date	Jul 30		Jul 31			Aug 1		Aug 2		Aug 3		Aug 4		Aug 5		Aug 6		Aug 7		Aug 8
Event	M	E	M	E		M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E
100 m	H			½	F
200 m								H	½		F
400 m										H			½				F
800 m	H			½							F
1500 m								H					½				F
5000 m		H							F
10,000 m																			F
100 m hurdles			H				½	F
400 m hurdles			H						½			F
3000 m steeplechase						H							F
4 × 100 m relay														H			F
4 × 400 m relay															H				F
Marathon																		F
20 km walk																	F
Long jump						Q				F
Triple jump		Q					F
High jump														Q					F
Pole vault									Q						F
Shot put		Q				F
Discus throw			Q						F
Javelin throw										Q							F
Hammer throw						Q					F
Heptathlon												F
Mixed
Date	Jul 30		Jul 31
Event	M	E	M	E
4 × 400 m relay		H		F

Qualification

The 2020 athletics qualifying system for individual events was fundamentally different from previous versions. Instead of being only based on set qualifying standards, the new qualifying system is also 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 (unlike previous years where entries were based on how many athletes met the qualifying standard), with the world rankings being used to fill the quota after the standards-based entrants and universality entrants are set.^[12]^[13]^[14]

On 2 June 2021, Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics, declared that "our tracking suggests that about 70 percent of athletes in most events will qualify by entry standard. This is above the 50 percent rate we aimed for in devising the system, but we believe this is due to the extended qualifying period created after the postponement of the Olympic Games from 2020 to 2021."^[15]

For relays, the qualification is somewhat similar to previous years. Eight teams will be selected through the results at the 2019 World Championships in Athletics, then adding the finalists of 2021 World Athletics Relays if different ones and some more selected through top lists' rankings, up to 16 teams by event.^[12]^[13]

Record figures

3 world records and 12 Olympic records were set. 28 continental (area) records were set along with 151 national ones.

According to the international governing body for the sport of athletics, World Athletics, their performance ranking system concludes that the 2020 Olympic Games were the "highest quality major event in history".^[16]

Medal summary

Medal table

Key

* Host nation (Japan)


Rank	NOC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	7	12	7	26
2	Italy	5	0	0	5
3	Kenya	4	4	2	10
4	Poland	4	2	3	9
5	Jamaica	4	1	4	9
6	Netherlands	2	3	3	8
7	Canada	2	2	2	6
7	China	2	2	2	6
9	Uganda	2	1	1	4
10	Norway	2	1	0	3
10	Sweden	2	1	0	3
12	Bahamas	2	0	0	2
13	Germany	1	2	0	3
14	Ethiopia	1	1	2	4
15	Portugal	1	1	0	2
15	ROC	1	1	0	2
17	Belgium	1	0	1	2
18	Greece	1	0	0	1
	India	1	0	0	1
	Morocco	1	0	0	1
	Puerto Rico	1	0	0	1
	Qatar	1	0	0	1
	Venezuela	1	0	0	1
24	Great Britain	0	2	3	5
25	Colombia	0	2	0	2
25	Dominican Republic	0	2	0	2
27	Australia	0	1	2	3
27	Cuba	0	1	2	3
29	Czech Republic	0	1	1	2
29	Japan*	0	1	1	2
31	Bahrain	0	1	0	1
	France	0	1	0	1
	Namibia	0	1	0	1
34	Brazil	0	0	2	2
34	New Zealand	0	0	2	2
36	Austria	0	0	1	1
	Belarus	0	0	1	1
	Botswana	0	0	1	1
	Burkina Faso	0	0	1	1
	Grenada	0	0	1	1
	Nigeria	0	0	1	1
	Spain	0	0	1	1
	Ukraine	0	0	1	1
Totals (43 entries)		49	47	48	144

Men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Marcell Jacobs Italy	9.80 AR	Fred Kerley United States	9.84 PB	Andre De Grasse Canada	9.89 PB
200 metres details	Andre De Grasse Canada	19.62 NR	Kenny Bednarek United States	19.68 PB	Noah Lyles United States	19.74 =SB
400 metres details	Steven Gardiner Bahamas	43.85 SB	Anthony Zambrano Colombia	44.08	Kirani James Grenada	44.19
800 metres details	Emmanuel Korir Kenya	1:45.06	Ferguson Rotich Kenya	1:45.23	Patryk Dobek Poland	1:45.39
1500 metres details	Jakob Ingebrigtsen Norway	3:28.32 OR, AR	Timothy Cheruiyot Kenya	3:29.01	Josh Kerr Great Britain	3:29.05 PB
5000 metres details	Joshua Cheptegei Uganda	12:58.15	Mohammed Ahmed Canada	12:58.61	Paul Chelimo United States	12:59.05 SB
10,000 metres details	Selemon Barega Ethiopia	27:43.22	Joshua Cheptegei Uganda	27:43.63	Jacob Kiplimo Uganda	27:43.88

110 metres hurdles details	Hansle Parchment Jamaica	13.04 SB	Grant Holloway United States	13.09	Ronald Levy Jamaica	13.10
400 metres hurdles details	Karsten Warholm Norway	45.94 WR	Rai Benjamin United States	46.17 AR	Alison dos Santos Brazil	46.72 AR
3000 metres steeplechase details	Soufiane El Bakkali Morocco	8:08.90	Lamecha Girma Ethiopia	8:10.38	Benjamin Kigen Kenya	8:11.45

4 × 100 metres relay details ^[a]	Italy Lorenzo Patta Marcell Jacobs Fausto Desalu Filippo Tortu	37.50 NR	Canada Aaron Brown Jerome Blake Brendon Rodney Andre De Grasse	37.70 SB	China Tang Xingqiang Xie Zhenye Su Bingtian Wu Zhiqiang	37.79 NR
4 × 400 metres relay details	United States Michael Cherry Michael Norman Bryce Deadmon Rai Benjamin Vernon Norwood* Randolph Ross* Trevor Stewart*	2:55.70 SB	Netherlands Liemarvin Bonevacia Terrence Agard Tony van Diepen Ramsey Angela Jochem Dobber*	2:57.18 NR	Botswana Isaac Makwala Baboloki Thebe Zibane Ngozi Bayapo Ndori	2:57.27 AR

Marathon details	Eliud Kipchoge Kenya	2:08:38	Abdi Nageeye Netherlands	2:09:58	Bashir Abdi Belgium	2:10:00
20 kilometres walk details	Massimo Stano Italy	1:21:05	Koki Ikeda Japan	1:21:14	Toshikazu Yamanishi Japan	1:21:28
50 kilometres walk details	Dawid Tomala Poland	3:50:08	Jonathan Hilbert Germany	3:50:44	Evan Dunfee Canada	3:50:59 SB

High jump details	Gianmarco Tamberi Italy	2.37 m SB	Not awarded		Maksim Nedasekau Belarus	2.37 m =NR^[17]
High jump details	Mutaz Essa Barshim Qatar	2.37 m SB	Not awarded		Maksim Nedasekau Belarus	2.37 m =NR^[17]
Pole vault details	Armand Duplantis Sweden	6.02 m	Chris Nilsen United States	5.97 m PB	Thiago Braz Brazil	5.87 m SB
Long jump details	Miltiadis Tentoglou Greece	8.41 m	Juan Miguel Echevarría Cuba	8.41 m	Maykel Massó Cuba	8.21 m
Triple jump details	Pedro Pichardo Portugal	17.98 m NR	Zhu Yaming China	17.57 m PB	Hugues Fabrice Zango Burkina Faso	17.47 m
Shot put details	Ryan Crouser United States	23.30 m OR	Joe Kovacs United States	22.65 m	Tom Walsh New Zealand	22.47 m SB
Discus throw details	Daniel Ståhl Sweden	68.90 m	Simon Pettersson Sweden	67.39 m	Lukas Weißhaidinger Austria	67.07 m
Hammer throw details	Wojciech Nowicki Poland	82.52 m PB	Eivind Henriksen Norway	81.58 m NR	Paweł Fajdek Poland	81.53 m
Javelin throw details	Neeraj Chopra India	87.58 m	Jakub Vadlejch Czech Republic	86.67 m SB	Vítězslav Veselý Czech Republic	85.44 m SB

Decathlon details	Damian Warner Canada	9018 pts OR NR	Kevin Mayer France	8726 pts SB	Ashley Moloney Australia	8649 pts AR

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

^{Men's 4 × 100} On 18 February 2022 team of Great Britain was disqualified for doping use and officially stripped of the silver medal.^[18] The medals were reallocated on 19 May 2022.^[19]

Women

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Elaine Thompson-Herah Jamaica	10.61 OR	Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Jamaica	10.74	Shericka Jackson Jamaica	10.76 PB
200 metres details	Elaine Thompson-Herah Jamaica	21.53 NR	Christine Mboma Namibia	21.81 WJR	Gabby Thomas United States	21.87
400 metres details	Shaunae Miller-Uibo Bahamas	48.36 AR	Marileidy Paulino Dominican Republic	49.20 NR	Allyson Felix United States	49.46 SB MWR
800 metres details	Athing Mu United States	1:55.21 NR	Keely Hodgkinson Great Britain	1:55.88 NR	Raevyn Rogers United States	1:56.81 PB
1500 metres details	Faith Kipyegon Kenya	3:53.11 OR	Laura Muir Great Britain	3:54.50 NR	Sifan Hassan Netherlands	3:55.86
5000 metres details	Sifan Hassan Netherlands	14:36.79	Hellen Obiri Kenya	14:38.36	Gudaf Tsegay Ethiopia	14:38.87
10,000 metres details	Sifan Hassan Netherlands	29:55.32	Kalkidan Gezahegne Bahrain	29:56.18	Letesenbet Gidey Ethiopia	30:01.72

100 metres hurdles details	Jasmine Camacho-Quinn Puerto Rico	12.37	Kendra Harrison United States	12.52	Megan Tapper Jamaica	12.55
400 metres hurdles details	Sydney McLaughlin United States	51.46 WR	Dalilah Muhammad United States	51.58 PB	Femke Bol Netherlands	52.03 AR
3000 metres steeplechase details	Peruth Chemutai Uganda	9:01.45 NR	Courtney Frerichs United States	9:04.79 SB	Hyvin Jepkemoi Kenya	9:05.39

4 × 100 metres relay details	Jamaica Briana Williams Elaine Thompson-Herah Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Shericka Jackson Natasha Morrison* Remona Burchell*	41.02 NR	United States Javianne Oliver Teahna Daniels Jenna Prandini Gabby Thomas English Gardner* Aleia Hobbs*	41.45 SB	Great Britain Asha Philip Imani Lansiquot Dina Asher-Smith Daryll Neita	41.88
4 × 400 metres relay details	United States Sydney McLaughlin Allyson Felix Dalilah Muhammad Athing Mu Kendall Ellis* Lynna Irby* Wadeline Jonathas* Kaylin Whitney*	3:16.85 SB	Poland Natalia Kaczmarek Iga Baumgart-Witan Małgorzata Hołub-Kowalik Justyna Święty-Ersetic Anna Kiełbasińska*	3:20.53 NR	Jamaica Roneisha McGregor Janieve Russell Shericka Jackson Candice McLeod Junelle Bromfield* Stacey-Ann Williams*	3:21.24 SB

Marathon details	Peres Jepchirchir Kenya	2:27:20 SB	Brigid Kosgei Kenya	2:27:36 SB	Molly Seidel United States	2:27:46 SB
20 kilometres walk details	Antonella Palmisano Italy	1:29:12	Sandra Arenas Colombia	1:29:37	Liu Hong China	1:29:57

High jump details	Mariya Lasitskene ROC	2.04 m SB	Nicola McDermott Australia	2.02 m AR	Yaroslava Mahuchikh Ukraine	2.00 m
Pole vault details	Katie Nageotte United States	4.90 m	Anzhelika Sidorova ROC	4.85 m	Holly Bradshaw Great Britain	4.85 m
Long jump details	Malaika Mihambo Germany	7.00 m SB	Brittney Reese United States	6.97 m	Ese Brume Nigeria	6.97 m
Triple jump details	Yulimar Rojas Venezuela	15.67 m WR	Patrícia Mamona Portugal	15.01 m NR	Ana Peleteiro Spain	14.87 m NR
Shot put details	Gong Lijiao China	20.58 m PB	Raven Saunders United States	19.79 m	Valerie Adams New Zealand	19.62 m
Discus throw details	Valarie Allman United States	68.98 m	Kristin Pudenz Germany	66.86 m PB	Yaime Pérez Cuba	65.72 m
Hammer throw details	Anita Włodarczyk Poland	78.48 m SB MWR	Wang Zheng China	77.03 SB	Malwina Kopron Poland	75.49 m SB
Javelin throw details	Liu Shiying China	66.34 m SB	Maria Andrejczyk Poland	64.61 m	Kelsey-Lee Barber Australia	64.56 m SB

Heptathlon details	Nafissatou Thiam Belgium	6791 pts SB	Anouk Vetter Netherlands	6689 pts NR	Emma Oosterwegel Netherlands	6590 pts PB

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

Mixed

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
4 × 400 metres relay details	Poland Kajetan Duszyński Natalia Kaczmarek Justyna Święty-Ersetic Karol Zalewski Dariusz Kowaluk* Iga Baumgart-Witan* Małgorzata Hołub-Kowalik*	3:09.87 OR, AR	Dominican Republic Lidio Andrés Feliz Anabel Medina Alexander Ogando Marileidy Paulino Luguelín Santos*	3:10.21 NR	United States Kendall Ellis Vernon Norwood Trevor Stewart Kaylin Whitney Elija Godwin* Lynna Irby* Taylor Manson* Bryce Deadmon*	3:10.22

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

Competitors

Placing table

The Placing table assigns points to the top eight athletes in the final, with eight points to first place, seven to second place, and so on until one point for eighth place. Teams or athletes that did not finish or were disqualified do not receive points.^[20]

Rank	Team				4	5	6	7	8	Pts
1	United States (USA)	7	12	7	6	5	5	7	3	264
2	Jamaica (JAM)	4	1	4	4	2	2	3	3	106
3	Kenya (KEN)	4	4	2	5	0	1	2	0	104
4	Poland (POL)	4	2	3	0	1	1	1	1	74
5	Canada (CAN)	2	2	2	1	3	3	1	1	70
6	China (CHN)	2	2	2	0	3	2	3	3	69
7	Netherlands (NED)	2	3	3	1	1	1	0	1	68
8	Ethiopia (ETH)	1	1	2	5	1	2	0	2	64
9	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	0	2	3	1	1	3	3	2	58
10	Australia (AUS)	0	1	2	2	2	3	2	2	52
11	Germany (GER)	1	2	0	1	3	2	1	3	50
12	Italy (ITA)	5	0	0	0	1	0	2	2	50
13	Spain (ESP)	0	0	1	4	3	2	0	1	45
14	Uganda (UGA)	2	1	1	0	1	0	1	0	35
15	Ukraine (UKR)	0	0	1	2	3	1	0	1	31
16	Belgium (BEL)	1	0	1	2	1	0	1	0	30
17	Portugal (POR)	1	1	0	1	2	0	0	0	28
18	Japan (JPN)	0	1	1	0	0	3	2	2	28
18	Sweden (SWE)	2	1	0	0	0	0	2	0	27
19	France (FRA)	0	1	0	1	2	0	2	2	26
21	Cuba (CUB)	0	1	2	0	1	0	0	2	24
22	Norway (NOR)	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	23
23	Bahamas (BAH)	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	20
24	Russia (RUS)	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	2	20
25	Greece (GRE)	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	2	19
26	Brazil (BRA)	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	17
27	Colombia (COL)	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	16
28	New Zealand (NZL)	0	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	15
29	Dominican Republic (DOM)	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	14
30	Switzerland (SUI)	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	0	14
31	Belarus (BLR)	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	1	13
32	Czech Republic (CZE)	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	13
33	Bahrain (BHR)	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	12
34	Turkey (TUR)	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	1	12
35	Qatar (QAT)	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	12
36	India (IND)	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	11
37	Nigeria (NGR)	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	11
38	Namibia (NAM)	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	10
39	Slovenia (SLO)	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	10
40	Botswana (BOT)	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	9
41	Ivory Coast (CIV)	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	9
42	Venezuela (VEN)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	8
43	Morocco (MAR)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8
43	Puerto Rico (PUR)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8
45	Grenada (GRN)	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	8
46	South Africa (RSA)	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	8
47	Austria (AUT)	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	7
48	Serbia (SRB)	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	7
49	Burkina Faso (BUR)	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	6
50	Croatia (CRO)	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	5
50	British Virgin Islands (IVB)	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	5
50	South Korea (KOR)	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	5
53	Finland (FIN)	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	5
54	Lithuania (LTU)	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	5
55	Algeria (ALG)	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	4
55	Burundi (BDI)	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	4
55	Eritrea (ERI)	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	4
55	Liberia (LBR)	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	4
55	Mexico (MEX)	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	4
55	Pakistan (PAK)	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	4
61	Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH)	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	3
61	Israel (ISR)	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	3
61	Romania (ROM)	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	3
64	Uzbekistan (UZB)	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2
65	Estonia (EST)	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2
65	Moldova (MDA)	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2
65	Panama (PAN)	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2
68	Tanzania (TAN)	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2
69	Trinidad and Tobago (TRI)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2
70	Egypt (EGY)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
70	Ireland (IRL)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1