Athletics at the 1906 Intercalated Games

The track & field events were held in the ancient Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. The track was short, at only about 330 metres in circumference, with long straightaways and very short, sharp turns. It also consisted of very soft, loose cinders and made running difficult. Consequently most of the existing Olympic track records survived despite the almost perfect weather - sunny every day, with temperatures in the 70’s F. (circa 22-26° C.).

In addition, the 1906 Olympic Organizing Committee chose to have the runners run in a clockwise direction, opposite to the norm for current running events, as they had in 1896. While in the 19th century, some British meets were conducted with the runners racing clockwise, this virtually never occurred in major meets by 1906.

But it should not be construed that the 1906 Olympic Games did not constitute a major track & field athletics meet. In fact, this was the greatest international gathering of track & field athletes the world had yet seen. While some of the world’s top athletes were not in Athens, the quality of the field in 1906 far surpassed the Olympics of 1896, 1900, and 1904.