The Bislett Games is an annual

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

meeting at the

Bislett Stadium Bislett Stadium () is a sports stadium in Oslo, Norway. Bislett is Norway's most well known sports arena internationally, with 15 speed skating world records and more than 50 track and field world records having been set here. The original stadi ...

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, Norway. Previously one of the

IAAF Golden League The IAAF Golden League was an annual series of outdoor track and field meetings organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Athletes who won specific events at all of the series meetings were awarded a jackpot prize ...

events, it is now part of the

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fifteen invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meet competitions. The inaugural season was ...

History

The first international athletics meeting at Bislett was held in 1924. Until 1937 the competitions are known as "The American Meetings", similar to the international meetings in Zürich. Different organizers staged the meetings between 1947 and 1965 until the three athletics associations BUL, Vidar and Tjalve formed the Bislett Alliance. At this year Arne Haukvik founded the Bislett Games. He was a former politician and director of the meeting, who used to invite the athletes, sponsors and the press to his home for his traditional "strawberry party" the day before the event each year. He died of cancer in 2002 at age 76. The tradition however is continued. Bislett Stadium was used for

speed skating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marathon speed skat ...

events at the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

, but nowadays it is better known for its Bislett Games athletics meeting. Bislett Games attract the best track and field athletes from all over the world, and 65

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

s have been set on its forgiving, brick-coloured track so far. Due to the building of the new Bislett Stadium in Oslo, which started in April 2004, the 2004 edition of the traditional athletics meeting was staged on Fana stadion in

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

under the name Bergen Bislett Games. In 2009, a severe storm delayed proceedings and even caused damage to the track-side clock display. Sanya Richards recorded the fastest women's

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is ...

time since 2006 while the Dream Mile brought a number of records with winner Deresse Mekonnen improving upon his Ethiopian record, Kenyan William Biwott Tanui setting a world junior record and third-placed Augustine Choge beating his personal best. Former javelin winners Andreas Thorkildsen and Tero Pitkämäki continued their five-year shared dominance of the Bislett Games, with Pitkämäki taking the victory this time.

Alternative events

During 2020 the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

prevented Bislett Games from taking place, instead an event called ''Impossible Games'' was held. In 2021 there were still restrictions which caused the main event to be postponed to July 1. A restricted event called ''Night of Highlights'' was additionally held on June 4, 2021.

Editions

During some of the earliest editions, there were two meetings held per year.

World records

Over the course of its history, numerous

world records A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

have been set at the Games and former athletics meetings at Bislett stadium. In 1985 three new records were set at the same evening.

Bislett Games

Differently named meetings

American meetings

Meeting records

Men

Women

References

External links

Diamond League – Oslo Official Web Site
{{World Athletics Tour Diamond League Recurring sporting events established in 1965 International sports competitions in Oslo Athletics competitions in Norway IAAF Golden League 1965 establishments in Norway IAAF World Outdoor Meetings