In sports under the
athletics
Athletics may refer to:
Sports
* Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking
** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport
* Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...
banner, certain competitions require an athlete to meet a qualifying standard, meaning a mark as good or better than this set mark, in order to be eligible to compete. Naturally, an elite level competition does not want to embarrass its reputation nor the competitor in an event beyond their competition level. With a limited number of lanes on the track (or field event facilities) they must limit the number of competitors participating in a given amount of time at a meet.
High level competition
For the highest elite level competitions like 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 ...
and
World Athletics Championships
The World Athletics Championships, known as the IAAF World Championships in Athletics until 2019, are a biennial sport of athletics, athletics competition organized by World Athletics, formerly International Association of Athletics Federations ...
,
World Athletics
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...
, the world governing body for athletics, publishes standards in advance of the competitions. The currently expressed standards are intended to qualify about 2,000 athletes across all disciplines (24 men's events and 23 women's events) to be eligible to compete in these meets.
[Qualification System]
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Normally an athlete has a window of time to achieve their mark at any competition "organised or authorised by the IAAF, its Area Associations or its National Member Federations in conformity with IAAF Rules. Results achieved at university or school competitions must be certified by the National Federation of the country in which the competition was organised." These qualitative conduct standards would be equivalent to those requirements to certify a 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 ...
.
Entries for these high level competitions must be selected by the national governing body (NGB) or in the case of the Olympics, must be submitted by the National Olympic Committee
A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...
(NOC). Each country is allowed to choose their own method of selecting the names submitted. The United States Olympic Committee
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee (NOC) and the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) for the United States. It was founded in 1895 and is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado ...
, for example, conducts the Olympic Trials, through its national governing body USATF
USA Track & Field (USATF) is a United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and 1 ...
, and for events other than relays, selection is based purely on placement in that meet. However UK Athletics
UK Athletics (UKA) is the governing body for the sport of athletics (sport), athletics in the United Kingdom. It is responsible for overseeing the governance of athletics events in the UK as well as athletes, their development, and athletics o ...
has a selection committee that uses a variety of athletic results in an evaluation process.
A and B standards
Prior to 2014 the Olympics and World Championships used a system with A standards and B standards, for example in qualification for the 2012 Summer Olympics and qualification the 2013 World Championships.
The A standard was the most difficult to achieve. A rule said an NOC "may enter up to three athletes for each event on the athletics program, provided they have achieved the A standard. In addition they can enter one reserve athlete for the same event provided he/she has also achieved the A standard."
Alternatively NOCs could enter one athlete for each event on the athletics program if he/she had achieved at least the B standard. In addition they could enter one reserve athlete for the same event provided he/she had also achieved at least the B standard.
The qualification for the 2015 World Championships and the qualification for the 2016 Summer Olympics
Qualification may refer to:
Processes
* Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress
* Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...
uses single entry standards. The rules are similar to the previous A standards with up to three athletes per NOC. The requirements are generally a little lower than the old A standard but higher than the B standard. If a country has no athletes who satisfy the standard in an event then it can no longer get one place for an athlete satisfying a lower standard.
In 2017, the World Athletics Rankings
The World Athletics Rankings are an individual athlete ranking system for the sport of athletics, managed by World Athletics. It is used to establish the number one athlete within an athletics event and to partially determine qualification into t ...
were announced, and this new system was used in combination with 'A' standards to fill the fields of global championships starting in athletics at the 2021 Summer Olympics
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 t ...
. This new system has led to more difficult 'A' standards being set, with the idea that most of the fields should be filled by descending order of world rankings position rather than achievement of any single standard.
Unqualified competitors
In order to make the meet globally encompassing, every NOC or NGB, is allowed to submit one athlete to compete, even if they have not achieved the standards. The hosting country for the meet is allowed to enter one athlete per event.
Other meets
Other championship meets that have qualifying standards include the NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
meets. While currently the Div. 1 outdoor championships is based on regional qualifying other outdoor divisions and all indoor divisions have standards.
References
{{Qualifying standards in athletics
Sport of athletics terminology