track and field

Like many of today's action sports, track and field has its origins in the first Olympics in Greece. When you begin to investigate who invented track and field, you find that, again, like soccer, track and field disappeared during the "dark" ages, and reappeared with modern organization during the 1800's.
Since they did not have jeeps and tanks and trucks in the ancient world, soldiers took pride in their athleticism. Running was one of the very first competitive sports, and it is a favorite of today's games as well. There is some dispute as to exactly when the Olympic Games began, with a gap in guesses from 776 BC to as early as the ninth or tenth century BC.