List of world records in athletics

Athletics records comprise the best performances in the sports of track and field, road running and racewalking.

[1] These criteria also apply to national or other restricted records and also to performances submitted as qualifying marks for eligibility to compete in major events such as the Olympic Games.

This was done by Sergey Bubka and Yelena Isinbayeva in the men's and women's pole vault respectively,[4] and some commentators have complained that neither athlete ever posted as high a mark as they were capable of.

[6] In most other disciplines, this issue does not arise, since it is practically impossible to deliberately break a record by a small margin.

While races over imperial measured distances were very common in the first half of the 20th century, only the mile remains common today due to its historical prominence in track and field: all other imperial measured distance races became increasingly rare, and the IAAF deleted these events from the world record books in 1976.

Some road racing distances and indoor variations of outdoor events fall outside of WA's lists, and records set in uncommon events usually do not adhere to the strict criteria found in WA-ratifiable events: one example is the 150 metres record, which was set by Usain Bolt on a specially-made straight track, while previous performances (such as the Bailey–Johnson 150-metre race) were completed on a traditional circuit which included a partial bend in the track.

The 40-yard dash, a standard acceleration evaluation for American football players, does not fall within the usual criteria of athletics racing events.

Performances are also hand-timed and calculated to 1/100 of a second, although studies have shown human beings simply cannot react consistently or accurately enough for this to be a valid method, and even those using light beams are timed by the motion of the athlete, removing the normal factor of reaction time; further, football 40-yard dashes are usually run on a turf surface as opposed to an all weather track.

The world best time for a "football 40" is 4.17 by Deion Sanders, while the extrapolated best for an Olympic-level athlete (including reacting to a starting gun) is 4.24 by Maurice Greene at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics.

[247][248] Under conventional football timing on a turf field in 2017, Christian Coleman reportedly ran a 4.12.