Historical Dictionary of Track and Field by Peter Matthews

Author:Peter Matthews [Matthews, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2012-04-24T16:00:00+00:00

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PAKISTAN (PAK). The Athletics Federation of Pakistan was founded, upon independence, in 1947, and it is perhaps surprising that no Olympic or World Championships medals have been won for such a large country. Indeed, no athlete from Pakistan has even made a global final.

PANAMA (PAN). Panama first entered the Olympic Games in 1948, in which year Lloyd La Beach won bronze medals at 100 m and 200 m. Irving Saladino won the nations’ first global gold medals, including at the World Championships in 2007 and the Olympics in 2008 at long jump.

PAN-AMERICAN GAMES. The Pan-American Games are multisport competitions open to athletes from North American, Central American, and South American nations. They have been held every four years since 1951, when the games were opened in Buenos Aires by President Juan Perón of Argentina in front of a crowd of 100,000. Originally planned for 1942, the games were delayed due to the outbreak of war. The biennial Pan-American Junior Championships were first held at Sudbury, Canada, in 1980.

PAN-ARAB GAMES. The Pan-Arab Games are a multisport event first held at Alexandria, Egypt, in 1951, and they are now staged every four years. Athletics only Arab Championships are held during other years.

PARIS (FRA). The French capital staged the Olympic Games in 1900, with the athletics events on a 500-meter grass track at the Racing Club of France’s arena in the Bois de Boulogne, and 1924 in the newly built Stade Colombes (with seating for 20,000 and standing room for an extra 40,000). The European men’s championships were held in 1938 at Colombes. The major annual meeting is now the Diamond League (formerly the Golden League), held at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. In 2000, this meeting brought together the Paris Grand Prix, held since 1995 at the Stade de Charléty, and the Saint-Denis meeting, first held in 1984 and which moved to the superb new stadium in 1999. An annual meeting was previously held from 1968–1987 in Paris at the Stade Jean-Bouin, or at Charléty, and as a Grand Prix meeting at the Stadium Nord in Villeneuve d’Ascq from 1988–1993. The World Indoor Games of 1985 and the World Indoor Championships of 1997 were held in the Palais Omnisports Bercy.

PEDESTRIANISM. Under this name, both walking and running competitions, generally over long distances, flourished in Great Britain between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries and also in North America in the nineteenth century. Large prizes were offered to runners for tests between two competitors, and large crowds were attracted to top clashes, but problems with betting and growing concerns over professionalism led to declining interest, with the rise of clubs and amateur organizations taking over. There was, however, a craze for ultra-long-distance race walking and also much interest in six-day races from the 1860s to the 1880s.

PEDROSO SOLER, IVÁN LÁZARO (CUB). B. 17 December 1972, Havana. Following the retirement of Carl Lewis and Mike Powell, Pedroso was clearly the world’s top long jumper for several years, winning an extra-ordinary nine world titles.

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