When you watch the Olympics on television, you may notice that track events are really popular. Now what you don’t know is that there are actually a number of different field sports that also take place. Field sports such as sprinting are one of the most-watched events when it comes to the Olympics. But what you should know is that there are a number of athletes that train just as hard and just as long to perform in their different field sports. Here are a few of the different Olympic field sports you can watch.

Getty images/ Royalty-free/Robert Daly

Olympic field sports can be traced all the way back to 776 B.C. when the first Olympic games took place. At the time, the only event that took place was wrestling. Now a lot has changed since then. You can now look forward to a wide variety of different field and track sports taking place at the Olympics. With that said, let’s kick off our field sports. First, we have the high jump. The high jump can be seen as a really simple, yet complicated field event. You see in order to do it, you will need to run a very short distance towards a horizontal pole, jump over it with one foot and land on a cushioned landing area.

Now it gets complicated because you and your competitors aren’t jumping over a short pole. No, then it would be too easy. Depending on your height, the height of the pole is increased. This makes it difficult and takes years of training to be at the Olympic level. Next, we have the long jump. In order to perform this event, competitors need to run down a strip and jump from a wooden board that is flush with the sand strip. Once competitors reach the wooden board, they need to jump as far as possible.