 The establishment of the modern Olympic Games at the end of the 19th century marked a new high for track and field . The Olympic athletics programme , comprising track and field events plus a marathon race , contained many of the foremost sporting competitions of the 1896 Summer Olympics . The Olympics also consolidated the use of metric measurements in international track and field events , both for race distances and for measuring jumps and throws . The Olympic athletics programme greatly expanded over the next decades , and track and field contests remained among the Games ' most prominent . The Olympics was the elite competition for track and field , and only amateur sportsmen could compete . Track and field continued to be a largely amateur sport , as this rule was strictly enforced : Jim Thorpe was stripped of his track and field medals from the 1912 Olympics after it was revealed that he had played baseball professionally . 
 The establishment of the modern Olympic Games at the end of the 19th century marked a new high for track and field . The Olympic athletics programme , comprising track and field events plus a marathon race , contained many of the foremost sporting competitions of the 1896 Summer Olympics . The Olympics also consolidated the use of metric measurements in international track and field events , both for race distances and for measuring jumps and throws . The Olympic athletics programme greatly expanded over the next decades , and track and field contests remained among the Games <a href='null_genetive' title='1'><mark>'</mark></a>most prominent . The Olympics was the elite competition for track and field , and only amateur sportsmen could compete . Track and field continued to be a largely amateur sport , as this rule was strictly enforced : Jim Thorpe was stripped of his track and field medals from the 1912 Olympics after it was revealed that he <a href='been_done' title='2'><mark>had</mark></a> played baseball professionally . 
The establishment of the modern Olympic Games at da end of the 19th century marked a new high for track and field . The Olympic athletics programme , comprising track and field events plus a marathon race , contained many of tdaforemost sporting competitions of the 1896 Summer Olympics . The Olympics also consolidated thdase of metric measurements in international track and field events , both for race distances and fir measuring jumps and throws . The Olympic athletics programme greatly expanded ova thedat decades , and track and field contests remained among the Games  most prominent . The Olympics was the date competition fir track and field , and only amateur sportsmen could compete . Track and field continued to b a largely amateur sport , as this rule was strictly enforced : Jim Thorpe was stripped of his track and field medals from the 1912 Olympics after it was revealed dat he done played baseball professionally .