- Venue: National Stadium
- Location: Olympic Green
- Use during Olympic Games: Athletics, Football
- Post-Games use:The Stadium is to stage sports events at national and international levels, as well as cultural and entertaining activities
- Floor area (sq m): 4258,000
- seats: 91,000
- Groundbreaking date: Dec. 2003
- Designer: Herzog & DeMeuron (Swiss) and China Architecture Design Institute
Athletics
Athletics is, in many ways, the embodiment of the Olympic motto, "Citius, Altius, Fortius", meaning faster, higher, stronger.
Athletics (or track and field) is about running faster, jumping higher and throwing further than your competitors. The ancient Games at Olympia began simply with foot races, only occasionally complicated by dressing the runners in infantry armour or making them carry soldiers' shields. Today, athletics remains one of the most popular Olympic sports. From the 100m dash to the 42.195km marathon, from the hammer throw to the high jump, it contains many of the Olympic Games' blue-ribbon events and many of the highest-profile competitors.
The athletics event of the 29th Olympic Games will be held in Beijing from August 15-24, 2008.
The athletics competitions will be held at the National Stadium in the Olympic Green. The starting point of the marathon event is at the Tiananmen Square and the finish point in the National Stadium.
The start/finish point of the race walking event is at the National Stadium. The race will be a round trip on a 2km course at the boulevard in the Olympic Green.
The athletics event of the 29th Olympic Games will be held in Beijing from August 15-24, 2008.