Bislett Games

The first international athletics meeting at Bislett was held in 1924. Until 1937 the competitions are known as "The American Meetings", similar to the international meetings in Zürich. Different organizers staged the meetings between 1947 and 1965 until the three athletics associations BUL, Vidar and Tjalve formed the Bislett Alliance. At this year Arne Haukvik founded the Bislett Games. He was a former politician and director of the meeting, who used to invite the athletes, sponsors and the press to his home for his traditional "strawberry party" the day before the event each year. He died of cancer in 2002 at age 76. The tradition however is continued.

Bislett Stadium was used for speed skating events at the Olympics, but nowadays it is better known for its Bislett Games athletics meeting. Bislett Games attract the best track and field athletes from all over the world, and 65 world records have been set on its forgiving, brick-coloured track so far. Due to the building of the new Bislett Stadium in Oslo, which started in April 2004, the 2004 edition of the traditional athletics meeting was staged on Fana stadion in Bergen under the name Bergen Bislett Games.

In 2009, a severe storm delayed proceedings and even caused damage to the track-side clock display. Sanya Richards recorded the fastest women's 400 metres time since 2006 while the Dream Mile brought a number of records with winner Deresse Mekonnen improving upon his Ethiopian record, Kenyan William Biwott Tanui setting a world junior record and third-placed Augustine Choge beating his personal best. Former javelin winners Andreas Thorkildsen and Tero Pitkämäki continued their five-year shared dominance of the Bislett Games, with Pitkämäki taking the victory this time.^[2]

During some of the earliest editions, there were two meetings held per year.^[6]

Over the course of its history, numerous world records have been set at the Games and former athletics meetings at Bislett stadium. In 1985 three new records were set at the same evening.^[64]

Bislett Games

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World records set at the Bislett Games

Year	Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality
1965	10,000 m	27:39.4 h	Ron Clarke	Australia
1974	1000 m	2:13.9 h	Rick Wohlhuter	United States
1975	3000 m	8:46.6 h	Grete Waitz	Norway
	3000 m steeplechase	8:10.4 h	Anders Gärderud	Sweden
1976	3000 m	8:45.4 h	Grete Waitz	Norway
1979	800 m	1:42.33	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain
1980	Mile	3:48.8 h	Steve Ovett	United Kingdom
1981	1000 m	2:12.18	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain
1982	5000 m	13:00.41	David Moorcroft	Great Britain
1984	5000 m	14:58.89	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway
1985	10,000 m	30:59.42	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway
	5000 m	13:00.40	Saïd Aouita	Morocco
	Mile	3:46.32	Steve Cram	United Kingdom
1986	10,000 m	30:13.74	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway
1993	10,000 m	26:58.38	Yobes Ondieki	Kenya
1994	10,000 m	26:52.23	William Sigei	Kenya
	20,000 m walk	2:04:55	Bernardo Segura	Mexico
1997	10,000 m	26:31.32	Haile Gebrselassie	Ethiopia
2000	Javelin throw	69.48 m	Trine Hattestad	Norway
2004	5000 m	14:24.68	Elvan Abeylegesse	Turkey
	5000 m	14:30.88 WJR	Tirunesh Dibaba	Ethiopia
2007	5000 m	14:16.63	Meseret Defar	Ethiopia
2008	5000 m	14:11.15	Tirunesh Dibaba	Ethiopia
	800 m	1:42.69 WJR	Abubaker Kaki	Sudan
2021	400 m hurdles	46.70	Karsten Warholm	Norway
2023	Mile	4:17.13 WJR	Birke Haylom	Ethiopia

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Differently named meetings

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World records set at differently named meetings

Year	Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality
1952	Hammer throw	61.25 m	Sverre Strandli	Norway
1953	Hammer throw	62.36 m	Sverre Strandli	Norway
1955	1500 m	3:40.8 h	László Tábori Gunnar Nielsen	Hungary  Denmark
	3000 m steeplechase	8:45.4 h	Pentti Karvonen	Finland
1964	Javelin throw	87.12 m & 91.72 m	Terje Pedersen	Norway

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American meetings

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World records set at the American meetings

Year	Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality
1924	500 m	63.8 h	Adriaan Paulen	Netherlands
1925	Pole vault	4.23 m	Charles Hoff	Norway
1934	110 m hurdles	14.2 h	Percy Beard	Canada
	Shot put	17.40 m	Jack Torrance	United States
	Discus throw	52.42 m	Harald Andersson	Sweden
1935	110 m hurdles	14.2 h	Alvin Moreau	United States
1936	110 m hurdles	13.7 h	Forrest Towns	United States

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