A website dedicated to athletics literature / Welcome to Athlos

The word “ATHLETICS” has its origins in Ancient Greece and in its athletes who competed for prizes at various festivals. Our name – ATHLOS - reflects that ancient legacy.

Track and Field Athletics has a long and rich history and has been the central sport of the modern Olympic Games since they began. The origins and culture of Track and Field Athletics and the development of coaching, competition and performance can be traced in its literature. Our selection begins in 1800.

ATHLOS has identified and presents on-line the historic literature of Track & Field Athletics. In doing so it preserves and makes available many books that are already rare or hard to find; some only ever had a small print-run and many have never been re-printed. Some copies are so rare that they can only be found in private collections and libraries, so this is the first opportunity for many to read these historically important texts... 

ATHLOS enriches its selection by providing a commentary on each work, plus a description of why each one holds an important place in athletics literature. A brief biography of the author(s) is included wherever possible. We hope that our collection will interest and inform our readers and that it will provoke new interests and new lines of research and scholarship...