Athens, the name of many places in the United States, the chief being in Georgia, and containing the Georgia University and the State college of agriculture. It carries on the cotton manufacture, has manufactures of agricultural implements, &c., and is a centre of trade. It was founded in 1801. Pop. 14,913.
Ath´erine (Atherīna), the name of a genus of small fishes abundant in the Mediterranean and caught in British waters, especially on the coasts of the south of England, some of them being highly esteemed as food. They are also known as Sand-smelts. There are two British species.
Athero´ma, in pathology, a term applied to a change that may take place in the inner coat of an artery, consisting in a kind of fatty degeneration, leading to an aneurism or bursting. Also an encysted tumour containing matter of a curdy appearance.
Ath´erstone, a town in Warwickshire, England, 8 miles S.E. of Tamworth, and equidistant (100 miles) from London, Liverpool, and Lincoln. It has manufactures of hats, and is the reputed birthplace of the poet Drayton. Pop. (1921), 20,849 (rural district).
Ath´erton, town of England, Lancashire, 13 miles north-west of Manchester; cotton-factories, collieries, and ironworks give chief employment to the inhabitants. Pop. (1921), 19,863.
Athletes (ath´lēts; Gr. athlētai, from athlos, a contest, athlon, a prize), originally, in ancient
Greece, combatants who took part and contended for a prize (athlon) in the public games. The profession was an honourable one; tests of birth, position, and character were imposed, and crowns, statues, special privileges, and pensions were among the rewards of success. (See Games.) The word is used in a similar sense at the present day, but is more especially applied to persons who can exhibit feats of strength. Games and athletic competitions, if they do not hold such an honourable position to-day as they did in antiquity, are still practised with great enthusiasm and excite the keenest interest in their patrons.
Athletic Sports, a general name for certain physical exercises demanding a special natural ability, and embodying a variety of events which conventionally include not only running and jumping but such feats of strength as putting the weight and throwing the hammer. The selection of these events at any athletic meeting is a somewhat arbitrary one, and the inclusion of those which require strength and skill rather than speed and agility rests more on a traditional than a logical basis. A particular feature which distinguishes these exercises as athletic sports is the presence of the idea of competition; thus running and walking, as isolated exercises, can be called 'sports' only when men compete against one another, although the factor of competition may be only indirectly present, as when an athlete endeavours to beat a record.
In this country athletic sports have long been a national characteristic, and records, more or less authentic, have been handed down for the last hundred years or more. Until comparatively recently, such sports have been the prerogative of the British Isles; but during the last thirty years the United States have adopted them with enormous enthusiasm and success, and more recently still the vogue has extended throughout the Continent, and good results have been obtained by representatives from France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Sweden, and Finland, as well as from all the Colonies. In this country no school, no matter how small or how humble its pretensions, fails to hold its athletic meeting annually. The same applies to all colleges of the leading universities, Oxford and Cambridge, the best representatives of which compete against one another, whilst the smaller universities hold similar competitions. In addition, a large number of clubs are in existence throughout the country for the promotion and encouragement of sports, the whole system of athletics being under the Amateur Athletic Association (founded in 1880), whose rules and regulations for the correct maintenance of athletics in the best interests of amateurism are regarded as a standard throughout the world. Under its auspices an annual meeting—the Amateur Championships—is held. This meeting is open to the whole world, and many of the championships have been held at one time or another by distinguished visitors from America, the Colonies, and the Continent. At the time of writing, the association is considering the project of holding two distinct annual meetings, one of which shall, as hitherto, be unrestricted, the other confined to residents in the British Isles. This, which is the most important meeting of the year, has taken place uninterruptedly since its origin in 1866 with the exception of the military interval, 1915-8, and has been successfully resumed in 1919. For the past fourteen or fifteen years the meeting has been held in London on the first Saturday in July, and this practice will probably be a permanent one, although hitherto the venue was, in rotation, London, the Midlands, and the North. The university and inter-university meetings are held before Easter, the former at the respective university towns, the latter at Queen's Club, London. Among other important representative contests may be mentioned the Public Schools' Championships (usually in April), the United Hospitals' Championships, the Irish, the Scottish, the Welsh, the Midland and the Northern Counties' Championships. During the war, athletics were practically restricted to the services, and the Army Athletic Championships, held in Aug., 1919, was a successful reunion of soldier athletes from the various theatres of war, and included, for the first time in history, coloured troops.
The standard inter-university meeting comprises ten events, namely, flat races—100 yards, ¼ mile, ½ mile, 1 mile, and 3 miles; 120-yards hurdle race; the high jump and long jump; putting the weight and throwing the hammer. These events appear in the programme of the Amateur Championship meeting, with the substitution of a 4-miles race for the 3 miles, and the addition of a 220-yards race, a 2-miles walking race, a 2-miles steeplechase (representing a miniature cross-country event), and the pole jump. A relay race, in which four representatives from each club run half a mile, a quarter of a mile, 220 yards, and 220 yards respectively, is also included as a standard event; whilst at the 1919 meeting a race of 440 yards over hurdles appeared for the first time, and will probably occupy a permanent place in the programme. Two additional Amateur Championship events, 7-miles walk and 10-miles flat race, are usually held at a separate meeting in the spring.