Athletics Podium: a great site

I found this site as (almost) always: by chance. But once I started digging into it I discovered an incredible wealth. Can you imagine that they have the podium of all the Women World Games? (I hope that by now, at least my regular readers, are familiar with this series of competitions: it was thanks to them that women obtained access to athletics on an international level. I told that story in a six-part series. If you haven't followed the series, here is the link to the first part: if you are interested you can work your way forward starting from there). 

Athletics Podium was created by the turkish sports journalist (and athletics aficionado) S.F. Erbray, in May 2020. It is not a site focused on news (although, quite often, news do make the site's headlines) but rather on thematic articles.

I was attracted to the site by the recent article on ex-champions who involved themselves in politics.

Obviously I recognised S. Sakorafa, a former javelin world record holder  (74.20 m with the old-type implement). She is a member of the greek parliament since 2007 and, since this spring, president of SEGAS (the greek athletics federation). Of course, P. Mennea is easily recognisable in the photo, and given that one can read "Luxembourg" on the escutcheon it is easy to infer that the gentleman on the left is none other than J. Barthel, winner of the 1500 m in the 1952 Olympics, who served as government commissioner in his country. 

Just the calendar of the competitions is worth a visit to Athletics Podium. No more having to wade your way through the user-unfriendly pages of World Athletics is a treat. A click on the competition in the calendar leads you to the page with the results (if the competition has already taken place) and the sidebar gives the archives of the series (whenever they exist). I cannot imagine the work that went into building this site. 

And if you visit now the Athletics Podium you will be greeted by the photo of three great spinters, with the superb ivorian duo Ahouré and TaLou (Kambundji is of congolese descent on her father's side).

And the story of ivorian sprint shows that the people at Athletics Podium know their athletics history. 

So, if you are interested, even just a little bit, in athletics, go and visit this great site.