Masters track and field is a competitive sport for athletes who are aged 35 years and greater. They compete in bracketed five year age groups to promote fair competition. With the first bracket starting at 35-39, it is worth noting that the 30-34 age group is sometimes contested as pre or sub masters. Within the sport, everything from results to the athletes, is generally done by denoting gender and the first year of the bracket they are in. For example, a 47 year old male would be “M45” or a female who is 72 years old being “F70”.

The reasons these older athletes want to compete are as vast and unique as the athletes themselves. Many athletes who were involved in track and field during their younger years continue to participate to stay connected to the sport they love. Others may not have even done track & field until masters aged, but just enjoy it as a way to stay active and improve their health. Many will report it is a way to maintain fitness or pursue new athletic goals. The sport accommodates those with an ultra competitive mindset to those that are casual and see it as simply recreation. One of the best aspects about masters track & field is the camaraderie amongst athletes. Although people are competing against each other, the overwhelming spirit of friendship and encouragement between athletes is astounding. The masters community is somewhat ‘tight-knit’, but everyone is invited to be a part of it.

Similar to youth, collegiate, and professional levels, masters track and field has its own competitions, championships, and records. This site has a dedicated page to locating where to compete that can be found here. Most meets award medals to the top 3 athletes in each age bracket and gender. Larger meets will sometimes award ribbons for places fourth through eighth. Starting in 2007, athletes have the ability to see where their performances rank by country, region, and world on mastersrankings.com. Many meets are automatically captured by the site and there is an online submission tool for competitions where the data was not mined. World Records for masters athletes can be found on the World Masters Athletics site here.