The Origin of Indoor Track and Field Meets In the United States, documents show that an unofficial US Championships was held at the Empire City Skating Rink in New York on November 11, 1868. The official AAU Championships was held at Madison Square Garden in New York in 1906. With the addition of women's events in 1927, it became a truly national track and field meet. In the United Kingdom who preceded the USA in such meetings, AAA Championships started in 1935 at the Empire Pool in Wembley. The annual Meet became the first to adopt, in 1938, the banked track used today. Unfortunately, the Meet was suspended after five years because of World War II. It was finally resumed in 1962 and was held in cities such as Cosford and Birmingham. In continental Europe, the European Indoor Games started in 1966 in Dortmund in the same way as the IAAF World Indoor Games started prior to the World Championships. With the Indoor Games held in Prague, Madrid, and Belgrade, they acquired the name of European Indoor Championships from the 1970 Meet in Vienna, after receiving official approval from the IAAF. |