Bislett Games

The first international athletics meeting at Bislett was held in 1924. Until 1937 the competitions are known as "The American Meetings". Different organizers staged the meetings between 1947 and 1965 until the three athletics associations BUL, Vidar and Tjalve formed the Bislett Alliance. At this year Arne Haukvik founded the Bislett Games. He was a former politician and director of the meeting, who used to invite the athletes, sponsors and the press to his home for his traditional "strawberry party" the day before the event each year. He died of cancer in 2002 at age 76. The tradition however is continued.

Bislett Stadium was used for speed skating events at the Olympics, but nowadays it is better known for its Bislett Games athletics meeting. Bislett Games attract the best track and field athletes from all over the world, and 65 world records have been set on its forgiving, brick-coloured track so far. Due to the building of the new Bislett Stadium in Oslo, which started in April 2004, the 2004 edition of the traditional athletics meeting was staged on Fana stadion in Bergen under the name Bergen Bislett Games.

In 2009, a severe storm delayed proceedings and even caused damage to the track-side clock display. Sanya Richards recorded the fastest women's 400 metres time since 2006 while the Dream Mile brought a number of records with winner Deresse Mekonnen improving upon his Ethiopian record, Kenyan William Biwott Tanui setting a world junior record and third-placed Augustine Choge beating his personal best. Former javelin winners Andreas Thorkildsen and Tero Pitkämäki continued their five-year shared dominance of the Bislett Games, with Pitkämäki taking the victory this time.^[2]

During 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic prevented Bislett Games from taking place, instead an event called Impossible Games was held. In 2021 there were still restrictions which caused the main event to be postponed. A restricted event called Night of Highlights was held instead on June 4, 2021.^[3]

During some of the earliest editions, there were two meetings held per year.^[4]

Over the course of its history, numerous world records have been set at the Games and former athletics meetings at Bislett stadium. 1985 three new records was set at the same evening.^[56]

Year	Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality
2023	Mile (junior)	4:17.13	Birke Haylom	Ethiopia
2021	400 m hurdles	46.70	Karsten Warholm	Norway
2008	5000 m	14:11.15	Tirunesh Dibaba	Ethiopia
2008	800 m (junior)	1:42.69	Abubaker Kaki	Sudan
2007	5000 m	14:16.63	Meseret Defar	Ethiopia
2004	5000 m	14:24.68	Elvan Abeylegesse	Turkey
2004	5000 m (junior)	14:30.88	Tirunesh Dibaba	Ethiopia
2000	Javelin throw	69.48 m	Trine Hattestad	Norway
1997	10000 m	26:31.32	Haile Gebrselassie	Ethiopia
1994	10000 m	26:52.23	William Sigei	Kenya
1994	20000 m walk	2:04:55	Bernardo Segura	Mexico
1993	10000 m	26:58.38	Yobes Ondieki	Kenya
1986	10000 m	30:13.74	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway
1985	10000 m	30:59.42	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway
1985	5000 m	13:00.40	Saïd Aouita	Morocco
1985	Mile	3:46.32	Steve Cram	United Kingdom
1984	5000 m	14:58.89	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway
1984	10000 m	30:59.42	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway
1982	5000 m	13:00.41	David Moorcroft	Great Britain
1981	1000 m	2:12.18	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain
1980	Mile	3:48.8	Steve Ovett	United Kingdom
1979	800 m	1:42.33	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain
1975	3000 m	8:46.6	Grete Waitz	Norway
1975	3000 m steeplechase	8:10.4	Anders Gärderud	Sweden
1974	1000 m	2:13.9	Rick Wohlhuter	United States
1965	10000 m	27:39.4	Ron Clarke	Australia

Year	Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality
1964	Javelin throw	87.12 m & 91.72 m	Terje Pedersen	Norway
1955	1500 m	3:40.8	László Tábori Gunnar Nielsen	Hungary  Denmark
1955	3000 m steeplechase	8:45.4	Pentti Karvonen	Finland
1953	Hammer throw	62.36 m	Sverre Strandli	Norway
1952	Hammer throw	61.25 m	Sverre Strandli	Norway

Year	Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality
1936	110 m hurdles	13.7	Forrest Towns	United States
1935	110 m hurdles	14.2	Alvin Moreau	United States
1934	Shot put	17.40 m	Jack Torrance	United States
1934	Discus throw	52.42 m	Harald Andersson	Sweden
1925	Pole vault	4.23 m	Charles Hoff	Norway
1924	110 m hurdles	14.2	Percy Beard	Canada

• Dream Mile

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bislett Games.

• Diamond League – Oslo Official Web Site