Why steeplechase

You May Also Like. Sunisa Lee. Now You Know. Latest Fitness. Get Daily Fitness Inspiration Right in your inbox. Customize Select the topics that interest you:. Working Out. Weight Loss. Book Swipe Shop. With the Olympics just eight days away, what better time to uncover the most interesting facts about our favorite Olympic sports! We started with beach volleyball and are now moving from the sand to the track. Here are 15 fun facts about the steeplechase , a distance track event that has runners clear a water pit every lap!

Steeplechase combines different skills into one race: distance running, hurdling, and long jumping. The race is meters long , which is just shy of two miles or seven-and-a-half laps around the track. Have you ever run the steeplechase? Have you even heard of it? Share your experiences in the comments below! Curious if at-home cold therapy devices are worth the hefty price tag? This would be the 3,meter steeplechase. The casual fan of the Olympics may, understandably, wonder what's going on with the steeplechase: what are these massive barriers doing on the track, and why are the runners jumping over them?

Why is there a water pit? And why, really, is this silly race called the steeplechase? Like many track and field events, the steeplechase's origins can be traced back to United Kingdom. Runners, as they were apparently wont to do, would often race each other from one town's church steeple to the next.

The steeples were chosen because they were easy to see from long distances, leading to the name "steeplechase. The countryside would also require runners to jump over various barriers over the course of their race. These included stone walls and small rivers. When the race was modernized, the walls were simulated with hurdles and the rivers and creeks were simulated with the water pit. According to the IAAF, the modern 3,meter steeplechase track event — with the barriers and the water pit — first originated at Oxford University in the midth century.

It was then included in the English Championship in