Athletics at the 1986 Goodwill Games

Athletics at the 1986 Goodwill Games
The Games opening ceremony at the main stadium
Host city	Moscow, Soviet Union
Date(s)	July 1986
Main stadium	Moscow Olympic Stadium
Participation	? athletes from ? nations
Events	42
1990 Seattle → 1986 Goodwill Games

At the 1986 Goodwill Games, the athletics competition was held in July 1986 at the Olympic Stadium in Moscow, Soviet Union. A total of 42 events were contested, of which 23 by male and 19 by female athletes. Keeping in line with the tone of the competition, the United States and Soviet Union were the major protagonists in the athletics events. The Soviet Union topped the medal table with 17 golds and 61 medals altogether while the United States was the runner-up with 15 golds and 33 medals overall. Three Eastern bloc countries (Bulgaria, East Germany and Romania) were the only other nations to win more than two medals.

In contrast to other major athletics competitions, the Goodwill Games operated an invitational policy, which meant that there were no qualifying stage of the events and the contests operated on a single or double final format. The inaugural athletics competition brought two new world records: Sergey Bubka cleared 6.01 m for a new pole vault record and Jackie Joyner-Kersee improved the women's heptathlon record to 7148 points. In the 100 metres races, Ben Johnson gained his first international victory over Carl Lewis while Evelyn Ashford pipped Heike Drechsler to the gold in the women's race.