Bislett Games


The Bislett Games is an annual track and field meeting at the Bislett Stadium in Oslo, Norway. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now part of the Diamond League.
WWW oslo.diamondleague.com

History

The first international athletics meeting at Bislett was held in 1924. Until 1937 the competitions are known as "The American Meetings", similar to the international meetings in Zürich. 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.

Alternative events

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 to July 1. A restricted event called Night of Highlights was additionally held on June 4, 2021.

Editions

During some of the earliest editions, there were two meetings held per year.
MeetingSeriesDate
1965 Bislett Games14 Jul 1965
1966 Bislett Games1966
1967 Bislett Games1967
1968 Bislett Games1968
1969 Bislett Games1969
1970 Bislett Games1970
1971 Bislett Games1971
1972 Bislett Games3-4 Aug 1972
1973 Bislett Games24 Jul 1973
1974 Bislett Games30-31 Jul 1974
1975 Bislett Games3 Jul 1975
1976 Bislett Games30 Jun 1976
1977 Bislett Games28 Jun 1977
1978 Bislett Games27 Jun 1978
1979 Bislett Games5 Jul, 17 Jul 1979
1980 Bislett Games1 Jul 1980
1981 Bislett Games26 Jun 1981
1982 Bislett Games26 Jun 1982
1983 Bislett Games22-23 Aug 1983
1984 Bislett Games28 Jun 1984
1985 Bislett Games1985 IAAF Grand Prix16 Jul, 27 Jul 1985
1986 Bislett Games1986 IAAF Grand Prix5 Jul 1986
1987 Bislett Games1987 IAAF Grand Prix4 Jul 1987
1988 Bislett Games1988 IAAF Grand Prix2 Jul 1988
1989 Bislett Games1989 IAAF Grand Prix1 Jul 1989
1990 Bislett Games1990 IAAF Grand Prix14 Jul 1990
1991 Bislett Games1991 IAAF Grand Prix6 Jul 1991
1992 Bislett Games1992 IAAF Grand Prix4 Jul 1992
1993 Bislett Games1993 IAAF Grand Prix10 Jul 1993
1994 Bislett Games1994 IAAF Grand Prix22 Jul 1994
1995 Bislett Games1995 IAAF Grand Prix21 Jul 1995
1996 Bislett Games1996 IAAF Grand Prix5 Jul 1996
1997 Bislett Games1997 IAAF Grand Prix4 Jul 1997
1998 Bislett Games1998 IAAF Golden League9 Jul 1998
1999 Bislett Games1999 IAAF Golden League30 Jun 1999
2000 Bislett Games2000 IAAF Golden League28 Jul 2000
2001 Bislett Games2001 IAAF Golden League13 Jul 2001
2002 Bislett Games2002 IAAF Golden League28 Jun 2002
2003 Bislett Games2003 IAAF Golden League27 Jun 2003
2004 Bislett Games2004 IAAF Golden League11 Jun 2004
2005 Bislett Games2005 IAAF Golden League29 Jul 2005
2006 Bislett Games2006 IAAF Golden League2 Jun 2006
2007 Bislett Games2007 IAAF Golden League15 Jun 2007
2008 Bislett Games2008 IAAF Golden League6 Jun 2008
2009 Bislett Games2009 IAAF Golden League3 Jul 2009
2010 Bislett Games2010 Diamond League4 Jun 2010
2011 Bislett Games2011 Diamond League9 Jun 2011
2012 Bislett Games2012 Diamond League7 Jun 2012
2013 Bislett Games2013 Diamond League13 Jun 2013
2014 Bislett Games2014 Diamond League11 Jun 2014
2015 Bislett Games2015 Diamond League11 Jun 2015
2016 Bislett Games2016 Diamond League9 Jun 2016
2017 Bislett Games2017 Diamond League15 Jun 2017
2018 Bislett Games2018 Diamond League7 Jun 2018
2019 Bislett Games2019 Diamond League13 Jun 2019
2020 Impossible Games2020 Diamond League11 Jun 2020
2021 Bislett Games2021 Diamond League1 Jul 2021
2022 Bislett Games2022 Diamond League16 Jun 2022
2023 Bislett Games2023 Diamond League15 Jun 2023
2024 Bislett Games2024 Diamond League30 May 2024
2025 Bislett Games2025 Diamond League12 June 2025

World records

Over the course of its history, numerous world records have been set at the Games and former athletics meetings at Bislett stadium. In 1985 three new records were set at the same evening.

Meeting records

Men

EventRecordAthleteNationalityDateMeet
100 m9.79 Usain BoltJamaicawind|+0.6

Women

EventRecordAthleteNationalityDateMeet
100 m10.75 Marie-Josée Ta LouIvory Coastwind|+0.7