Graph 1 represents the men’s 100 metre. The vertical axis is time in seconds.
Graph 2 represents the men’s long jump. The vertical axis is distance in metres.
Graph 3 represents the women’s 1500 metres. The vertical axis is time in minutes.
Graph 4 represents the men’s high jump. The vertical axis is height in metres
Graph 5 represents the men’s javelin. The vertical axis is distance in metres.
Graph 6 represents the women’s high jump. The vertical axis represents height in metres.
Graph 7 represents the men’s decathlon. The vertical axis is points.
Graph 8 represents the men’s 10,000 metres. The vertical axis is time in minutes.
Graph 9 represents men’s 4 x 100 metre relay. The vertical axis is time in seconds.
Graph 10 represents the women’s 100 metres. The vertical axis is time in seconds.
Some of the graphs show an increasing trend while other shows an increasing trend. This is because in all of the running events, the person with the quickest, i.e. the smallest time wins. Therefore the records will be getting quicker and quicker, so the graph is decreasing. In throwing and jumping events, the person who gets the greatest distance or height wins i.e. the biggest so the records will get bigger and the graph will increase.
In graph 5, the javelin the graph shows the Olympic record decreasing at the end of the graph. This is because the last 3 records were set after the actual javelin had been redesigned. Records before this were with javelins with an older design.
The 7th graph shows the records increasing as well as decreasing, but this is probably because of rule changes and the change in calculation methods for points, and so Olympic records for all sets of rules/scoring systems and shown.
Some of the women’s graphs have very few results and the first result not at the start of the graph, at the first Olympics. This is because women were only allowed to compete in some events a few Olympics ago.