Olympic Sport is an important part of physical culture and sports movement at the international, national and regional levels. The achievements of athletes at the Olympic Games are the hallmark of the country and are of great importance for the formation of its image in the international arena. Track-and-field athletics is a leader in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in the number of athletes participating in the Olympic Games and in the number of Olympic medals won during the Olympic games from 1952 to 1988. The article studies the historical aspects of the development of this sport, which is of significant interest not only for the historiography of the physical culture and sports movement in Ukraine and the region, but also allows us to highlight the main factors that determine the effectiveness of training highly qualified athletes. The chronological scope of this study covers the period from 1922 to 1991, when Ukraine was the part of the USSR and the Olympic sports developed in the conditions of the tough competition among athletes from 15 union republics. During this period, the Russian Federation had an advantage in the development of Olympic sports, training experience of athletes from Ukraine and other Union Republics was of particular importance. According to this, preparation of Ukrainian and other Union Republic athletes is of great interest.

Introduction and purpose of the study. The article presents the results of a historical analysis of literary sources, archival and local history materials on the problems of the effectiveness of the development of athletics, as one of the leading Olympic sports in the Dnipropetrovsk region during the 1950-60s of the last century. It is theoretically substantiated that the main prerequisite for successful performances of athletes at the Olympic Games, during the specified period, is the determination of the main factors that affect the effectiveness of the organization of training athletes, namely: provision of material and technical base; development of mass character and the system of sports schools; personnel training. The hypothesis of the research is that the study of the historical experience of the development of athletics as an Olympic sport during the period of the most successful performance of athletes from the Dnipropetrovsk region at the Olympic Games can be used to develop regional training programs for athletes to participate in the Olympic Games. Material and methods: analysis and generalization of scientific and methodological literature, archival documents and program and regulatory materials, descriptive, historical and logical method, system analysis method. Results: the historical prerequisites for the development of athletics are stated, which in the period from 1952 to 1968 was the only sport in which the region's athletes took part in the Olympic Games and achieved Olympic awards. The main factors that contributed to the effective organization of training of highly qualified athletes, candidates for the USSR Olympic teams have been determined. The analysis of the results obtained shows that the main factors that contributed to the successful training of athletes in athletics were: the historical experience of the development of athletics as a sport since the beginning of the twentieth century; development of logistics; high level of qualified coaching staff; effective system of children and youth sports. Conclusions. The organizational foundations of the training system in Olympic sports at the regional level have been developed. The conducted research allowed to find out that for the organization of training of highly qualified athletes at the regional level, the determining factors are: the choice of priority sports; improving the training of the reserve in the children's sports schools system; training of coachers; development of material and technical support. Key words: Olympic sports, athletics, training of highly qualified athletes, Dnipropetrovsk region.