Thank you very much. I had no idea on the distinction when the “s” is added.

I’m one of those apes from the U.S. At least Wikipedia gives me a bit of cover:

> In much of North America, athletics is synonymous with sports in general, maintaining the historical usage of the term. The word "athletics" is rarely used to refer to the sport of athletics in this region. Track and field is preferred, and is used in the United States and Canada to refer to athletics events, including race-walking and marathon running (although cross country running is typically considered a separate sport).

Sport of athletics