cycling vs athletics

cycling and athletics both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
cycling	Yes	No	No	No
athletics	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, athletics is a hypernym of cycling; that is, athletics is a word with a broader meaning than cycling:

Other hypernyms of cycling include sport.

cycling (noun)	athletics (noun)
the sport of traveling on a bicycle or motorcycle	an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition
	participation in sports events as an extracurricular activity
	a contest between athletes