tug-of-war vs athletics

tug-of-war and athletics both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
tug-of-war	Yes	No	No	No
athletics	Yes	No	No	No

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

tug-of-war: a contest in which teams pull of opposite ends of a rope; the team dragged across a central line loses
athletics: a contest between athletes

Other hypernyms of tug-of-war include athletic competition, athletic contest.

tug-of-war (noun)	athletics (noun)
any hard struggle between equally matched groups	an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition
a contest in which teams pull of opposite ends of a rope; the team dragged across a central line loses	participation in sports events as an extracurricular activity
	a contest between athletes