Ancient Greek Sports

In 776 B.C., a new era began for athletes. The first Olympic Games were held in Olympia, Greece. For some people to be in the Olympics was a lifelong dream. They were able to serve their gods proudly on the sacred land. There are also different stories on how they got started. One says that the guardians of Zeus held a foot race or that Zeus himself held the foot race to celebrate his victory for control of the world. Another story says that Pelops, a Greek hero, won a chariot race in order to mary his wife. After the start of the Olympics, in approximately 776 B. C. The games continued every four years. The Olympic victors in ancient times received their awards immediately after the competition. The Herald, after announcing the name of the

The Equestrian events were broken down into two sub-categories: chariot racing and riding. The Pentathlon was a combination of five events: discus, javelin, jump, running, and wrestling. Boxing in ancient Greece had fewer rules than boxing today. There were no rounds and boxers fought until one of them was knocked out, or admitted he had been beaten. There was no rule that prevented a boxer from hitting an opponent when he was down. There was no weight class in either the men's or boy's divisions and the contestants were chosen randomly. The boxers did not wear gloves but wrapped their hands and wrists with leather straps called himantes.and this meant that their fingers were left free (Vassili, 2004). Equestrian events were divided into classes of chariot racing and riding. The chariot races consisted of both the 2-horse chariot and the 4-horse chariot and there were separate races for chariots drawn by foals. There was a race of carts included in this event that consisted of competition between carts drawn by teams of 2 mules. The length of the chariot races was 12 laps around the stadium track which was approximately 9 miles (Vassili, 2004). Riding was the other equestrian event and the course was 6 laps around the stadium track which equaled 4.5 miles. The jockeys rode without stirrups and the races were broken down into competition between foals and full-grown horses. Because it was so expensive to train, feed and equip the participants the owners were awarded the olive wreath of victory instead of the riders (Wei, 1996). The most physical event of the Ancient Olympic Games was the pankration. This grueling event consisted of both boxing and wrestling. The hands were not wrapped in the leather himantes. The only limitations on physical brutality were the rules against biting and gouging the opponent's eyes, nose, or mouth with fingernails. Kicking in any part of the body was