The Olympics in Ancient Times

The Tokyo Olympics were delayed for a year by the pandemic, but they couldn’t be stopped forever! Now, we’re probably all aware of the controversies and victories that came from the games so far (way to go, Philippines!), but what do you know about the earliest Olympic game? You know, before they were a worldwide event and limited to the Greeks?

Let’s do some historical trivia!

The Olympic Games Inspired Poets

We have a tendency to think of athletes as being all brawn and no brain. I mean, sure you can lift twice your body weight, shoot a straight arrow, or skate beautifully on the ice, but can you solve world hunger? Meanwhile, we imagine intelligent people as being physically wimpy, spending all their time at a desk.

The Greeks didn’t separate brawn and brains the way we do today, for they believed in a strong mind in a strong body. Many poets flocked to the games to recite their poetry and to pen verses of the victors, the most famous of them being a poet called Pindar.

In fact, the link between poetry and sport regarding the Olympics that the founder of the modern event and the International Olympics Committee included art contests in the games! The poems had to be about sports and previously unpublished, but your poem could win a gold medal.

The Athletes Were Originally Nude

Olympic athletes originally played the games in the nude, although the reasons aren’t entirely clear why. The Greek writer Pausanias wrote a story about how the athletes originally performed in loincloths, at least until one guy named Orsippos of Megara was a runner in the footrace at the 720 BC Olympic games. While running, he allegedly lost his loincloth, but, like the true athlete he was, continued to run anyway. He won, so everyone just figured he was doing something right by ditching his clothing.

The authenticity of the story can’t be confirmed, as is the case with so many ancient accounts, but it’s an interesting notion.

Women Weren’t Allowed to Attend

The Olympics were meant to be a men-only bro event (which may be the real reason everyone was naked – it’ll give them a reason to keep the ladies out). Women did have their own sporting events in Ancient Greece, which is remarkable by itself, called the Heraean Games. Like the Olympics, these were held every four years at Olympia, but much like Paralympics and women’s sports in general, they were far less prestigious and didn’t come with the incredible prizes that winning at the Olympics could get you.

Winning the Olympics could, at various times, win you a crown cut from the sacred olive tree at Olympia, get you a lifetime pension, tons of esteem and street cred, jars upon jars of olive oil, and more. Winning the Heraean Games, on the other hand, would get you a wreath of olives and some meat from the animal that had been sacrificed to the goddess Hera, who was the patron of the games.

You could also get your name carved onto statues dedicated to Hera, but they no longer exist and we don’t know the names of any of the women who won the Heraean Games.

Now, just because there was a ban on women, that didn’t stop women from attending in other ways. At least one woman was caught disguising herself as a man in order to watch her son compete. She was a widow named Pherenike, and she disguised herself as a male personal trainer in order to accompany her son Peisirrhodos. This was a success, but after he won, she was so thrilled that she leaped over the enclosure and accidentally was discovered.

There was another loophole that some women exploited, namely that there was no rule saying women couldn’t compete, at least in equestrian events. This is because the rules dictated that the winner of chariot races would be the owner of the chariot, not its driver. This is similar to horse races in which the owner of the horse is seldom the jockey.

Because of this rule, women could compete by hiring a man or having their husbands order one of his male slaves to actually drive the chariot. Hence she was technically competing without actually breaking the rules that forbade women from attending.

The first woman to do so was named Cynisca. She entered her chariot and won the equestrian events and had a statue erected that proclaimed she was “the only woman in all Hellas to have won this crown.”

Her victory made huge waves and several other women would go on to win the equestrian events using this loophole.

Sports Fan Were Just as Rabid Back Then as They are Now

Sports stars are celebrities, and celebrities have to deal with some nutty people. They do weird things like collect odd items that may have been touched by a celebrity, jarringly ask for photos or impromptu performances, having odd body parts signed, etc. People really haven’t changed much.

Olympic athletes would cover their bodies in olive oil because they felt it would help warm their muscles. After the games, if they weren’t too dirty, they would scrape the oil off and sell it to their insane fans. So, if you want a jar of olive oil mixed with the sweat of your heroes to put on your salad (or just to swear you’ll never touch or wash again), then bring your wallet over to the Olympic games.