Sports- The Way of Life
Back in ancient Greece, all free men who spoke Greek and qualified would be to participate in sports to train for the military, and to honor Zeus. The man who won was crowned with olive leaves and given many gifts, and occasionally his expenses of living was paid for. This man was to be highly honored, and after all the vigorous training he did, he very much deserved it.
In the Olympics, each athlete was to train for a sprinting race (200 meters), a two stade race (400 meters), a long distance race (5 km), and the last race was called a 'hoplitodromos', where runners would run either 400 or 800 meters in armor (shield, sword, and body armor) which weighed at least 60 lbs, and would run as fast as possible to win.
There were other events also, such as boxing, wrestling, 'Pankration' (a bloody sport similar to mixed martial arts), chariot racing, long jump, javelin throw and other events, sometimes all together where this was known as the Pentathlon.
As you can see, we have adopted many of these sports from the ancient Greeks, as we still even do the Olympics every four years, just as they had back then to honor the Olympians.
Before the events had started, each competitor had to take an oath saying that they had trained for over a year and that they had met all requirements. If a person was to take this oath but then was proven faulty, they would be punished severely, sometimes even put to death.
website information was used from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Olympic_Games
In the Olympics, each athlete was to train for a sprinting race (200 meters), a two stade race (400 meters), a long distance race (5 km), and the last race was called a 'hoplitodromos', where runners would run either 400 or 800 meters in armor (shield, sword, and body armor) which weighed at least 60 lbs, and would run as fast as possible to win.
There were other events also, such as boxing, wrestling, 'Pankration' (a bloody sport similar to mixed martial arts), chariot racing, long jump, javelin throw and other events, sometimes all together where this was known as the Pentathlon.
As you can see, we have adopted many of these sports from the ancient Greeks, as we still even do the Olympics every four years, just as they had back then to honor the Olympians.
Before the events had started, each competitor had to take an oath saying that they had trained for over a year and that they had met all requirements. If a person was to take this oath but then was proven faulty, they would be punished severely, sometimes even put to death.
website information was used from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Olympic_Games
