The First Ancient Olympic Games

By: Cody & Robert

World History

Block 4

The Olympic Flame

• The Olympic Flame is the symbol of the Olympic games

• This symbol represents the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus

• The Flame’s origin lies in Ancient Greece, where it is said the Flame kept burning throughout the Ancient Olympics.

The First Event…

• Boxing: Ancient boxing didn't have many rules, nor did it have rounds. Two fighters would keep going at it until the other was knocked out or admitted defeat. There were no weight classes (fighters were chosen randomly), and there was no rule about hitting your opponent when he was down.

BOXING

THE EQUESTRIAN EVENTS

• The Equestrian Events: consisted of Chariot Racing and Racing. In Chariot Racing, there were carts pulled by 2 horses, and another pulled by 4. Each racer had to do 12 laps around the stadium track (about 9 miles). Horse racing had separate classes for full-grown and foals.

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THE EQUESTRIAN EVENTS

PANKRATION…

• Pankration: Was a form of a combination of boxing and wrestling. The two entrants wore no hand wrapping. The only rules were that no biting, and the gouging of the opponents eyes were prohibited. Other attacks, like kicking in the stomach, were perfectly legal. Like boxing and wrestling, there were separate classes for boys and men.

PANKRATION

THE PANTATHLON…

• The Pentathlon: Consisted of the discus and javelin throw, jump, running, and wrestling

• The discus was made of from either stone, iron, bronze or lead and was shaped like a saucer

• This event showed graceful movements were just as important as strength

THE PANTATHLON CON’T…

• The javelin throw was an event where a man-high length of wood with a sharpened end was thrown and it's distance was measured.

• During the jump event (also called the Long Jump), a man held lead or stone weights, which they would swing behind their backs to propel themselves further. Again, their distance was measured.

THE PANTHTHLON

RUNNING…

• Running: During ancient times, there were 4 types of running events; these events were also called the stadion, the oldest events in the games.

• Each type of running event was longer than the last; there being a 1-stade (the length of the stadium, about 192 meters), and up to a 4-stade.

• And long-distance races could have been as long as 7-24 stades.

Running Cont…

• As if these running events weren’t already long and grueling enough, there were other classes where participants had to wear armor that weighed from 50-60 pounds.

• During theses classes, runners ran 2-4 stades.

RUNNING

WRESTLING…

• Wrestling: To win a wrestling match, one contestant had to throw his opponent on either his hip, shoulder, or back for a fair call

• 3 throws were needed to win the match.• Illegal acts were things such as biting and

genital holds (ouch)• But other painful moves, like breaking

your opponents fingers, were allowed.

WRESTLING