Olympic Games
Olympic GamesThe first Olympic games took place in the ancient civilization Greece. Like today, they were brutal competitions of skill and athleticism. In Greece the Olympics were thought as the ultimate in. They were not looked at as being merely a sport, but life. Today however, we do not see them as such. The Olympics are still very important To be in the Olympics and succeed is still the life goal of many athletes. Today people compete in the Olympics for the honor of their country, on a team; whereas a long time ago people fought only for the purpose of bringing glory and success to themselves. The original Olympics included a mere six event categories: boxing, equestrian events, pankration, pentathlon, running, and wrestling.
The fighting games of ancient Greece, boxing, and the pankration, and wrestling were violent sports. The original boxing had no rules. One could do whatever they wanted to beat their opponent, even biting was acceptable. They did not even have boxing gloves, instead the Greeks would protect their hands by wrapping them with leather strips called himantes. The way a man won was to have the other opponent admit that he lost, or beat his opponent until he could no longer get up. The pankration had more rules regarding the way one treated their partner, but was inherently more violent. This competition was a combination of wrestling and boxing. It was very dangerous and the fighters were not even permitted to use the himantes to protect their hands. In this competition biting, gouging of eyes, punching in the nose, or hitting mouth with fingernails were all against the rules. There were, however, still no rules against things like kicking in the stomach, or hitting your opponent when they were already down. Wrestling had the most rules. It had most of the rules of today. A wrestler was required to throw his partner down correctly on either the back or hip and things like biting...
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