"Doping at the Olympic Games This article is about the history of competitors at the Olympic Games using banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs. The use of performance-enhancing tactics or more formally known as PEDs, and more broadly, the use of any external device to nefariously influence the outcome of a sporting event has been a part of the Olympics since its inception in Ancient Greece. One speculation as to why men were required to compete naked was to prevent the use of extra accoutrements and to keep women from competing in events specifically designed for men. Athletes were also known to"
"short chiton affixed to the left shoulder leaving the right shoulder and breast bare. This is the type of athletic costume especially for the participant in Heraea Games, the earliest recorded women running competition held quadrennially in Olympic stadium. Although women in Ancient Greece (except Sparta) were not encouraged to participate in athletic activities and were excluded from the Olympic games, they could participate in the foot race at Heraea, which is an athletic event for girls of all ages. Thus, this particular piece depicts a participant in the Heraea. One speculation proposed that the costume is adapted from a"
"from the 5th to 3rd century BCE. As worn by soldiers, it could be wrapped around the arm and used as a light shield in combat. The basic outer garment during winter was the himation, a larger cloak worn over the peplos or chlamys. The himation has been most influential perhaps on later fashion. During Classical times in Greece, male nudity received a religious sanction following profound changes in the culture. After that time, male athletes participated in ritualized athletic competitions such as the classical version of the ancient Olympic Games, in the nude as women became barred from the"
"a loincloth, a skirt-like garment, or the earliest form of ""shorts"" for athletics. Romans who competed in the Olympic Games presumably followed the Greek custom of nudity, but athletic nudity at Rome has been dated variously, possibly as early as the introduction of Greek-style games in the 2nd century BC but perhaps not regularly till the time of Nero around 60 AD. Public nudity might be offensive or distasteful even in traditional settings; Cicero derides Mark Antony as undignified for appearing near-naked as a participant in the Lupercalia, even though it was ritually required. Nudity is one of the themes"
"through the educated and cultured classes. For that reason, he excluded all participants except for university students. All these students were trained in the Public Gymnasium in Athens in a series of gymnastic exercises introduced by Fokianos and inspired from the German system of gymnastics. The athletes were impressively dressed: white trousers and white shirts with a large blue stripe, which was, until 1896, the official uniform for gymnastics. These contests were timed to coincide with an exposition of 1,200 Greek and 72 foreign exhibitors, the largest Greece had ever seen. The Greek royal family did not attend. There was"
"in Africa and Australia. Polybius asserts that Celts typically fought naked, ""The appearance of these naked warriors was a terrifying spectacle, for they were all men of splendid physique and in the prime of life."" In antiquity even before the Classical era, e.g., on Minoan Crete, athletic exercise was an important part of daily life. The Greeks credited several mythological figures with athletic accomplishments, and male gods (especially Apollo and Heracles, patrons of sport) were commonly depicted as athletes. While Greek sculpture often showed males completely nude, a new concept for females, ""Venus Pudica"" (or partially nude) appeared, for example,"
"loin cloth during the stadion-race of the 15th Olympic Games in 720 BC which gives him an advantage and he wins. Other athletes then emulate him and the fashion is born. Nudity in sport spread to the whole of Greece, Greater Greece and even its furthest colonies, and the athletes from all its parts, coming together for the Olympic Games and the other Panhellenic Games, competed naked in almost all disciplines, such as boxing, wrestling, pankration (a free-style mix of boxing and wrestling, serious physical harm was allowed) – in such martial arts equal chances in terms of grip and"
"to be so, though athletes and warriors in combat were often depicted nude. In Ancient Greece, where the mild climate was conducive to being lightly-clothed or nude whenever convenient, and male athletes competed at religious festivals entirely nude, and celebrated the human body, it was perfectly natural for the Greeks to associate the male nude form with triumph, glory, and even moral excellence. The Greek goddess Aphrodite was a deity whom the Greeks preferred to see clothed. In the mid-fourth century BC, the sculptor Praxiteles made a nude Aphrodite, called the Knidian, which established a new tradition for the female"
"Ancient Olympic Games The ancient Olympic Games were originally a festival, or celebration of and for Zeus; later, events such as a footrace, a javelin contest, and wrestling matches were added. The Olympic Games (, ""Olympia"", ""the Olympics""; also , , ""the Olympiad"") were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and one of the Panhellenic Games of ancient Greece. They were held in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin. The first Olympics is traditionally dated to 776 BC. They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule, until the emperor"
"in Ancient Greece for athletes to exercise and compete in the nude. In ancient Sparta, the Gymnopaedia was a yearly celebration during which naked youths displayed their athletic and martial skills through the medium of dancing. In antiquity even before the Classical era, e.g. on Minoan Crete, athletic exercise played an important part in daily life. The Greek practice to compete and exercise was strongly inspired by their gods and heroes. For the gods and heroes nudity was a part of their identity and a way to display their physical energy and power which the athletes attempted to honour and"
"war, priests would offer sacrifices to the gods for victory. The games were also used to help spread Hellenistic culture throughout the Mediterranean. The Olympics also featured religious celebrations. The statue of Zeus at Olympia was counted as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Sculptors and poets would congregate each olympiad to display their works of art to would-be patrons. The ancient Olympics had fewer events than the modern games, and only freeborn Greek men were allowed to participate, although there were victorious women chariot owners. As long as they met the entrance criteria, athletes from any"
"consisted of four individual ""Olympic-Style"" competitions held throughout the ancient Greek world. The served as a way to bring ancient Greece together. Athletes trained to compete in the games starting at very young age. Located in every Greek city, gymnasiums and palaestras provided young Greek males with both a place to learn and to train. However, only the best the athletes were selected to compete in the Olympic games. Once selected, an athlete had to take an oath to compete in an honorable way and to abide by the rules. The athletes competed in a variety of different athletic events"
"the Greek ""Nike of Samothrace"". Nudity in sport was very common, with almost all sports performed naked. As a tradition it was probably first introduced in the city-state of Sparta, during the late archaic period. The civilization of ancient Greece (Hellas), during the Archaic period, had an athletic and cultic aesthetic of nudity which typically included adult and teenage males, but at times also boys, women and girls. The love for beauty had also included the human body, beyond the love for nature, philosophy, and the arts. The Greek word ""gymnasium"" means 'a place to train naked'. Male athletes competed"
"barefooter. People in ancient times, such as the Egyptians, Hindus, and Greeks often went barefoot, as the inhabited terrain mostly mandated no practical necessity for footwear. The Egyptians and Hindus made some use of ornamental footwear, such as a soleless sandal known as a ""Cleopatra"", which did not provide any practical protection for the foot. Athletes in the Ancient Olympic Games participated barefoot and generally unclothed. Even the gods and heroes were primarily depicted barefoot. The Romans, who eventually conquered the Greeks and adopted many aspects of their culture, did not adopt the Greek perception of footwear and clothing. Roman"
"all of the games. Participants could come from all over the Greek world, including the various Greek colonies from Asia Minor to Spain. However, participants probably had to be fairly wealthy in order to pay for training, transportation, lodging, and other expenses. Neither women nor non-Greeks were allowed to participate, except for very occasional later exceptions, such as the Roman emperor Nero. The main events at each of the games were chariot racing, wrestling, boxing, pankration, ""stadion"" and various other foot races, and the pentathlon (made up of wrestling, ""stadion"", long jump, javelin throw, and discus throw). Except for the"
"competition except as the owners of racing chariots. Their ancient events were discontinued, one of which (a footrace for women) had been the sole original competition. Myths relate that after this prohibition, a woman was discovered to have won the competition while wearing the clothing of a man—instituting the policy of nudity among the competitors that prevented such embarrassment again. The clothing of ancient Italy, like that of ancient Greece, is well known from art, literature & archaeology. Although aspects of Roman clothing have had an enormous appeal to the Western imagination, the dress and customs of the Etruscan civilization"
"light garment worn by men in hot weather or while performing hard labor. The piece from the National Archaeological Museum, Athens is wearing a different kind of dress. Unlike the costume for Heraea Game, the bodice of the chiton covers both shoulders and breasts. It may suggest that this running costume is for girls at local ritual festivals in Sparta that are documented in ancient literature. During the festival, some Spartan maidens ran a special race in honor of Dionysus. This ritual celebrating the girls' rites of passage also involved dancing, singing and other athletic events. Women in Sparta led"
"like the training in the Panathenaic stadium, which was excavated, restored and provided with wooden benches in order to accommodate 30,000 people, a huge number for the time. In general the contest was much better organized and athletes were uniformly dressed, with sport costumes and sandals in skin color. On November 1, the Games were officially opened, but athletic events were postponed to November 15 due to bad weather, which also forced the cancellation of all nautical events, horse races and shooting events. Athletes included Greek nationals, as well as ethnic Greeks from the Ottoman Empire and Crete (then a"
"which did not provide any practical protection for the foot. The ancient Greeks largely viewed footwear as self-indulgent, unaesthetic and unnecessary. Shoes were primarily worn in the theater, as a means of increasing stature, and many preferred to go barefoot. Athletes in the Ancient Olympic Games participated barefoot – and naked. Even the gods and heroes were primarily depicted barefoot, the hoplite warriors fought battles in bare feet and Alexander the Great conquered his vast empire with barefoot armies. The runners of Ancient Greece are also believed to have run barefoot. Pheidippides, the first marathoner, ran from Athens to Sparta"
"Hoplitodromos The hoplitodromos or hoplitodromia (Greek: , English translation: ""race of soldiers"") was an ancient foot race, part of the Olympic Games and the other Panhellenic Games. It was the last foot race to be added to the Olympics, first appearing at the 65th Olympics in 520 BC, and was traditionally the last foot race to be held. Unlike the other races, which were generally run in the nude, the ""hoplitodromos"" required competitors to run wearing the helmet and greaves of the hoplite infantryman from which the race took its name. Runners also carried the ""aspis"", the hoplites' bronze-covered wood"
"to more complex signification of the male body shown nude, partially nude, or costumed in a muscle cuirass. Romans who competed in the Olympic Games presumably followed the Greek custom of nudity, but athletic nudity at Rome has been dated variously, possibly as early as the introduction of Greek-style games in the 2nd century BC but perhaps not regularly until the time of Nero around 60 AD. At the same time, the phallus was depicted ubiquitously. The phallic amulet known as the ""fascinum"" (from which the English word ""fascinate"" ultimately derives) was supposed to have powers to ward off the"
"of (mid-summer) 765 BC for the first year of the first Olympiad. Nevertheless, there is disagreement among scholars as to when the games began. The only competition held then was, according to the later Greek traveller Pausanias who wrote in AD175, the ""stadion"" race, a race over about , measured after the feet of Hercules. The word ""stadium"" is derived from this foot race. The Greek tradition of athletic nudity (gymnos) was introduced in 720 BC, either by the Spartans or by the Megarian Orsippus, and this was adopted early in the Olympics as well. Several groups fought over control"
"340-330 B.C.) is only one of many examples. In Classical Greece and Rome, public nakedness was accepted in the context of public bathing or athletics. The Greek word gymnasium means ""a place to be naked."" Athletes commonly competed nude, but many city-states allowed no female participants at those events, Sparta being a notable exception. The mythological themes were often used as the painter’s subjects not only in the antiquity but they remained an archetypal topic during the centuries and a genre of painting with mythological subjects developed were these themes were used and reused as subjects of the artists. One"
"games, because winners received only a garland for victory. (Stephanitic derives from ""stephanos"" the Attic Greek word for crown.) No financial or material prizes were awarded, unlike at other ancient Greek athletic or artistic contests, such as the Panathenaic Games, at which winners were awarded many amphorae of first-class Athenian olive-oil. The Olympic games awarded a garland of olives; the Pythian games, a garland of laurel, i.e. bay leaves; the Nemean games, a crown of wild celery, and the Isthmian, a garland of pine leaves in the archaic period, one of dried celery in the Classical and Hellenistic periods, and"
"itself has disappeared. The women competed in three age groups. Pausanias describes their appearance for the races such that, ""their hair hangs down, a tunic (chiton) reaches to a little above the knee, and they bare the right shoulder as far as the breast."". We do know women were forbidden from competing in or even viewing the Ancient Olympics, under penalty of being thrown from the cliffs of Mount Typaion. Girls were not encouraged to be athletes. Those raised in Sparta were the exception, where they were trained in the same athletic events as boys, because Spartais believed that strong"
"Clothing in ancient Greece Clothing in ancient Greece primarily consisted of the chiton, peplos, himation, and chlamys. Ancient Greek men and women typically wore two pieces of clothing draped about the body: an undergarment (chiton or peplos) and a cloak (himation or chlamys). Ancient Greek clothing was mainly based on necessity, function, materials, and protection rather than identity. Thus, clothes were quite simple, draped, loose-fitting and free flowing. Customarily, clothing was homemade and cut to various lengths of rectangular linen or wool fabric with minimal cutting or sewing, and secured with ornamental clasps or pins, and a belt, or girdle"
"from girlhood to excel at these things so as to produce strong children, by going through early training similar to that of their brothers. The ancient Olympic Games were almost entirely male-only and women were forbidden even to set foot in the main stadium at Olympia, where running events and combat sports were held. Women were allowed to enter only the equestrian events, not by running but by owning and training the horses. Cynisca employed men and entered her team at the Olympics, where it won in the four-horse chariot racing (tethrippon Greek: τέθριππον) twice, in 396 BC and again"
"open areas at city outskirts, not enclosed structures. The athletic contests for which the gymnasium supplied the means of training and competition formed part of the social and spiritual life of the Greeks from very early on. The contests took place in honour of heroes and gods, sometimes forming part of a periodic festival or the funeral rites of a deceased chief. The free and active Greek lifestyle (spent to a great extent in the open air) reinforced the attachment to such sports and after a period of time the contests became a prominent element in Greek culture. The victor"
"first Games were a mixture of athletics and traditional country sports such as quoits, football and cricket. Events also included running, hurdles, football and cycling on penny farthings. Some of the early Games included ""fun events"" as the blindfolded wheelbarrow race and, one year an 'Old Women's Race' with the prize of a pound of tea. In 1859 Wenlock Olympian Class sent £10 to Athens as a prize for the best runner in the Long Foot Race at the Zappas Olympics which was held in November that year – open only to Greek-speaking athletes. The Wenlock Prize, the largest prize"
"popular event in Ancient Greece and even modern day Olympics. Sport in ancient Greek art Athletics were an important part of the cultural life of Ancient Greeks. Depictions of boxing and bull-leaping can be found back to the Bronze Age. Buildings were created for the sole use of athletics including stadions, palaestra, and gymnasiums. Starting in the Archaic Period, Panhellenic Games, including the Olympic Games, begin taking place each year. These games gave people from all over Greece the chance to gain fame for their athletic prowess. Athletics in Greece became one of the most commonly depicted scenes of everyday"
"thought that bathing and physical exercise were separate on the whole (they considered physical training as warfare preparation and therefore had no place near baths). This bath/training room was a uniquely Greek custom. The typical Greek games included events for javelin, long jump, and discus. Other events had wrestling and boxing. Greek styled games had several initial functions. One of them was to celebrate generals’ successes in Greece. Other functions involved power moves exercised by rulers. Roman emperors had considerable decisions over the Campus Martius. Julius Caesar had temporary stages in the Campus, including ones with an artificial lake designed"
"Olympics even as spectators, Cynisca won an Olympic game as owner of a chariot (champions of chariot races were owners not riders), as did Euryleonis, Belistiche, Zeuxo, Encrateia and Hermione, Timareta, Theodota and Cassia. After the classical period, there was some participation by women in men's athletic festivals. Women in Sparta began to practice the same athletic exercises that men did, exhibiting the qualities of Spartan soldiers. Plato even supported women in sports by advocating running and sword-fighting for women. Notably, cultural representations of a pronounced female physicality were not limited to sport in Ancient Greece and can also be"
"to the games to display their works in what became an artistic competition. Sculptors created works like Myron's ""Diskobolos"" or ""Discus Thrower"". Their aim was to highlight natural human movement and the shape of muscles and the body. Poets would be commissioned to write poems in praise of the Olympic victors. Such victory songs or epinicians, were passed on from generation to generation and many of them have lasted far longer than any other honor made for the same purpose. Pierre de Coubertin, one of the founders of the modern Olympic Games, wanted to fully imitate the ancient Olympics in"