- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Today the Grand-Prix racing car has replaced the chariot. For the same reason that thousands of people flock to watch motor sports, the chariot race was the most spectacular event of the ancient Olympic Games and this was the opening event of the second day.
Read part one in this exclusive series
The chariots were little more than a footrest on a railing suspended between the wheels. Charioteers, leaning forward over their horse’s rumps, were balanced almost like present –day ski jumpers
The racecourse, or hippodrome, was long and narrow with very tight turns. The distance was about nine miles, or 14.7 kilometres, 12 double laps of the hippodrome.
For the drivers, 23 sharp turns in a dusty, confined space, while trying to control four powerful, skittish beasts must have posed more problems than any of today’s hairpin bends.
Crashes were common. In one Olympic race, with 40 starters, only one chariot completed the course.
Invariably, the driver did not own the team and so it was an event where the crowned victor had not necessarily participated. The event was dominated by the wealthy; by people trying to buy private office on the strength of the honour their horses had brought the district.
It also meant that a woman could own a team.
Thus, the first recorded female Olympic Games winner was not in Paris in 1900 when Charlotte Cooper of Great Britain won a gold medal in the women’s tennis singles, but 2296 years earlier in 396 BC, when Cynisca, daughter of King Agesilaus II of Sparta won.
She also won in the following Olympics.
One wealthy winner, Lichas of Sparto, became so excited when his team won that he rushed to the finishing line and tied a victory ribbon around his charioteer’s perspiring brow. For that impropriety, Lichas was seized and whipped by the umpires.
For a century, trotting races and mule-cart races were also a part of the Games. One mule, Aura of Corinth achieved immortality when her jockey fell off at the starting gate.
She trotted on without him and won.
The judges decreed special honours for her as well as a statue. There were also horse races which were more like the modern equivalent, though more violent and frequently the riders were pitched from their mounts and were killed instantly.
On the afternoon of the second day, the pentathlon was held. The athletes competed in the discus, javelin, broad jump, a foot race of about 200 metres and finally wrestling.
Like today’s decathlon events these field contests called for the best-rounded techniques and skills.
The greatest pentathlon champion was Hysmon, born close to Olympia. As a child he resolved to become a champion but, unfortunately, he was struck down with a disease similar to polio and he was bedridden for several years.
Throughout his adversity he never relented on his dream. In time, through sheer guts and determination, he overcame his disabilities to win.
The statue of Hysmon at Olympia represented him with jumping weights, like dumb-bells, in his hands.
These were used in the broad jump, an event that was accompanied by the music of the flute. Vase paintings give evidence of the flute being played while the jumping was in progress. Most likely it helped establish rhythm.
We do not know exactly what type of jump was carried out but we do know that Phayllus of Croton was credited with a leap of 16.7 metres, which is almost twice the length of the current world record.
It seems likely that the event was a series of five, two-footed leaps with the jumping weights adding momentum in propelling the body forward.
Another theory is that the athletes took off from a springboard. This makes Phayllus’s 16.7 metre leap creditable and accounts for the fact that he broke his leg on landing.
The Games were to some extent, were a preparation for war. This accounts for the inclusion of the javelin and discus. Both Greek and Roman soldiers used the javelin.
At the Olympics the Greeks wrapped a 30 to 50 centimetre thong around the shaft, near the centre of gravity. In the follow through, the forefinger remained in the loop of the thong till the last moment. This added leverage as well as imparting a balanced spin to the javelin.
The thong was not used in battle as aim outweighed distance.
There is no clear picture of the size of discus used at ancient Olympia. Archaeologists have unearthed discoi weighing from three to fifteen pounds.
Unlike the complicated point scoring system of today’s decathlon, the pentathlon was decided on the number of first places gained. If an athlete won the first three events then the pentathlon was over.
If, however, two athletes were even then they would wrestle each other to decide the winner.
In the lead-up to the opening ceremony in Beijing on August 8th, this is the first installment in a five-part series looking at the origins of the Olympics.