History Pentathlon

Ever since the ancient Greece, men have held athletic competitions or sports. It is only in modern times that women have had an opportunity to compete. Most sports still don't have men and women directly competing against one another. In the past athletic instructors adapted the rules to make sports less physically taxing for women. For instance in basketball, to ensure that girls maintain proper decorum, they were forbidden from snatching the ball and dribbling it more than three times in row. Females would not be considered strong enough to play a full-court basketball game until 1971. Women have struggled to be taken seriously as athletes for more than two centuries. Over the years, females have

Miller’s purpose for writing the book Ancient Greek Athletics is to teach the audience about ancient Greek Games and how this important subject can teach us more about our own world. He accomplishes this goal by using the artifacts he has studied along with the history itself to guide the audience in their journey toward appreciating Greek heritage. In this book, Miller addresses the Olympic Games that began more than twenty-five hundred years ago. I learned many different things throughout this book including: the participants, all the different athletic

Many years ago and until recently people did not really accept the fact that women could play sports as well as men, or even play at all. Over the years, people started to accept some women as athletes at some sports, but not all of them. Sports like rugby, football and handball were only played by men. Nowadays, however, you could easily find a women playing football and many other sports they never used to play better than any of the men you know. People changed their perspective of women being involved in sports when they would see how capable the women were of being good at a sport they play. Women were not allowed at the first olympics ever played but

“The Olympic games satisfied the Greek ideal-- that a healthy body was necessary for a well balanced mind.” ( Quinnell, 156)All over Greece every boy practice the five parts of the pentathlon, ( running, jumping, discus, javelin throwing, and wrestling) hoping that one day they would be able to represent their city in the event. Competitors trained year around to get ready for the games. Greece was known to be one of the most powerful civilization during this era. If a war was to ever break out in Greece they had the advantage because of how fit most of the men already were. The Olympics brought the greek world a unique power against other

As running was the most popular of the events of the games, in 724 BC a second running event was added, the diaulos foot-race, which ran two lengths of the stadium. Gradually, as the games gained popularity, other events were added also, including wrestling, boxing, equestrian events, discus and jumping. Over time, development in Greek society constructed different variations of many of the basis games, expanding the event and gaining popularity. The Pankration, a combination of wrestling and boxing, was added and quickly became the one of the most challenging sports played. The Pentathlon event was also added in 708 BC and incorporated 5 separate games; Discus, Javelin, Jump, Running and Wrestling. As the games developed and events were added, the duration of them became longer. By 5th century BC, the games had extended to a 3-day event, and again to cover 5 days. They were held every 4 years, and were always played at the site of Olympia. With the consistent expansion of games came the development of prizes for worthy victors of the each competition. These became more extravagant and desirable as the games gained

The Olympic games were an athletic competition help in Greece around every four years from 776 B.C.E. In 776 B.C.E, the first olympics were held in Athens where many competitors clashed during the sporting events. The olympics then stopped in 393 C.E. due to Theodosius I’s orders on stopping the olympic events. Later during 1896, the modern olympics began to take place. The olympics were different from the ancient olympics in that the competition was shaped due to social, political, and economic reasons.

The athletic training profession as we know it today first came into existence during the late nineteenth century with the establishment of intercollegiate and interscholastic athletics in the United States. (Prentice, 2014) Prior to this, early civilization athletics were unorganized. Although they were unorganized, there is information that suggests that Greek and Roman civilizations featured people who assisted athletes in reaching their peak physical condition. The evolution of intercollegiate athletics after World War I led to a new demand to prevent and manage athletic injuries. (Prentice 2014)

In the data, which is available from that period, it has been shown that the number of footraces was no more than six or seven per Olympic Games. This has changed greatly in the modern Olympics. The winner of these Ancient Olympic races would be rewarded with an olive branch crown. Another type of footrace, called the hoplite, was introduced rather late in the history of the Ancient Olympics. The race was of about two “stades” undertaken while wearing battle armor composed of round shields and plumed helmets. Racing over hurdles was not at all part of the Greeks’ knowledge during the Ancient Olympics. It was established later in the modern Olympic trials.

I will paraphrase ideas presented in scholarly books written by either Linde, Swaddling, or Ellis. Two of these books are about Ancient Olympic wrestling and I can use these ideas to support the importance of the sport and why it was an original sport in the olympics. The other brook focuses on the art of combat and comments on the important life skills that wrestling teaches those who participate. In fact each of these scholarly sources can be interpreted as arguments supporting off-the-mat life lessons. These sources also talk about the significance of the sport in ancient times. The first paragraph or section of the paper focuses on the originality of the sport belonging in the Olympics. Wrestling is the oldest sport there is. I plan to use a cartoon image in this section that draws an analogy. The image is of a man taking down the bottom circle of the 5 ring Olympic symbol which resembles the circle in the middle of a wrestling mat. This image supports the ides that dropping wrestling is like taking out part of the true

There has been a change in the way certain gender sports were viewed when women/men attempted to challenge the boundaries. Gymnastics for example began as an all-male sport. It was believed that women did not have the build nor strength to compete in this sport. In 1928 were women allowed to compete in the Olympics in

While there are clear contrasts between the ancient and the modern Olympics there is still the respect for the athlete striving to perform at the highest level. Today, the Olympic Games are the world's largest carnival of athletic skill and competitive spirit. They are displays of nationalism, commerce, and politics. These important elements of the Olympics are not a modern invention, as the first Olympics was in 776 BC in Ancient Greece. After 1503 years, in 1896 the Olympic Games were recreated as what we know today. The Ancient Games were once dedicated to the Olympian God, Zeus Olympios and were staged on the ancient plains of Olympia, which is also how the word ‘Olympics’ originated from. The modern Olympics is the largest international sporting event, which feature both summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of respectable athletes from over 200 different nations compete against one another. There are clear contrast between the modern and ancient forms of the Olympic Games regarding uniforms, participants, religion, events, politics and the concept of amateurism. However both the Ancient Greeks and the people in the modern world still respect and admire the athletics achievements of the participants making the Olympics the most highly regarded contest in sport.

There was once a man named George who wanted to compete in the Olympics. This was located in Olympia, a south-western city in Greece. The event took place every 4 years, and was used as a type of calendar. George had been training for years to be in these games, and finally he had his chance. He was going to compete in a pentathlon, or a group of five competitions: sprinting, long-jumping, hurling javelins, discus-throwing, and wrestling other Greeks.

Great post Kandace, yes the Olympics were not for women at its beginnings. In addition to that, ancient Olympic Games were always in the same place and every 4 years, but now are celebrated in a different country every two years alternating summer and winter games. Something that I found really interesting is that back then all wars and battles were not allowed so the athletes could travel safe from and to the games. In the other hand, back then and now the goal of this competition is still focused on building a more peaceful world through the love for sports.

The adverse topic of women in sports stems from society's disregard to viewing women as persons. Women were, and in other parts of the world continue to be viewed as property of men and have no significant role in society. Being allowed into the Olympics was a step in the right direction for women across the world, but it was meager attempt equality. Women were still restricted by what events they were allowed to compete in, how they were trained and coached and even limited as to what they could wear. A woman’s femininity played a large role in the way they were perceived by society; weak. Women were seen as incommensurate to men and it was something that has taken us centuries to reverse. Today, women are given the rights we should have

Back in those days of the Greek and Roman women were not able to participate in physical education and sport to the same degree as men, so they never had the same chances that men did. Greeks would never let women partake in physical education, but the Romans were not quite as harsh letting them occasionally do dancing or light exercise. Once the fall of the Roman Empire happened it became what was known as the dark ages for physical education (Siedentop 25). It was a period of 1,000 years “in which physical activity, sport, and fitness diminished in importance amid political and economic chaos” (Siedentop 25).