Podcasts – Stories – Ancient Olympic Athletes
Introduction
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This support pack contains the following materials:
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• a language activity based on the story.
Read the story
Athletes of the Ancient Olympic Games
Chionis of Sparta
Chionis of Sparta was an athlete of ancient
Greece who was most notable for his jumping
records in the ancient Olympics. Records suggest
that in the 656 BC Olympics Chionis jumped a
then record of 7 meters and 5 centimetres. If
accurate, such a record would have won Chionis
the inaugural Olympic title of the modern Olympic
Games in 1896 and placed him among the top
eight at a further ten Olympics, up to and
including the 1952 Games of Helsinki.
Cynisca
Cynisca (Kyniska - meaning "puppy") was a
Spartan princess who was born around 440 BC.
She was the sister of Spartan king Agesilaus II.
She became the first woman in history to win at
the ancient Olympic Games. While most women
in the ancient Greek world were kept in seclusion
and forbidden to learn any kind of skills in sports,
riding or hunting, Spartan women by contrast
were brought up from girlhood to excel at these
things and to disdain household chores.
As well as his amazing achievements in long
jump, Chionis was also noted as a triple jumper
capable of reaching up to 15.85 metres (52 feet).
Although the rules of such jumps are unclear,
such a distance under modern rules would have
won Chionis the modern Olympic title right up to
the 1952 games in Helsinki.
Although the ancient Games were almost entirely
male-only, women were allowed to enter the
equestrian events - not by running, but by owning
the horses. Cynisca won in the four-horse chariot
race in 396 BC and again in 392 BC.
Chionis was also credited with winning three
consecutive titles in the diaulos and stade
between 664, 660, and 656 B.C.. The diaulos
was an event that involved a race of two laps
around the track, or about 384 metres (420
yards). The stade was the signature contest of
the 476 BC Olympics that involved a sprinting
race that was run the length of a straight track,
perhaps similar to the modern 100m sprint.
Chionis' record was not matched until the 480 BC
Olympics where a man called Astylos
(representing Syracuse, Sicily) achieved the
same feat, but also demonstrated his versatility
by winning the hoplites, which was a race
completed in an armoured suit. Defending the
honour of Chionis, the Spartans amended the
inscription on his memorial stele in Olympia,
pointing out that there was no hoplites event in
his time.
However according to Plutarch, she was
encouraged by her brother Agesilaus in an
attempt to discredit the sport. He viewed success
in chariot racing as a victory without merit, due to
the limited involvement of the horses' owner. By
having a woman win, he hoped to show the sport
to be unmanly, but Cynisca's victories did not
stop wealthy Spartans' engagement in the sport.
In the sanctuary of Olympia, Cynisca had an
inscription written declaring that she was the only
female to win the wreath in the chariot events at
the Olympic Games.
Kings of Sparta are my father and brothers.
Kyniska, conquering with a chariot of fleet-footed
steeds,
Set up this statue. And I declare myself the only
woman
In all Hellas to have gained this crown.
Leonidas of Rhodes
Leonidas of Rhodes (born 188 BC) was one of
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Podcasts – Stories – Ancient Olympic Athletes
the most famous Olympic runners of antiquity.
Competing in the Olympic Games of 164 BC, he
captured the crown in three separate foot races
— the stadion, the diaulos, and the
hoplitodromos. He repeated this feat in the next
three subsequent Olympics, in 160 BC, in 156
BC, and finally in 152 BC at the age of 36.
Leonidas's lifetime record of twelve Olympic
crowns was unmatched in the ancient world.
Leonidas was renowned not only for his
unsurpassed number of victories but for his
versatility as a runner. His favored races required
speed and strength in differing degrees; the
stadion and the diaulos, 200-yard and 400-yard
races respectively, were best suited to sprinters,
while the hoplitodromos, a diaulos performed in
full bronze armor, required more muscular
strength and endurance. Philostratus the
Athenian wrote in his Gymnastikos that
Leonidas's versatility made all previous theories
of runners' training and body types obsolete.
He was born in the Greek colony of Croton in
Southern Italy. He was a six time Olympic victor;
once for Boys Wrestling in 540 BC at the 60th
Olympics, and five time wrestling champion at the
62nd through 66th Olympiads. Milo kept on
competing, even well after what would have been
considered a normal Olympic Athlete's prime: by
the 67th Olympiad, he would have been over 40
years of age. He also attended many of the
Pythian Games.
Astylos of Croton
Astylos of Croton was an athlete from ancient
Greece that starred in the ancient Olympics of the
5th century BC. He was mentioned in records
from General Pausanias that claim he excelled in
three successive Olympic games from 488 to 480
BC, in the running events of stade and diaulos.
Astylos was famous for equalling the
achievements of previous champion athlete
Chionis of Sparta. Astylos not only matched the
achievements of Chionos, in that he won on three
separate occasions the stade and diaulos events,
he also won the hoplites event, which was a
running race with full amoured suits.
Despite his fame, Astylos died a lonely man.
When he agreed to participate in the 484 and 480
BC Olympic games as a Syracusan citizen in
honor of the tyrant Hieron, the people of Croton
expelled him from the city and demolished his
statue in their city. It is also said that Astylos was
bribed by officials in Syracuse to compete under
their name, giving Astylos the unusual claim-tofame of being the world's first free agent. His
house was also turned into a prison as a sign of
disrespect, while his family also renounced him.
Milo of Croton
Milo or Milon of Croton (late 6th century BC) was
the most famous of Greek athletes in Antiquity.
He was most likely a historical person, as he is
mentioned by many classical authors, among
them Aristotle, Pausanias, Cicero, Herodotus,
Vitruvius, and the author of the Suda, but there
are many legendary stories surrounding him.
Diodorus Siculus wrote in his history that Milo
was a follower of Pythagoras and also that he
commanded the Crotonian army which defeated
the Sybarites in 511 BC, while wearing his
Olympic wreaths and dressed like Hercules in a
lion's skin and carrying a club.
Ancient sources report he would show off his
strength by holding his arm out, with fingers
outstretched, and no man could even bend his
little finger. He would sometimes stand on a
greased iron disk, and challenge people to push
him off of it. Other sources speak of him holding a
pomegranate in one hand, and daring others to
take it from him. Nobody ever could, and despite
him holding the fruit very tightly, it was never
damaged. Another legend has it that he would
train in the off years by carrying a newborn calf
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Podcasts – Stories – Ancient Olympic Athletes
on his back every day until the Olympics took
place. By the time the events were to take place,
he was carrying a four year old cow on his back.
Another story relating to his strength was that he
claimed to carry a calf a mile every day. After 4
years, he carried the full-grown cow the length of
the stadium, then proceeded to kill, roast, and eat
it.
Another legend says that he offered to cut down
a large tree for a woodsman, who was grateful for
the help and promised to return with food later in
the day. However, the woodsman never returned,
and while Milo was working the tree collapsed on
his hand, trapping him. The legend says that Milo
was then eaten by wolves or a lion.
This text comes from Wikipedia.
After reading
Exercise 1
In the table below are the names of the five athletes. Below the table are ten sentences - two about each
athlete. Can you match the names to the sentences?
Astylos
Chionis
Cynisca
Leonidas
Milo
In order to defend his/her name, his/her compatriots changed what had been written about him/her when
he/she died.
1. In order to defend his/her name, his/her compatriots changed what had been written about
him/her when he/she died death.
2. He/she accepted money to participate for another city.
3. He/she was a member of a royal family.
4. He/she was certainly famous because he/she is referred to in many works of literature.
5. He/she was encouraged to participate in the Olympics in an attempt to harm the reputation of the
sport that he/she competed in.
6. He/she was so adaptable that all previous assumptions about the preparation of runners and
their physiques were superseded.
7. When he/she died he/she was not surrounded by his/her family.
8. When he/she stopped competing he/she was much older than most athletes when they retire
from sport.
9. He/she won more Olympic events than any other athlete.
10. He/she would have been an exceptional athlete even in the 20th century A.D.
Answers
Exercise 1: 1. Chionis; 2. Astylos; 3. Cynisca; 4. Milo; 5. Cynisca; 6. Leonidas; 7. Astylos; 8. Milo; 9.
Leonidas; 10. Chionis
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