The early sporting events were true nude shows that glorified male virtues.

It is hard to imagine participants in the Olympic Games or other sporting events competing in the nude today. That would defy the good sense and sport ethics, as many would say. Such appearance would also draw criticism or boycott from conservative or religious groups.

Perhaps fans only might have another opinion, if ALL athletes performed in Adam’s and especially Eve’s clothes.

And yet more than 2,800 years ago Ancient Greece’s athletes competing to bring homage to Olympic god Zeus were all naked. They were men, of course.

For ancient Greeks, the naked male body was an important symbol of manhood, dominant status, physical strength, and victory. Zeus, the supreme god, was the celestial embodiment of these virtues and in the 8th through 4th centuries BC honoring him in the nude was considered prestigious.

In fact, the modern words “gymnasium” and “gymnastics”, which nowadays define a type of public school and a kind of sport, respectively, derive from the Greek γυμνός (gymnos), which translates as “naked” or “lightly clad”.

Gymnasium during those times was a place where men and teen boys were trained and educated.

There, they socialized in the nude.

There’s no surprise they wrestled, threw discuses, and raced during competitions in the nude too. Only charioteers wore long white tunics, for safety reasons.

Who dropped his clothes first?

Although the Olympic Games were first celebrated in 776 BC, as a religious festival dedicated to Zeus it wasn’t until 720 BC – the 15th Olympiad – that athletes began to compete butt-naked, although historians are not entirely sure why. According to some accounts, the first athlete to compete naked was Osippus. A runner from Megara, it is believed that his loincloth fell accidentally during a 180-meter footrace.

Another version suggests he had discovered he could run faster naked. The Spartans – rivals to the Athenians – would claim it was their athlete Acanthus who appeared first in the nude, therefore this was originally a Spartan tradition.

Who was the first to compete naked at the Olympics is still debatable and what we know almost for sure – from old writings, frescos, and pottery – is that by the end of the 8th century BC it became a norm. Records from Athenian philosopher Plato, historian Thucydides, and poet Homer indisputably confirm that nudity was the standard setting for sports.

Displaying physical prowess and perfection was also a method to intimidate the opponents and attract the audience’s support.

What did winners get?

First of all, there were no medals for Olympic Games winners; they normally received cash, free meals, tax exemptions, and other prizes. The sum of cash in today’s equivalent would amount to around 100,000 US dollars.

Some winners hoped to have their muscular torsos immortalized in statues and busts by sculptors.

The highest honor, however, was to take the title of winner to their hometowns, which received them as true heroes and composed odes about them.

In each kind of sports there was only one winner; no second or third places.

The Olympic Games in Ancient Greece lasted for nearly 12 centuries before Roman Emperor Theodosius saw the games as a pagan cult and banned it in 393 AD.

They resumed in 1896 thanks to the efforts of Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France and have grown to more than 300 kinds of sports so far… none in the nude though.

Sources: Southern Utah University, Historynewsnetwork, Ancient-Origins, Medium, Wikipedia