Sports Timeline

Timeline

  • 776 BCE
    First athletic games in honour of Zeus are held at Olympia with one event, the stadion foot race.
  • 724 BCE
    The diaulos foot-race (two lengths of the stadium) is added to the schedule of the Olympic Games.
  • 720 BCE
    The dolichos foot-race is added to the schedule of the Olympic Games and is won by Akanthos of Sparta.
  • 720 BCE
    Orsippos is the first athlete to discard his loincloth at the Olympic Games, establishing the convention for athletes to compete naked.
  • 708 BCE
    Wrestling and the pentathlon are added to the schedule of the Olympic Games.
  • 688 BCE
    Boxing is added to the schedule of the Olympic Games.
  • 680 BCE
    Chariot races are added to the schedule of the Olympic Games which are extended to two days for the first time.
  • 680 BCE
    The tethrippon (four-horse chariot race) is added to the schedule of the Olympic Games.
  • 648 BCE
    The Pankration (a mix of wrestling and boxing) is added to the schedule of the Olympic Games.
  • 632 BCE
    Events for boys are added to the schedule of the Olympic Games which are extended to three days for the first time.
  • 586 BCE
    First athletic games at Delphi.
  • 580 BCE
    First athletic games at Isthmia.
  • 573 BCE
    First athletic games at Nemea in honour of Zeus.
  • 532 BCE
    Milon of Kroton wins the first of five consecutive wrestling competitions at the Olympic Games.
  • 521 BCE
    Phanas of Pellene wins the stadion, diaulos and race in armour in the same Olympic Games.
  • 520 BCE
    The hoplitodromos (a foot-race in hoplite armour is added to the schedule of the Olympic Games.
  • 488 BCE
    Runner Astylos of Kroton wins the first of his six victories over three Olympic Games.
  • 488 BCE
    Kroton of Magna Graecia wins the first of three consecutive stadion races in the Olympic Games.
  • 420 BCE
    Sparta is excluded from the Olympic Games for breaking the ekecheiria or sacred truce.
  • 416 BCE
    Alcibiades wins three chariot races at the Olympic Games.
  • 408 BCE
    The synoris (two-horse chariot race) was added to the schedule of the Olympic Games.
  • 392 BCE
    The horse owner Kyniska becomes the first woman to win a victor's crown at the Olympic Games.
  • 356 BCE
    Philip II of Macedon wins the horse race at the Olympic Games.
  • 352 BCE
    Philip II of Macedon wins the chariot race at the Olympic Games and retains the crown in 348 BCE.
  • 271 BCE
    Final Games at Nemea.
  • 242 BCE
    The games held in honour of Asclepius on Kos are given Panhellenic status.
  • 164 BCE
    Leonidas of Rhodes wins the first of his 12 Olympic crowns in runnning events in four successive Olymic Games.
  • 80 BCE
    Sulla moves the Olympic Games to Rome for a single Olympiad.
  • 72 BCE
    Gaius becomes the first Roman victor at the Olympic Games.
  • 17 CE
    Roman emperor Tiberius is victorious at the Olympic Games.
  • c. 67 CE
    Emperor Nero competes at the panhellenic Games of Olympia and Delphi.
  • 81 CE
    Hermogenes of Xanthos wins the first of his 8 Olympic running crowns over three consecutive Olympic Games.
  • 261 CE
    The list of victors running back to 776 BCE ends for the Olympic Games.
  • 261 CE
    Last documented victor at Olympic Games.
  • 393 CE
    Roman Emperor Theodosius definitively ends all pagan Games in Greece.
  • c. 591 CE - 585 CE
    The Pythian Games of Delphi began.
Membership