Sports

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

  Kroton of Magna Graecia wins the first of three consecutive stadion races in the Olympic Games.
• 488 BCE

  Runner Astylos of Kroton wins the first of his six victories over three 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.
• 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

  Last documented victor at Olympic Games.
• 261 CE

  The list of victors running back to 776 BCE ends for the Olympic Games.
• 393 CE

  Roman Emperor Theodosius definitively ends all pagan Games in Greece.