Ancient Greeks gave culture a sporting chance

Foot racing was known in ancient Greece as stade or stadion race — stadion being the ancient Greek word for stadium. Another term for sporting venues — gymnasium — contained the inextricable link between physical training and education, according to Guan.

"Few people might know this, but Aristotle founded his philosophical school on the grounds of the Lyceum, a prominent gymnasium in Athens," she says.

The word athlete derives from the ancient Greek word athlos, meaning contest or struggle. It seems that what the ancient Greek athletes were aiming for, with their struggle, was not mere victory, but a balance of the body and the mind, a deeply philosophical concept not entirely unfamiliar to ancient Chinese philosophers.

The immense popularity and cultural significance of the ancient Olympic Games can be testified by the fact that during the Games, Greek city-states observed a truce known simply as the Olympic Truce, which generally covered the period from one week before the Games to one week after. Safe passage and participation by athletes who took part in the Games was guaranteed, forging among the warring Greek city-states a shared sense of identity that ultimately proved essential to the nation-building of Greece.

One example of the implementation of the Olympic Truce, as documented by the 5th century BC Athenian historian Thucydides, involved its possible breaching by the Spartan forces during the prolonged and brutal conflict known today as the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC).

Having allegedly launched attacks during the truce period, the Spartans were not only fined by the Olympic authorities but also banned from participating in the Games in 420 BC. The Spartans refused to pay the penalty, claiming that their maneuver had been completed before the Olympic Truce was officially announced.