EVENTS

(ADDED IN EVERY OLYMPIAD)

At the first 13 Olympiads the only event was the stadion race.

Over the next 580 years, events were added and taken away.

In 724 B.C.E. ,at the fourteenth Olympiad, the diaulos was added. This race was two lengths of the stadium.

At the next Olympiad, the dolichos was added. This race was twenty or twenty-four lengths.

In 708 B.C.E. ,the eighteenth olympiad, different types of events were added- the pentathlon and wrestling.

The five events in the pentathlon were discus, jumping, javelin, running, and wrestling, in that order.

In 688 B.C.E., at the twenty-third Olympiad, boxing was added. Boxers fought until they either collapsed or admitted defeat. The boxer wore leather thongs on their hands as a sort of boxing glove.

Eight years later, in the twenty-fifth Olympiad, a four-horsed chariot race, or tethrippon, was added. Although racers in the outside lanes had a longer distance to run, a mechanical device opened the gates in sequence. This way the outside lanes had a longer distance to travel, but they got to leave first. The owners of the horses were rarely the ones racing them. They would hire someone to race for them, but if the racer won, the owner would be proclaimed winner.

Later, in the thirty-third Olympiad, pankration was added to the list of events. This was like a form of extreme wrestling, where the only types of hits not allowed was gouging with the thumb and biting. Wrestling, boxing, and pankration were known as the 'heavy' events,"  because there were no weight classes or time limits. A pankriatist won the same way a boxer did.

The horse-race was added at the thirty-third Olympiad also. The rider was usually paid by the owner, just like in the tethrippon. In this race, however, the jockey rode bare-back on one horse.

In 632 B.C.E., at the thirty-seventh Olympiad, a footrace and wrestling were added for boys between the ages of 12 and 18. 

In 628 B.C.E., the pentathlon for boys was added. However, it was immediately cancelled for no apparent reason. 

At the forty-first Olympiad, boys boxing was added.

In 520 B.C.E.the hoplitodromos  was added during the sixty-fifth Olympiad  in which competitors wore a helmet and greaves (armor for the legs) and carried a rounded shield. Sometimes their bodies were covered entirely in armor.

In 500 B.C.E, in the seventieth Olympiad, the next event to be introduced was the apene, or mule cart race.

In 496 B.C.E., the calpe, or the single mare race, was added to Olympic competition.

In 444 B.C.E. the apene and the calpe were both discontinued  at the eighty-fourth Olympiad.

In 408 B.C.E. at the ninety-third Olympiad, the synoris was added. This was a race with two horses. This event was probably one of the oldest, since it is depicted on ancient pottery.

In the ninety-sixth Olympiad, a new innovation was introduced. There were competitions for the heralds and trumpeters.

In 384 B.C.E. chariot racing for teams of four colts were added three Olympiads later. The rider dismounted for the last stretch and ran beside his horse.Chariot racing for teams of two colts, added in the 128th olympiad, was presumably run in the same fashion.

In 256 B.C.E. another race for colts was added ,in the 131st olympiad, and was probably conducted in the same manner as the horse race, riding on one horse with no saddle or stirrups.

In 200 B.C.E.The last event to be introduced was pankration for boys , at the 145th Olympiad.