Most of mankind’s earliest sports evolved out of the activities and equipment used for early humans’ survival. The beginnings of most of the sports we participate in today developed tens of thousands of years ago during some of the world’s earliest civilizations. Many of these activities developed simultaneously in different parts of the world out of natural human movement, which makes the origins of some of these sports hard to trace.
All of these ancient sports, in some form, are still practiced around the world today. Gymnastics was developed by the ancient Greeks around 500 BCE as a method to prepare men for warfare. During the Greek Hellenistic period (c.323 BCE – 31 BCE), the sport became popular with everyday citizens and it was eventually included in the Olympics. Disclaimer: Mankind’s earliest sports grew out of survival skills. Wrestling is considered one of the very first, with depictions found in the Lascaux cave paintings in France dating back over 15,000 years. Running also has prehistoric roots, since speed was crucial for both hunting and escaping danger; by around 3,000 BCE, footraces were already being held in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and the very first Olympic event in Greece in 776 BCE was a sprint known as the stadion.
