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.
