The Greeks also simply loved to watch competitions. In addition to the Olympics every four years, they held games at other religious festivals—the Pythian Games for Apollo at Delphi, the Isthmian Games for Poseidon and the Nemean Games, which honored Zeus.
The Crown Games, as these competitions collectively were known, featured a range of events, from chariot races to track and field events and combat sports. 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.
