Ancient Olympic Pentathlon
Ancient Olympic pentathlon, which is an extinct sport, was an athletic competition which consisted of five events, standion, javelin throw, discus throw, long jump, and wrestling. The objective of the competition was to find the best overall athlete.
All the five events were conducted on a single day. The competition started with standion, that involves a short distance running race for about 200 yards. For the javelin throw event, a spear similar to one used during wars were used. The javelin throw event tested the athletes for both farthest distance thrown and accuracy of throws.
For the discus throw event, a solid bronze disc was used for throwing, and the objective was to throw for distance. The long jump event was different from the current version of long jump, and was more similar to the modern triple jump, in which athletes made five successive leaps as a part of a single jump. Also, the participants held onto weights (called halteres) which were thrown backwards during the jump to propel them forward and increase the length of their jump.
For the javelin, discuss and long jump events, each athlete was allowed five attempts, and the best result was picked towards deciding the winner.
The wrestling event was similar to modern day wrestling and the objective was to takedown the opponent.
There are no clear records of how the winner of the pentathlon was decided and there are only theories suggesting certain possibilities.
Related Pages
- Sporting Events of the Ancient Olympics
- Similar sports at the modern Summer Olympics: athletics pentathlon, Modern Pentathlon, decathlon,
- About Extinct and Ancient Sports
- List of Extinct Sports
- Complete list of sports
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