The History of Sports. From Ancient Greece to the Present Day

Sports competitions have come to us from distant antiquity. Many thousands of years ago, during the Stone Age, our ancestors competed with each other in accuracy, speed, strength, and endurance. Many rock paintings, which are about 30,000 years old, tell how this happened back then. Of course, these were not the types of sports we are used to today, but the foundation for the development of sports was laid. Time went on, and people invented new, sometimes very strange sports entertainments from our modern perspective, such as knocking squirrels from trees, tug-of-war with eels, fishermen's fights on boats, and jumping over the backs of bulls… Further on—more, and already in Ancient Greece, the first Olympic Games are held, and from that moment the history of sports develops rapidly. In a small book, it is unfortunately impossible to tell the complete history of such a significant phenomenon for our civilization, but you will read interesting information about the most popular sports, outstanding athletes, international sports organizations, and much, much more interesting things.