Going for Glory: A History of the Ancient Olympics

About this episode

This episode explores the origins of the Ancient Olympics and features a conversation with archaeologist Shelby Brown.

You probably know that the Olympics started in ancient Greece, but did you know that they started as just a single running race? Or that the athletes—all male—competed naked and covered in oil? As the world gears up to watch athletes from nearly 100 countries compete in ice skating and bob sledding (two sports the Greeks would have been shocked at!), we had to know more about where the Olympics came from nearly 3000 years ago! Learn all about the early Olympic games in this bonus conversation with archaeologist Shelby Brown. Visit the episode website for images of art that teach us about Greek athletic competitions and for an episode transcript. Read more about the ancient Olympics and other Greek athletic competitions on Getty's website: https://www.getty.edu/news/the-getty-villa-guide-to-the-ancient-olympics/

People in this episode

Host: Getty

Guest: Shelby Brown

Topics covered

• Ancient Olympics
• Greek history
• athletic competitions
• archaeology
• sports history

Keywords

• Olympics
• Greece
• athletes
• running race
• archaeology
• sports
• history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Getty

Places: Greece, Getty Villa

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