Mans Oldest Sport

With a pop of a gunshot the runners explode with speed and agility. Their minds focus on steady breathing and keeping pace while little do they realize in this moment they are playing the oldest sport known to man. Some may argue that another sport such as wrestling or javelin throwing is older than running, but evidence would suggest otherwise.

Running is one of the most universal forms of exercise, and it is arguably the oldest sport to exist. History shows “The first event in the first ever Olympics in 776 BCE was a foot race” (“8 Oldest Sports”). Furthermore, the evidence suggest it may not be wrong for one to say that Foot racing is the first game that naturally occurs even in the animal kingdom. If even the animal kingdom participated in the life sustaining action of running it should not come as a surprise that humans categorized it as a sport first. There are records of a race taking place in Ireland in 1829 BCE (“8 Oldest Sports”). As long as you have a working pair of legs you can run, which makes it all that much more obvious why it became our first sport.

Some may say wrestling is as old as running due to the fact that there are depictions of both in Lascaux caves in France dating back to ; however, the article also explains that “wrestling became an Olympic sport in 704 BCE” which means running is at least 72 years longer recognized as an official Olympic sport. Running is a much more universal sport as anyone can outrun another without height, weight, or brute strength playing an advantage or disadvantage.

Running is one of our first basic functions, and ties into many of our every day lives. The natural progression as you age is to crawl, walk. and then run and once that has been learned running becomes as easy as breathing. We may run to cross a street, have a friendly sprint, or train for a marathon and any time we do we carry a piece of history with us.

Sources:
“8 Oldest Sports in the World.” Oldest.Org, 30 Oct. 2017, http://www.oldest.org/sports/sports/.