Sports, a category that 232,6 million people participate in, is widely popular worldwide. Whether you just enjoy watching these sports, yelling at the tv every Sunday, or genuinely thinking about participating in the later years, participation in sports is always a good way to spend some of your free time. A lot of people know about sports in general, but do you know the history behind it? Now you will after you finish reading this article!

Sports, in their organized form, originated in ancient Greece, with the first recorded Olympic Games taking place in 776 BC. However, the roots of many sports can be traced back even further, with evidence of athletic contests in running, jumping, and throwing appearing in the Egyptian and other ancient civilizations thousands of years before the Greeks.

The Olympic games in 776 BC are a key marker in the history of sports, signifying the beginning of formalized athletic competitions. These games included events like footraces, chariot races, wrestling, and throwing contests, and they were celebrated for over a millennium. While pinpointing the absolute first sport is difficult, wrestling and spear throwing are often cited as among the earliest. Wrestling has been documented through cave paintings and other artifacts dating back 15,300 years in France and other locations. Spear throwing, a necessary skill for hunting, also predates the establishment of organized sports.

The first ball game, like the Mesoamerican ballgame and the Chinese version of football (Tsu Chu), also have a long history, with some originating around 2500 BCE. Tsu Chu is an ancient Chinese ball game, often considered the earliest form of football by FIFA. It involved kicking a ball, often made of leather and stuffed with feathers or air, through a small opening in a net or net-like structure. It began to decline during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) due to neglect and was banned by the Hongwu Emperor. The sport ultimately faded away after about 2,000 years. It was initially created during the Han Dynasty, from 206 BC to 220 AD.

The number of participants is not precisely recorded, but historians estimate that at least  hundreds of men participated, as the Olympics were primarily a male-only event at the time.

Now, there are approximately 8,000 indigenous sports and games, and about 200 with international recognition. In the United States, a record 242 million people participated in sports or fitness activities in 2023.

So, do you wanna join the millions of people who are participating in these very old sports?