The art of sports today and their roots in Ancient Greece

The origin of sports and the Olympics; the birth of art dedicated to the study of the human body; careful, incessant focus on the elegance of male athletes—Ancient Greek contributions to sports have been numerous and foundational to the culture that we associate with sports today. One such athletic element has been so thoroughly integrated into the public conscience that we frequently fail to evaluate the true scope of its impact—the romanticization of the male form.

Since the birth of artistic expression, humans have attempted to capture the element of their existence most core to their lived experience—human beings themselves. However, it wasn’t until the Early Classical Period (480-450 BCE), also known as the Period of Transition, that depictions of the human form began to be perfected. 

Perhaps the greatest artistic contribution that the Ancient Greeks made to modern art were studies of the body in motion. Athletes became the prominent muse for sculptors and other artists to capture the essence of bodies in motion, focusing more specifically on techniques such as contrapposto, the balance found in casual or movement-based body language. The Greek origins of representation of balance found in depictions of athletes supplied the basis for how the sculptors and artists of other ancient societies presented art that focused on the body; these works continue to influence the mechanics and techniques of art today.

Importantly, these early depictions of athletics reflected the circumstances surrounding sports in its developmental stages, a time when only men were allowed to compete and competed fully nude. The clear focus on muscular tension and development that we see in Ancient Greek sculpture developed from real exposure to what the male nude body looked like in running, throwing, and balancing from position to position without the interruption of clothing, thus enabling the sense of accuracy and grace that we now associate as characteristic of Ancient Greek sculpture.

This intense focus on the male body and its true, fully-exposed nature stimulated another development of the Early Classical Period—the exaggeration of male musculature. Greek sculptures of gods, warriors, and athletes started to formulate impossible standards for the male body, including massive, toned arms, thick but defined torsos, huge thighs, supple knees, and shimmering, perfect curls of hair. 

These images seem to have also integrated themselves into the standards and pressures set up for male and masculine-identifying individuals, creating issues surrounding body dysmorphia and self-esteem that continue to impact men and masculine-identifying persons today. Looking beyond the Early Classical Period and into the High Classical Period of 450-400 BCE, sculptors and artists seemed to have corrected these over-exaggerations, enough that depictions of the male body settled into the perfected standard that we use for art today.

As seen in the many art forms and depictions of athleticism in Ancient Greece, obsession with the male body and athletes planted its roots in the artistic conscience centuries ago. Because of a lack of female representation in Ancient Greek sports, the female form was rarely depicted or focused on during the Early and High Classical Periods of Ancient Greek art. These male-centric focuses are still seen consistently in our perception of athletics today, where women’s sports have historically less turnout than men’s, and where our society gravitates toward sexualizing and diminishing the experiences of female and feminine-aligned athletes.