Why No Swimming in the Ancient Olympics?

Abstract

Numerous authors have raised, but not answered, the question of why there were no swimming events in ancient Greek athletic competitions. There are many reasons why it seems inevitable that such competitions would have taken place: the Greeks were intensely competitive, the knowledge of how to swim was seen as distinguishing the Greeks from the barbarians, and the proximity of the ocean. This paper argues that swimming events did not take place because of the danger that such events could have been won by fisherman, oyster divers, or other men who earned their livelihood from swimming. Such men, despite their physical abilities, could not have displayed the arete that was the true focus of Greek athletic competition. Keywords: Ancient Greece, Olympics, swimming