One of the prerequisites for winning at the Olympics is to actually be alive. Or so I thought! The story of Arrichion of Phigalia, an Olympic wreath winner famed for his post-mortem victory, is one of the more peculiar sports stories to have survived the test of time. When defending his Olympic title for the third consecutive year, Arrichion was declared the winner only to discover he had departed the land of the living.
Pankration was a brutal barehanded sport which combined boxing and wrestling to create an ancient version of what is now known as mixed martial arts . In ancient Greece, the trio of wrestling, boxing and pankration were together known as the barea athla , meaning the “heavy events,” all of which were particularly popular at the time. Greeks actually believed that pankration had been invented by Theseus in his attempt to kill the Minotaur.
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Known as pankratists, athletes used a range of techniques, including punching, kicking, striking, chocking, locking, genital twisting and throwing, in a sport I’m positive I would have found revolting to behold. The Greeks, however, loved pankration so much that it was added to the Olympic Games in 648 BC and champion pankratists were the celebrities of their time.
Read more: Ancient Origins
