FACT 5 : Wrestling vs. Running

Tailteann games in Ireland

 If running is the only form of exercise you like doing, and someone asks you what your sport was , the reasonable answer you would give is " running " right ? But is it really? The argument whether running is considered a sport is a heavy topic. According to definition.com a sport : should involve physical exertion , involve a degree of skill , should be done competively for entertainment, should have a certain amount of people participating , and a fixed set of rules. Does running fall into all of these examples? Well, to a certain extent , yes. It depends, if one simply runs from time to time at a near by park or at home on a treadmill then technically this does not go in favor of the definition of a sport . However , if one is on a school track team...then the definition of sport applies to running well. According to "8 Oldest Sports In the World" , human running evolved sometime around four and a half million years ago. According to the Ancient History Encyclopedia , One early depiction was found in the Lascaux caves in France roughly about  15,300 years ago! However , in a competitive view , the earliest cited was in Ireland , 1829 B.C , as a running competition.

                                                In contrast , Wrestling is also cited for being the first sport in the world.

Egyptian Mural around 2400 B.C

 In the old days , wrestling was a way of saying " I am stronger than you." Now , some say its just fake entertainment you see on television and others join teams and do state competitions. Is wrestling really considered a sport? Just like running , wrestling complies to the definition of sport , only in context to being involved as a competition. There are historical pictorial representations of early wrestling  , cave paintings in the Bayankhongor Province of Mongolia dating back to Neolithic age of 7000 B.C. But , Wrestling cited as a competitive sport was introduced into the ancient Olympics in 708 B.C.

Now , the fact I am concentrated on in this blog,  Is whether or not wrestling is the oldest sport or running is. After comparing and researching so many sources ... I conclude that in a Competitive state , Wrestling is the oldest sport. We cannot take cave drawings as reliable evidence .Mainly because, we cannot fully understand what was happening or what it was meant to represent . One may never know how our ancestors viewed their physical exertions as just a game or a way to show dominance. But , we do know when humans started to treat these activities as a competetion.

“Wrestling Freestyle: Equipment and History - Olympic Sport History.” International Olympic Committee, 15 May 2018, www.olympic.org/wrestling-freestyle-equipment-and-history?tab=history.

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

4, Matthew May, and Name *. “Oldest Sports in the World.” Pledge Sports, 4 Sept. 2019, www.pledgesports.org/2018/02/oldest-sports-in-the-world/.

Groeneveld, Emma. “Lascaux Cave.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 9 Feb. 2020, www.ancient.eu/Lascaux_Cave/.