Running and kicking,
throwing and batting,
many sports have long histories.
“This book is not about the first to the finish line. It is about who started things. It is about those who felt that playing was more important than winning.” (pg. 1)
In prehistory, running fast and throwing accurately meant survival. Celebrating a strong mind and a strong body, the Ancient Greeks insisted on education and began the Olympic Games.
Swimming has been a life skill and sport for over 900,000 years, we know from very ancient cave paintings! The first manuals on how to swim appeared in 1534.
Skiing developed from Stone Age snowshoes, with the first written records of skiing in China in 206 BCE. New technologies led to professional skiing, snowboarding, and snurfing.
On ice, people first glided with their feet on skates made of bone, then went faster with steel blades. Did you know that ballet dancer Jackson Haines invented figure skates in the 19th century?
With game elements from Egypt, Greece, Native peoples of Canada, France, and England, the first ice hockey matches were played by Canadian university students in the 1870s, who introduced a goaltender and set the rules.
Scotland is called the home of golf, but similar games with a club and ball were played in ancient Rome, China, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Ball-kicking games played in the Roman Empire, China, and Japan led to soccer, rugby, and football – each with their own rules about ball shape, scoring, time, field markings, and whose hand can touch the ball.
Keeping a feathered ball in the air has been a game for over 2000 years, whether using hands or feet or a paddle or a racket; badminton with feathery shuttlecock and tennis with rubber ball and heavier racket.
Basketball began in 1891 by James Naismith as a year-round indoor sport. Soon after, W.G. Morgan invented volleyball as an indoor winter sport with less running.
Baseball in its modern form was developed in the USA, echoing bat and ball games played in ancient Egypt and England from the 14th century.
Which sport is your favorite?
**kmm
Book info: The Origins of Sports / Stepanka Sekaninova & Tom Velcovsky; illustrated by Matej Ilcik; translated by Andrew Oakland. Albatros, 2023. [publisher site https://www.albatrosbooks.com/book/the-origins-of-sports/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher, via Publisher Spotlight.