Naked Sports man picture: a naked sportsman during the World Naked Bike Ride in 2004 in Canada

Why did the athletes compete naked in ancient Greece?

No one knows exactly why Greek sportsmen were naked. According to one story, it began when a runner lost his loincloth and tripped on it. Every man took off his loincloth after that and participated in sports naked. But ancient historians have traced it back to initiation rites—young men walking around naked and sort of entering manhood.

We know how fundamental being naked was to Greek culture. It really appealed to the exhibitionism and the vanity of the Greeks. Only barbarians were afraid to show their bodies. The naked sportsmen would parade like peacocks up and down the stadium. Poets would write in a shaky hand these wonderful odes to the naked bodies of the young men, their skin the color of fired clay.

But other cultures, like the Persians and the Egyptians, looked at these Greek men oiling one another down and writhing in the mud, and found it very strange. They believed it promoted sexual degeneracy.

The Romans, although they adopted much of the Greek culture, had a somewhat different appreciation of nakedness. To appear naked in public was considered disgusting.

Even today, we sometimes hear of sports events with men or women participating naked. During the yearly Roskilde Festival (Denmark), a running race for naked men has been a popular event since the year 2002.  Stephen Gough, nicknamed the Naked Rambler, made a long-distance walk from one end of the UK to the other in 2003-2004, wearing only boots.

On 12 June 2004 over 1,000 men and women taking part in the World Naked Bike Ride in 24 mostly North American cities rode their bicycle either partially or totally naked in a light-hearted attempt to draw attention to the danger of depending on fossil fuels.

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