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Historical evidence proves athletes competed in the buff in Ancient Greece. Or maybe that was just ancient gay porn.

It never fails during Olympic season for pundits across the globe to sigh dreamily and then mention that back in the day Olympic athletes competed in the nude. Hot, sweaty biceps and bulges easily explain that fascination with history. The follow through thought, that Olympians might once again compete in the buff, is as enticing. Who wouldn’t want to see just how big Alexandre Despatie bulges outside of his skin tight speedos? And as a contact sport with a hell of a lot of more contact, wrestling would no doubt become a fan favorite. At least among gay fans. Still, the idea of Olympians competing in the nude gives one pause. Jumping hurdles would be a much more dangerous undertaking. Especially for the well-endowed competitors. Passing the baton during relay races could become problematic. And a bad slip on the pommel horse could ruin not only the athlete’s chances of winning gold, but his entire life. On the other hand, gender testing would become a thing of the past.

That contestants competed naked in ancient Greece is one of those ‘facts’ that just makes so much sense no one ever bothers to check it out. Naked men, historical or not, always grab my attention though, so I did the research for you to answer those age-old questions: Did Olympians compete in the nude? And more importantly, if so, why in the hell did that tradition end!?

The short answer to the former is yes, during the original Olympic games in Ancient Greece all the male athletes competed naked. You need not worry that vagina was on display too because in the good old days only men were allowed to play with the men; women were banned from entering the stadium to watch the games and punishment for breaking the rules was an automatic death sentence by being thrown off Mt. Typeo. Which is I think where the term ‘flying fish’ came from.

The beauty of the athletic male nude was commonly portrayed in statuary in Ancient Greece.

The Greeks may not be good at finance, but male nudity is something they excel at. In fact, the word gymnasium comes from the Greek word gymos, which means ‘naked’. In Ancient Greece there existed a profound appreciation of beauty and aesthetics. Their love for beauty included the human body in addition to their love for nature, philosophy, and the arts.

The Greeks, in their idealization of man in all his glory, were responsible for appreciation of the human body in art and literature for centuries to come. The athlete and hero were common themes in both; nude portrayals of the two were closely connected with one another. Greek commitment to nudity in art and athletics was unique in their day, they felt so strongly about nudity that it was thought to have a magical effect. Their athletes and warriors were even thought to be protected in some way by their nudity.

Even before the Classical era, athletic exercise was an important part of daily life. Even the gods were credited with athletic accomplishments and were commonly depicted as athletes. While through the centuries scholars have debated over the reason athletic competitions were conducted in the nude, and have raised many dubious theories ranging from public nudity being a form of costume for the upper class to competing in the nude without sprouting wood demonstrated self-control, the fact is that athletic excellence demonstrated while buck ass naked was an esthetical offering to the gods.

Nude athletic competitions were considered an esthetical offering to the gods by the Greeks.

Most games in Ancient Greece were held as part of religious festivals and the Olympics were an intrinsic part of a religious festival held in honor of Zeus during the first full moon after the summer solstice. Winners were often immortalized, used as nude models for a statue of a god, and were frequently represented naked as a votive statue offered in temples. It is those statues and numerous surviving depictions of athletes in mosaics and vase paintings that evidence Greek athletic nudity in ancient times.

During the very first Olympic Games, however, athletes did not compete in the nude. It wasn’t until 720 B.C., some forty years later during the fifteenth Olympiad, that the first competitor stripped down to show off all of his talents. Bragging rights for that feat are claimed by several different athletes, but most likely it was Acanthus, a Spartan, who was the first. He competed in two events sans clothing. And won both. Along with the hearts and admiration of the spectators.

Thucydides backs that claim, writing that the Spartans “were the first to bare their bodies and, after stripping openly, to anoint themselves with oil when they engaged in athletic exercise.” But others claim it was Orsippus, a Greek runner from Megara, who first went for the gold while displaying his treasurers. Orsippus’s story, however is that he was not a winner in the race but a loser because he became entangled in his shorts when they floated freely down his legs. Regardless of which of the two athletes got naked first, nudity while competing at the Olympics became the norm, and the infamous archon Hippomenes declared by law that all future athletes were to perform naked. And the game was on.

It is believed the first Olympians to compete naked were Spartans.

According to National Geographic, “The nude athletes would parade like peacocks up and down the stadium. Poets would write in a shaky hand these wonderful odes to the 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.” Greek-speaking Jews during Hellenistic times weren’t big fans of naked sports either. When they would occasionally take part in athletic exercises they were ridiculed for being circumcised, a national and religious custom which was unknown in Greek tradition.

Historical records show that in the sixth century there was an attempt to make athletes wear loincloths, but this proved to be unpopular and soon afterwards nudity regained its status as fashion in athletics. Of course anytime fashion enters into the picture, there are always the divas who take things to the extreme. Some Olympians did not compete entirely naked, they wore a kynodesme (literally a “dog leash”), a thin leather thong used as a penis restraint. The kynodesme was tied tightly around the part of the foreskin that extended beyond the glans, and could then either be attached to a waist band to expose the scrotum, or tied to the base of the penis so that the penis appeared to curl upwards.

Ouch. It’s no wonder then that competitive exercises were called agon, connected with our word agony. And speaking of pain, while not the primary reason for nude competition, there is some evidence that having the athletes compete in the nude helped to prevent cheating and foul play, which was punished publicly on the spot by the judges with a sound lashing, also endured in the buff.

Wrestling would be a much more popular sport with fans if it was still conducted in the nude.

The Olympic Games and naked athletic competition reached their zenith in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, but like all good things they too came to an end. Was it the Islamic faction’s concern that naked athletics lead to sexual degeneracy that led to the demise of the glory of watching superbly toned young men exhibit their taut, muscled bodies while performing feats of athletic prowess? Or was it that the first Persian to compete nude stripping down and displaying his pelt of back hair so disgusted spectators that they demanded athletes cover themselves? Possibly blame could be laid at the feet of competitors from the African continent and the fear that once they began to compete no other country’s athletes would ever measure up. All possible contributions to the demise of naked sports, but the real blame falls on those damn Italians.

The Olympics in Ancient Greece gradually declined in importance as the Romans gained power and influence. In 80 B.C. the 175th Olympiad was moved to Rome. There is no consensus on when the Games officially ended, but the most common-held date is 393 AD, when the emperor Theodosius I banned the Ancient Olympics in part to institute Christianity as a state religion. After 293 Olympic Games had been held, the spectacle of extremely fit naked men playing with each other was no more.

Gold Medal Olympian Alberto Tomba makes up for his country’s error in bringing an end to nudity in the Olympic Games by posing naked.

After the demise of the Ancient Olympic Games, they were not held again until the late 19th century, and by then, unfortunately, athletes no longer competed in all their glory. So yes Virginia, there were naked Olympics. And they live on in the hearts and fantasies of gay men all around the world.

[‘The XXX Games’ are a series of posts about hot Olympians, gay competitors – both present and past – and general articles about the 2012 London Olympics of interest to gay men. So, yeah, lots of hot male eye candy. Click the XXX Games graphic below for additional news, stories, and pictures.]

The XXX Games of the Olympiad