Equestrian Events

• This statue, from the Agora Museum, shows Ancient Greek horse racing.Medioimages/Photodisc/Photodisc/Getty Images
  
  There were two main types of equestrian events that took place on the second day of the games at Olympia, chariot racing and horseback racing. The course for the chariot race was 12 laps around the stadium track, which totaled nine miles, and there were separate races around this track for both two-horse and four-horse chariots. There was also a race for carts pulled by two mules. The horseback racing course was six laps around the track, totaling four and a half miles.
  
  

Pentathlon

• The pentathlon also took place on day two of the games and involved a combination of five events. These events were running, wrestling, the discus ( a disc-shape object made from stone, iron, bronze or lead, thrown as a test of strength), the javelin (a long shaft of wood with a sharp metal point that was also thrown) and jumping, all of which are still featured in today's Olympic Games. The jumping aspect of the pentathlon was a long jump, and competitors would use jump weights to assist with the length of the jump.
  
  

Running Races

• The stadion race was the oldest event at the games.Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  The running races took place on day three of the games and involved four races. The stadion, which was a sprint race that was one stade long -- a stade was 192 meters -- a two-stade (384 m) sprint, and a long distance race that ranged from seven to 24 stades (1,344 to 4,608 m.) The final race was a two to four stade (384 to 768 m) race. This race was designed specifically to build the speed and stamina required for the military, and participants ran the race wearing full armor.
  
  

Contact Sports

• There were two main contact sport events that took place on day four, wrestling and pankration. The wrestling was very similar to modern wrestling, a participant had to throw his competitor to the floor three times to win. Like today's rules, biting was not allowed, however, finger breaking was perfectly acceptable. The pankration was a combination of wrestling and boxing. Biting and eye gouging were not allowed, just like today's rules, but unlike modern rules, kicks aimed at the belly were allowed.