Even though the Ancient Greeks were known for their sports and the ancient Olympics games you might not know that being athletic in our genes, writes Abdelrahman Wael.
If you take a deep dive in our history you’ll find that in fact Ancient Egyptians created a lot of the games and sports we still play today. Ancient Egyptians would create the games and practise it for years, then it would travel to the Greeks and they would develop it throughout the years.
Sport games and events were very important back then as they were part of the king's coronation, celebrations of military victories, religious ceremonies and festivals. That’s why it was well organised: there were a set of basic rules to the game and a referee to enforce the rules; they would even have a specific uniform for the players. Ancient Egyptians were also the first to create the idea of a medal as they would give the winner a collar while announcing their victory to the audience. In some religious ceremonies, mock matches would be played where one team represented Horus (God of Kingship) and the other represented Set (God of the Desert) and Horus would always win to show how order always triumphs over chaos and echoes the amazing Isis and Osiris myth.
Ancient Egyptians had all kinds of sports starting from group sports to individual, water, animal-related or even spiritual sports like what yoga is today. Unexpectedly, sports weren’t well known or popular in ancient Egypt as it was limited between the upper class and the pharaohs as a form of entertainment. It was also a very important part of the pharaohs legitimacy as after thirty years into their reign and every three years after that, they would have to run a triathlon, where they would have to test out their physical skills to remain worthy of their title. One can’t imagine just how many of these festivals Pepi II attended in his 96 year reign. Pharaohs would also be one of the very few people able to go on hunts on chariots in specific hunting grounds. They would hunt for big game like Leopards, lions and cheetahs when Egypt still had the diverse animals we see in old art.
There were many sports practised in Ancient Egypt, but here are some that we may recognise today: handball, which was played exactly the same way as today (probably why we're so good at it), rowing in the Nile, Field Hockey with pucks made of papyrus and sticks made of palm leaves and weightlifting with heavy sacks of sand practising what today we call the clean and jerk (lifting from the ground to above the head in two motions). They also practised what today would be called belt wrestling and boxing, which is why they would become so successful in the Greek olympics, winning gold multiple times. You also may not have thought of these as sports, but tug of war was also one of the most popular sports in Ancient Egypt as well as fishing with poles and with nets.
Onto sports that were lost to the sands of time (although maybe we should revive some of them), they loved a sport called tug of hoop, where contestants would compete in pulling a hoop without snatching it by hand, only by rope. They also practised a form of high jump where the bar was set by other people, which is similar to the game goosesteps that some people in the countryside of Egypt still play to this day, you can ask any kid for the rules. Chariot racing became the single largest sport in Egypt (and most of the world) by the time of the Greeks and the Romans and the city of Alexandria housed one of the largest hippodromes (a place where they organise horse races) in the world called the Lageion. While it was originally a theatre, it later became a hippodrome to accommodate the demand for chariot racing, but sadly the building does not survive today.
Sports took a back seat during the middle ages, but perhaps the single most important sport to Egypt now, Football, was introduced to us by the British in 1882, where many local clubs faced British clubs. Egypt was set to participate in the first world cup in 1930, but the team missed the ship as it had been stalled by a storm (at least it wasn’t their fault). Egypt would go on to attend the second world cup in 1934, another in 1990 and the latest in 2018, but the team would never make it out of the group stages. However, Egypt has won the African cup a record seven times. Perhaps sports are in Egyptian genetics and that is why they excel in them so much. In more recent times, Egyptians have been the world leaders in Squash. Egyptians would make sure to participate and win every tournament possible in both the men’s and women’s category. Women started practising squash as it provided for equality since it gives away the same prize money for both men and women. Sports doesn’t only help you stay fit and improve your mentality, it's also a gateway for the youth to study abroad in the top universities as for example the number one squash player Ali Farag was able to graduate from Harvard university with a degree in mechanical engineering.