INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

Koronia. Well-known are also the achievements of the Athenian
runner Pheidippides, who ran from Athens to Sparta in two days and
the similar achievement of 2000 soldiers of Sparta, who arrived in
Athens in 490 BC, running the distance between the two cities totally
armed, within three days!
Then, there was Phleguas who threw his discus from one side of
the river Alpheus to the other at its widest point. Protesilaus was the
first to throw his discus more than 100 feet (32 m.) in a single throw.
For the long jump we have the testimonies for Phayllus from
Croton and Chionis who both jumped over 16,5 m. length, something
impossible. The experts believe that their jumps looked like the
modern triple jump (today the record is about 17 m.) and they were
not, as it is erroneously believed, simple long jumps (today’s record is
8,5 m.).
In marine achievements we can include the daring effort of the
diver Skyllias from Scione who swam underwater the distance of
about 80 feet that lay between the Persian and the Greek ships that
were anchored before the naval battle of Artemision (480 BC). Also
there was the effort of the helots, who from the mainland swam
underwater to supply the Spartans besieged on the island of Sphacteria
during the Peloponnesian War.
In the Olympic contest for trumpeters, Herodorus from Megara,
who was ten times an Olympic champion (!), used to blare so loud that
nobody could stand by him during the games.
The ancient sources particularly exaggerate when talking about the
so-called heavy sports (boxing, wrestling, pankration (a “no-holdsbarred”
event), and weight lifting). Milo, as it has been already said,
was a great athlete, six times Olympic champion and a winner in
many other Panhellenic and local games in wrestling. All by himself
he carried and setup his statue in Olympia, he transported with his
bare-hands a bull all over Olympia and then he sacrificed it and ate it
within one hour. It is said that he held a pomegranate in his hand so
tightly that nobody could take it from him but at the same time so
loose that he managed not to crush it! He could also stand on a shield
spread with oil in such a way that nobody could move him from it. At
the same time, during a feast, he saved the participants by holding the
roof of the house when the roof fell down.
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