Who, What, Why: Who was Leonidas of Rhodes?
Michael Phelps has broken a 2,000-year-old Olympic record by outperforming the 12 singular titles won by Leonidas of Rhodes. Who was this competitor whose record has taken two centuries to beat, asks Jon Kelly?
Phelps has an aggregate of 22 Olympic gold awards, however nine of these have come in transfers - regarding singular titles he has just barely passed the best competitor of the old world.
Leonidas of Rhodes contended in four progressive Olympiads in 164BC, 160BC, 156BC and 152BC and in each of these he won three distinctive foot races.
A competitor who won three occasions at a solitary Olympics was known as a triastes, or tripler. There were just seven triastes and Leonidas is the just a single known to have accomplished the respect more than once. Astoundingly, he was 36 when he did it on the fourth event - five years more established than Phelps is today.
The three occasions at which he triumphed were the stadion, a sprint of about 200m; the diaulos, which was double the separation of the stadion; and the more extended hoplitodromos, or race in reinforcement.
Not at all like most races, which were keep running naked, the race in protective layer obliged contenders to wear substantial fight outfit, conceivably including a head protector, a breastplate, shin defensive layer and a shield produced using bronze and wood.
"To run every one of these occasions consistently was a significant accomplishment," says Judith Swaddling, senior custodian at The British Museum.
"He got through the qualification amongst sprinters and perseverance competitors," says Paul Cartledge, teacher of works of art at the University of Cambridge. The race in protection had not beforehand been viewed as appropriate for sprinters (the Olympiads had as of now been going for a couple of hundreds of years).
"They were running in shield, the temperature would be 40C. The conditions were fabulously upsetting, requiring totally unique muscles and gymnastic abilities."
There is next to no true to life data about Leonidas, says Cartledge, and no pictures of him survive. Be that as it may, his name - got from the Greek word for lion - recommends he was a man of refinement. "He's likely a noble, presumably well off, most likely from an athletic family," Cartledge says.
Rhodes had a solid athletic custom. Another extraordinary Olympian from the island was the boxer Diagoras, who propelled a tradition of competitors. "Originating from Rhodes you are a bit on the edges," Cartledge says. "You presumably invested more energy than if you were from one of the more seasoned urban areas."
There were no gold, silver or bronze decorations in Leonidas' day - races were champ brings all with the runner who started things out procuring a straightforward olive wreath. After his demise "he was loved as a neighborhood god" in Rhodes, says Swaddling.
He was likewise worshiped in old Greek writing. Pausanias portrayed him as "the most renowned runner". In the third Century, Philostratus the Athenian wrote in his Gymnastikos that Leonidas' flexibility discredited all got insight about athletic preparing and body sorts.
A statue of him in Rhodes showed the legend: "He had the speed of a God." Quite a notoriety for Phelps to satisfy.
Phelps has an aggregate of 22 Olympic gold awards, however nine of these have come in transfers - regarding singular titles he has just barely passed the best competitor of the old world.
Leonidas of Rhodes contended in four progressive Olympiads in 164BC, 160BC, 156BC and 152BC and in each of these he won three distinctive foot races.
A competitor who won three occasions at a solitary Olympics was known as a triastes, or tripler. There were just seven triastes and Leonidas is the just a single known to have accomplished the respect more than once. Astoundingly, he was 36 when he did it on the fourth event - five years more established than Phelps is today.
The three occasions at which he triumphed were the stadion, a sprint of about 200m; the diaulos, which was double the separation of the stadion; and the more extended hoplitodromos, or race in reinforcement.
Not at all like most races, which were keep running naked, the race in protective layer obliged contenders to wear substantial fight outfit, conceivably including a head protector, a breastplate, shin defensive layer and a shield produced using bronze and wood.
"To run every one of these occasions consistently was a significant accomplishment," says Judith Swaddling, senior custodian at The British Museum.
"He got through the qualification amongst sprinters and perseverance competitors," says Paul Cartledge, teacher of works of art at the University of Cambridge. The race in protection had not beforehand been viewed as appropriate for sprinters (the Olympiads had as of now been going for a couple of hundreds of years).
"They were running in shield, the temperature would be 40C. The conditions were fabulously upsetting, requiring totally unique muscles and gymnastic abilities."
There is next to no true to life data about Leonidas, says Cartledge, and no pictures of him survive. Be that as it may, his name - got from the Greek word for lion - recommends he was a man of refinement. "He's likely a noble, presumably well off, most likely from an athletic family," Cartledge says.
Rhodes had a solid athletic custom. Another extraordinary Olympian from the island was the boxer Diagoras, who propelled a tradition of competitors. "Originating from Rhodes you are a bit on the edges," Cartledge says. "You presumably invested more energy than if you were from one of the more seasoned urban areas."
There were no gold, silver or bronze decorations in Leonidas' day - races were champ brings all with the runner who started things out procuring a straightforward olive wreath. After his demise "he was loved as a neighborhood god" in Rhodes, says Swaddling.
He was likewise worshiped in old Greek writing. Pausanias portrayed him as "the most renowned runner". In the third Century, Philostratus the Athenian wrote in his Gymnastikos that Leonidas' flexibility discredited all got insight about athletic preparing and body sorts.
A statue of him in Rhodes showed the legend: "He had the speed of a God." Quite a notoriety for Phelps to satisfy.
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