2004 is an Olympic year, so it is worth directing some attention to the ‘inventors’ of the Olympic Games, the ancient Greeks who, in the early eighth century BC, according to at least one tradition, founded the Olympic Games in the precinct of Zeus, an area on the Peloponnese not far from the later city of Elis. The ‘inventor’ of the new Olympic Games in 1896, the French Baron, Pierre de Coubertin, drew at least part of his inspiration from the ancient predecessors. What was the status of the ancient Olympics in the world of sports in the Greco-Roman period; what sort of sport was practised in Olympia? Who were the participating athletes and, above all, why did they practice their sports and why did they participate in the Olympics? Was it the case that it was a gentlemanly amateur activity and that commercialism in sport is just a modern deviation?