page_title: Team sport
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Team sport / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Painting of men in the Cave of the Swimmers, Wadi Sura, Gilf Kebir, Western Desert, Egypt Deutsch: Menschendarstellung in der Schwimmerhöhle, Wadi Sura, Gilf Kebir, Westliche Wüste, Ägypten
context_page_description: A team sport includes any sport where individuals are organized into opposing teams which compete to win. Team members act together towards a shared objective. This can be done in a number of ways such as outscoring the opposing team. Team members set goals, make decisions, communicate, manage conflict, and solve problems in a supportive, trusting atmosphere in order to accomplish their objectives. Examples are basketball, volleyball, rugby, water polo, handball, lacrosse, cricket, baseball, and the various forms of association football and hockey.
context_section_description: Traces of sprinting as a team sport extend back several thousand years – as evidenced in images in the cave in Lascaux in France which depict people running after animals or vice versa; this was an issue of survival of the fittest.
  Organized athletics in Greece traditionally date back to 776 BC, with ongoing activity recorded up to 393 BC. These ancient Olympic Games tested warrior skills and consisted of running, jumping or leaping, wrestling (combat sport), and javelin throw. In the Bayankhongor Province of Mongolia, Neolithic-era cave paintings dating to 7000 BC depict a wrestling match surrounded by crowds. Prehistoric cave-paintings in Japan show a sport similar to sumo wrestling. In Wadi Sura, near Gilf Kebir in Libya, a Neolithic rock painting in the cave of swimmers shows evidence of swimming and archery being practiced around 6000 BC.
  The term "athlete", according to mythology, derives from the name of Aethlius,
  the mythological first King of Elis (the location of Olympia) in Greece. The practice of young athletes carrying flaming torches is also traced to the King of Elis, under whose supervision the games took place; some historians regard this as the first record of Olympic sprint racing.  The winner of the race was crowned with a wreath of olive or laurel. In subsequent years monetary attractions were introduced as prize money.
  Barber, Gary (2006). Getting Started in Track and Field Athletics: Advice & ideas for Children, Parents, and Teachers. Victoria, British Columbia: Trafford Publishing. p. 26. ISBN 9781412238472. Retrieved 30 May 2018. Can you imagine that in today's Olympics - and the winner of the 100m gets a bunch of celery sticks!
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  The present-day pattern of Olympic Games resembles the practice followed in ancient times. Sprint was the coveted event. The 200 m sprint is known in Greek as "short foot race". The 400 m race is equivalent to two stades and called diaulos in Greek.
caption: Rock paintings of humans in the cave of swimmers
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