Sport in ancient Greece

ancient Greek training facility

thumb|The Palaestra at Olympia|palaestra at [[Olympia, Greece]] A palaestra or palestra (, or ; ) was any site of a Greek wrestling school in antiquity. Events requiring little space, such as boxing and wrestling, occurred there. Palaistrai functioned both independently and as a part of public gymnasia; a palaestra could exist without a gymnasium, but no gymnasium existed without a palaestra.

Hippodrome is a term sometimes used for public entertainment venues of various types. A modern example is the Hippodrome which opened in London in 1900 "combining circus, hippodrome, and stage performances".

thumb|upright|Bronze strigil (Roman, 1st century AD, Walters Art Museum The strigil (Latin: strigilis) or stlengis (, probably a loanword from the Pre-Greek substrate) is a tool for cleansing the body by scraping off dirt and perspiration, as well as oil that was applied before bathing in Ancient Greek and Roman cultures. In these cultures the strigil was primarily used by men, specifically male athletes; however, in Etruscan culture there is evidence of strigils being used by both sexes. The standard design is a curved blade with a handle, all of which is made of metal.

thumb|right|150px|Picture of a classical Greek athlete wearing the kynodesme (attributed to the Triptolemos painter, dating from about 480 BC)

weights used in Ancient Greek athletics

thumb|right|Hysplex Hysplex () is a starting gate used in ancient Greek horse and foot races. This device was set up at the starting line and consisted of an upright vertical bar that held a horizontal gate attached to it held up by a string. Each racer stood behind his own hysplex and all of the strings were centrally connected behind the runners, held by a referee. At the start of the race, the referee let go of all the strings; and consequently the starting gates fell at the same time, releasing the runners.