Nudity in sport

Nudity in sport is the custom of taking part in sporting activity while nude.

Being clothed is a matter of modesty and in some instances protection for the athlete. It was a norm in Ancient Greece for athletes to exercise and compete in the nude. Today, it is a social custom in most parts of the world for athletes to wear some clothing, normally covering the athletes' crotch, and for women their breasts, but there are also some cultures in the tropics in which sports are played in the nude or partially nude.

It was a norm in Ancient Greece for athletes to exercise and compete in the nude. In ancient Sparta, the Gymnopaedia was a yearly celebration during which naked youths displayed their athletic and martial skills through the medium of dancing. In antiquity even before the Classical era, e.g. on Minoan Crete, athletic exercise played an important part in daily life.

The Greek practice to compete and exercise was strongly inspired by their gods and heroes. For the gods and heroes nudity was a part of their identity and a way to display their physical energy and power which the athletes attempted to honour and emulate.

Nudity in sport was first documented in the city-state of Sparta, during the late archaic period. The custom of exercising naked was closely associated with pedagogic pederasty and with the practice of anointing the body with olive oil to accentuate its beauty. Unlike other Greeks, Spartans also sometimes went naked casually, such as in the public city area. They were also the only city-state where women and girls also competed in the nude; the other states banned females both as participants and as spectators from any sporting event where male nudity was visible.

It spread to the whole of Greece, Greater Greece and even its furthest colonies, and the athletes from all its parts, coming together for the Olympic Games and the other Panhellenic Games, competed naked in almost all disciplines, with the exception of chariot races, although there are depictions of naked chariot racers too.

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