Sports Medicine In Greece

From ancient times, even in Greece, the home of the Olympic Games, there are many references to the relationship between sports and health. Plato, Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Isocrates are classic-era authors who refer to the role of physical exercise and nutrition in enhancing health. The first scientific report of the sudden death of an athlete has its source in Herodotus, who describes the death of Pheidippides, who, shortly before the Battle of Marathon (490 BC), ran a distance of more than 200 kilometers in two days.