1) Wrestling:
Perhaps the oldest sport to have been recorded in any shape or form in history would be wrestling. The earliest form of combat became one of the most well-known sports, depicted in cave paintings in Lascaux, France, hieroglyphed in Egypt, written in the Illiad etc. Requiring a decent amount of strength, dexterity and a lot of maneuverability alongside tactics to pin your opponent down and keep him or her locked for a short countdown for the match to be over, it offered contestants to test their chances of winning dating back all the way to 15.300 B.C.
2) Swimming:
Alongside wrestling, swimming is among the oldest forms of sports to be found practiced anywhere people lived near a body of water around the world. Requiring stamina as well as dexterity from the contesters, the finish would be a number of things, from a log floating in the water, to another shore or beach alongside the banks of a river to perhaps a distance toward the never ending ocean, it is depicted earliest in the form of a cave painting, in a cave bearing said name near Gilf Kebir, Libya.
3) Archery:
Ever since people could allow themselves to produce bows and arrows somewhat more frequently than before, archery became one of the oldest sports practiced in history. Requiring strength to pull back the string of the bow, dexterity to be able to shoot fast and a keen eye to hit the target, it allowed contestants to prove their capability in hunting as well as warfare depicted in the same cave, aptly named Cave of Paintings in Wadi Sura, near Gilf Kebir, Libya dating back to 6.000 years B.C.
4) Sumo:
A form of wrestling, practiced and revered with great respect to traditions in Japan, it is first depicted in cave paintings only found in Japan, dating back to the Prehistoric Era. Requiring a tall and fat person wrestling versus an equally fat and tall foe, the wrestling itself takes place in specially designed arenas that look like a small sized circle, with victory being achieved when one sumo wrestler bests his opponent by throwing him out of the circle, thus winning him the match. Another form of sumo wrestling is depicted and practiced showing, that one of the combatants needs to touch the ground with any part of his body, spare the bottom of his feet in order to lose the match.
5) Gymnastics:
At the height of the eras of city states in ancient Greece, the Olympic Games were performed at the base of Mount Olympus, requiring the cease of all hostilities between the city states in order for their best athletes to compete in the divine sports arena. In 776 B.C. as the first Olympic Games were officially started, with the very first sport practiced being sprinting, later it grew to include a variety of sports the likes of: boxing, wrestling, pankration, chariot racing, long jump, javelin and disc throwing among others, said Olympic Games would be practiced every four years until their end in 393 B.C.
6) Boxing:
Heated arguments tend to lead to fights in most cases, as two knuckleheads can’t decide to a diplomatic agreement between both of their opinions, they would go toe to toe versus one another boxing, or using only their fists to fight in a fair match that ends with one yielding, or a knockout. Misery loves company, so it was only natural for people to gather in crowds when people began to fight, cheering for one side or the other, over the years a simple set of rules permitted the violence to escalate to a murderous degree, providing a fair fight of strength, maneuverability and tactics between the combatants.
7) Rugby:
The earliest form of rugby or as it was called and practiced in the Roman Empire was harpastum. Not a lot is known about the origins of rugby, but its ancestor was recorded to be particularly violent, with players often being put to the ground bloodied and bruised. Using a hard ball made out of dried skin and leather, what is known about the rules depict the players trying to outwit and outmaneuver one another to reach their depicted finish line in the form of a goal to score points, that were placed opposite of starting positions of the teams. As is the norm, in order to reach said goal, required the wielder of the ball to be able to outmaneuver the opposite teams’ players, who aimed at preventing him doing so by putting him to the ground by sheer force of strength alone.
8) Hockey:
Ancestors to modern days ice and grass hockey is the shinty, played in the Scottish Highlands, as well as hurling, practiced in Ireland in ancient times. Carrying sticks, both teams would need to score a goal by hitting the ball made out of wood or bones, in the opposite teams’ designated finish line. Violent and unpredictable, it often lead to injuries be they light or deep ones, the games were practiced both in summertime and during the winter.
9) Football:
Cuju, practiced in ancient China is said to be the earliest form of football ever recorded in history. Depicting two players playing against each other by kicking a ball into the other players’ goal that was a net, it had a strict rule of no hands or arms use to achieve said goal. This simple sport quickly spread all over Asia, as it is seen recorded in Korea, Vietnam, Japan etc. and it might possibly be spread to Europe via the Silk Road as later in the Medieval Ages, mob football came to be, requiring teams of people sparring against each other to score a number of goals to win the game.
10) Polo:
Origins of the polo sport date back to its creation in Persia, as it became adopted by the Persians as a sport playing against the Byzantine Empire that called said sport tzykanion. Competing between the two empires became sort of a ceremonial rivalry proving themselves against each other by scoring a large amount of goals in a set amount of time. Played on horseback, and with large wooden mallets, the sport is noted to be particularly demanding of its players as a number of historically famous people had been injured, or worse died playing it.