ATHLETE, ATHLETICS. Athletics is strenuous competitive physical sport or games, requiring specialized training and involving a degree of formal organization in its performance. Though the Greeks contributed the word and much of the ideal of athletics, the more ancient civilizations were already acquainted with the concept and practice of this sort of activity. The Egyptians engaged in competitions in wrestling, singlestick fighting, boxing, and possibly also rowing and archery. The OT provides little evidence for athletics, but references to wrestling, running, swimming, and ball play may point in this direction. In the NT the influence of Hellenization is apparent in language and culture, with the result that general terms relating to athletic competition are frequent, especially in figures of speech and particularly in the Pauline writings. These terms are derived from ἀθλέω, G123, and ἀγών, G74, and may refer to participation in any athletic sport, but most generally relate to competitive running. The verb ἀθλέω, G123, is used only twice in the NT (both times in 2 Tim 2:5); a compound verb, συναθλέω, G5254, appears in Philippians 1:27; and a noun, ἄθλησις, G124, in Hebrews 10:32. The term means “to take part in a contest, to compete in the public games,” but basic to it is the idea of effort. This is most clearly seen in the adjective, ἄθλιος, which changed in meaning from “struggling, competing,” to “miserable, wretched.” The author of Hebrews (10:32) demonstrates the fundamental signification of the term: “You endured a hard struggle with sufferings.” 2 Timothy 2:5 stresses the organized regulatory aspect of the games as an illus. of the place of discipline in the Christian life: “An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.” Though there was no team sport in the Gr. games, there is a hint of team attitude in Philippians 1:27, where Paul urged the believers to “stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.” The other general term for athletic competition is ἀγωνίζομαι, G76, which also means “to enter a contest, to compete in the games.” The intensity implied in agonizomai is indicated by its usual tr. “strive.” Its only literal use in the NT is in 1 Corinthians 9:25, where Paul commented that everyone who competes in the games “exercises self-control in all things.” The figure of the effort demanded in competition is applied to prayer. Paul mentioned Epaphras as “always remembering you earnestly in his prayers” (Col 4:12). He encouraged the Rom. Christians to “strive together with” him in praying, suggesting by this metaphor cooperation and teamwork as well as intensity of personal involvement (Rom 15:30, συναγωνίζομαι, G5253). The Lord exhorted His hearers: “Strive to enter by the narrow door” (Luke 13:24). In the Christian struggle Christ is the source of the believer’s strength; Paul states that he labors, “striving with all the energy which he mightily inspires within me” (Col 1:29). He also encouraged the youthful Timothy by saying, “We toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God” (1 Tim 4:10), and urged him to “fight the good fight of the faith” (6:12). A compound verb, epagōnizomai, is used in the appeal of Jude that the believers should “contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Another compound, antagōnizomai, is the basis for the rendering in Hebrews 12:4, “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” The noun ἀγών, G74, also is used in the NT. Paul told the Philippians that because they too believed and suffered they shared with him in the “conflict” in which he was engaged (Phil 1:30). He wanted the Colossian saints to know how great a “struggle” he had in his concern for their spiritual welfare (Col 2:1; cf. 1 Thess 2:2). Nearing the end of his ministry, Paul testified: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that Day” (2 Tim 4:7, 8). He joined that cloud of witnesses whose testimony leads one to “run with patience the race that is set before us” (Heb 12:1 ASV). Perhaps the most striking of all passages using athletic figures of speech is 1 Corinthians 9:24-27: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”

Bibliography E. N. Gardiner, Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals (1910), Athletics of the Ancient World (1930); C. E. De Vries, Pauline Athletic Terminology (unpub. M. A. thesis, Wheaton College, 1944), Physical Exercise in the OT (unpub. B. D. thesis, Wheaton, 1947), Attitudes of the Ancient Egyptians toward Physical-Recreative Activities (unpub. Ph.D. dissertation, U. of Chicago, 1960).