Halifax university students bring history to life by recreating ancient Olympics

Saint Mary’s University students step back in time to participate in ancient Greek athletics.

Saint Mary’s University students in Halifax stepped back in time this week to recreate ancient Greek sporting competitions.

The group project focused on the Olympic Games from 2,000 years ago, with students assigned to research specific areas of the competition or a certain sport.

Then they presented their findings to their peers complete with live reenactments and costumes at Huskies Stadium.

The Ancient Studies course is taught by associate professor Sveva Savelli, who studied in Athens and Naples.

“She is teaching us how sport has had an impact on not just Greece, but ancient Rome as well, we’ll talk about the gladiators, but kind of the impact it had over all ancient civilisations,” said one student.

“You get to kind of look at more leisure and what they would do as a pastime, not the big wars and all that, so it’s a really interesting course to be taking.”

Savelli said she wants her students to understand how deeply rooted sport were in the ancient world.

“Students learn more about this society and then at the same time start to ask questions about what sports means now in our society and how this is different from the past,” she said.

She added humans have thrived with the idea of competition since the dawn of time.

“This is a way to see how everything developed and why we are here today – critical thinking skills, connecting the dots between past, present and future.”

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