Olympia is a success story that will continue in the summer of 2012 with the 30th modern games in London. The games have been held in Olympia since 776 BC until they were banned in 393 AD. But why were they banned? Why were they revived after 1500 years, and why do we refer to them as games and not as sports? Wolfgang Behringer offers new insights into the history of sports in his cultural history. He presents the young Emperor Charles V as an enthusiastic tennis player, Henry VIII of England as a sports fanatic, and the founder of modern physics, Isaac Newton, as an active boxer. The culture of the Renaissance led to the construction of large sports facilities, as in Medici Florence, where Calcio, a form of football, attracted tens of thousands of spectators. This volume discusses in an entertaining and historically grounded manner what sports actually are.