This article addresses the neglected problem of elite sport in classical Athens. Democracy may have opened up politics to every citizen, but it had no impact on sporting participation. Athenian sportsmen continued to be drawn from the elite. Thus it comes as a surprise that non-elite citizens judged sport to be a very good thing and created an unrivalled program of local sporting festivals on which they spent a staggering sum. They also shielded sportsmen from the public criticism that was otherwise normally directed towards the elite and its exclusive pastimes. The work of social scientists suggests that the explanation of this problem can be found in the close relationship that non-elite Athenians perceived between sporting contests and their own waging of war. The article’s conclusion is that it was the democracy’s opening up of war to non-elite citizens that legitimised elite sport.

中文翻译：

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古典雅典的体育与民主

本文解决了古典雅典精英体育被忽视的问题。民主可能已经向每个公民开放了政治，但它对体育参与没有影响。雅典运动员继续从精英中脱颖而出。因此，令人惊讶的是，非精英公民认为体育是一件非常好的事情，并创建了一个无与伦比的当地体育节项目，他们为此花费了惊人的资金。他们还保护运动员免受公众批评，否则这些批评通常是针对精英及其专属消遣的。社会科学家的工作表明，这个问题的解释可以从非精英雅典人所认为的体育竞赛和他们自己发动战争之间的密切关系中找到。