ἀθλητής

Athlete descends from Greek ἀθλητής (athlētēs), meaning 'one who competes for a prize,' from ἀθλέω (athléō, 'to compete for a prize'), derived from ἆθλον (āthlon, 'prize, contest'). The root āthlos or āthlon designated both the prize offered and the contest held to win it — the two were inseparable in the Greek conception of athletic competition. An athlētēs was not simply someone who exercised or trained: the word required the element of competition for a specific reward. An athlete, etymologically, is defined by the prize, not by the physical capability. Physical training was a means to competitive victory; the victory was the point. The gymnasium prepared the athlētēs; the games revealed whether the preparation was sufficient.

The prizes at the great Panhellenic games varied by venue and held different values in Greek culture. At Olympia, the victor received a wreath of olive branches cut from the sacred olive tree behind the temple of Zeus — an object with no material worth whatsoever. At Delphi, a laurel wreath. At Nemea, wild celery. At the Isthmian Games, pine or celery. The prizes were symbolically priceless and materially worthless. Yet the victorious athlētēs returned home to extraordinary concrete rewards: free meals for life in the city hall, tax exemptions, front-row seats at all public events, substantial cash payments from the city-state, sometimes a pension. The official prize was symbolic; the unofficial rewards were enormous. The Greek athlete competed for glory, and glory paid exceptionally well.

Latin borrowed the word as athleta, and it passed through medieval Latin into Old French and eventually English in the sixteenth century. The English 'athlete' retained the Greek sense of a competitor for prizes but lost the specific connection to the prize itself — the āthlon faded from consciousness, leaving only the competitor. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, 'athlete' broadened to describe anyone with the physical capacities associated with competitive sport, regardless of whether they competed. 'Athletic' became an adjective describing physical capability — athletic build, athletic performance — independent of any actual contest. The prize had been absorbed into the physique.

The modern distinction between professional and amateur athletes — a distinction that consumed the Olympic movement for most of the twentieth century — would have been meaningless to the ancient Greeks. All serious Greek athletes trained at the expense of wealthy patrons or city-states, were rewarded with substantial prizes for winning, and were effectively professional in their dedication and remuneration. The modern amateur ideal — competing for love of the sport, not money — was a Victorian invention, partly romantic and partly class-based. The Greek word carried no such distinction: an athlētēs was someone who competed to win prizes, and the cash value of those prizes was understood to be proportional to the glory they represented.