Analysis: Was The Roman Gladiator An Athlete?

In modern day, the term athlete has revolutionized to cover a wide range of people with different skills sets who compete in varies types of competitions. Not many of those people day would fit under the criteria of an athlete during the ancient times. In the text “Was the Roman Gladiator an Athlete? The author Heather L. Reid conveys the idea to the reader that gladiators should not be considered athletes because they purposely undermine the dignity and anatomy of its competitors for there own self worth.

Sporting games in modern day attract huge crowds and draw record breaking rating every year. Like the Greek’s, people from all over gather to witness for a chance to witness athletes reach new heights and engrave their name in the history books. Evens though sports have served to engage and entertain as much as the population as possible, athletes still have goals to maximize there perform in every appearance possible. In the Roman Era, Gladiatorial fights were used to entertain the Roman population. Which raises the question why would anyone volunteer there life for the sake of …show more content…
In even most to aggressive sporting events, the risk of death is never the main fear for athletes during competition. Gladiatorial battle it was a game of survival and the fear of death was consent fear for competitors. Many athletes turn into heroes by emerging victories and reaching a peak no athlete has ever gotten to before. Since battle were a game or pure survival how could gladiators be call athletes when all there doing is being placed into a situation where they have to constantly fight for there life? This isn’t a sport a scene of warfare meant to assume large groups of people. Greek athletic events have religious ties and sporting objectives behind them. Compared to the Romans which would entertain its people by watching competitors live a slow