Dead Olympic Competitor Wins Title Fight
Pankration, meaning “all force”, is the ancestor of today’s MMA, or Mixed Martial Arts. It was a sport practiced by the ancient Greeks, which combined boxing, wrestling, and no holds barred street fighting. Almost every hand combat technique and type of strike was allowed, with only a few prohibited exceptions, such as biting an opponent, clawing and gouging out his eyes, or attacking his genitals.
Arrhichion of Phigalia (died 564 BC), was Ancient Greece’s most famous pankratist, and the champion of that sport in the 572 BC and 568 BC Olympiads. He again competed in the 564 BC Olympics, seeking a third consecutive championship. Arrhichion advanced through the preliminary rounds, and reached the title bout. There, age might have finally caught up with and slowed him down, because for the first time in his career, he got into trouble. Arrhichion’s opponent outmaneuvered and got behind him. From there, with legs locked around Arrhichion’s torso and heels digging into his groin, his opponent applied a chokehold.
An experienced and wily fighter, Arrhichion pretended to lose conscience, which tricked his opponent into relaxing a little. Seizing the opportunity, the crafty title holder snapped back into action, and snapped his opponent’s ankle while shaking and throwing him off with a convulsive heave. The sudden excruciating pain of a snapped ankle forced Arrhicion’s opponent into the Ancient Greek equivalent of tapping out, and he made the sign of submission to the referees.
However, in throwing off his opponent while the latter still had him in a powerful chokehold, Arrhichion not only snapped his opponent’s ankle, but ended up snapping his own neck as well. Arrhichion had a broken neck, but as his opponent had already conceded by signaling his submission, the dead Arrhichion’s was declared the winner. It was perhaps the only time in the history of the Olympiads that a corpse was crowned an Olympic champion. He thus added a wrinkle to the athletic ideal of “victory or death” by gaining victory and death in winning a championship.