part_of stadion 
A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events . The ___MASK82___ is derived from Greek : combining the words " pente " ( five ) and -" athlon " ( competition ). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of the ___MASK95___ . Five events were contested over one day for the Ancient Olympic pentathlon , starting with the long jump , javelin throwing , and discus throwing , followed by the " stadion " ( a short foot race ) and wrestling . Pentathletes were considered to be among the most skilled athletes , and their training was often part of military service  each of the five events in the pentathlon was thought to be useful in war or battle . ___MASK97___ service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia , whether as a chosen job or as a result of an involuntary draft ( conscription ). Some nations ( e . g ., Mexico ) require a specific amount of ___MASK97___ service from every citizen ( except for special cases , such as physical or mental disorders or religious beliefs , and most countries that have conscription only conscript men ). A nation with a fully volunteer ___MASK97___ does not normally require mandatory ___MASK97___ service from its citizens , unless it is faced with a recruitment crisis during a time of war . Stadion or stade ( Ancient Greek :  ) was an ancient running ___MASK58___ , part of the ___MASK67___ and the other Panhellenic Games . It was one of the five major Pentathlon events . It was the premier ___MASK58___ of the gymnikos agon ( nude competition ) . From the years 776 to 724 BC , the stadion was the only ___MASK58___ that took place at the ___MASK67___ and the victor gave his name to the entire four - year Olympiad . This allows scholars to know the names of nearly every ancient Olympic stadion winner . The stadion was named after the building in which it took place , also called the stadion . This word became stadium in Latin , which became the English word stadium . There were other types of running events , but the stadion was the most prestigious ; the winner was often considered to be the winner of an entire Games . Though a separate ___MASK58___ , the stadion was also part of the ancient Pentathlon . At the ___MASK67___ , the Stadion ( the actual building ) was big enough for twenty competitors , and the race was a 200 - yard ( about 180 - metre ) sprint . The original stadion track in Olympia measures approximately 190 metres . The race began with a trumpet blow , with officials ( the agonothetai -  ) at the starting blocks to make sure there were no false starts . There were also officials at the end to decide on a winner and to make sure no one had cheated . If the officials decided there was a tie , the race would be re - run . Runners started the race from a standing position , probably with their arms stretched out in front of them , instead of starting in a crouch like modern runners . They ran naked on a packed earth track . By the fifth century , the track was marked by a stone - starting line known as the balbis . Advancements in this stone starting block led to it having a set of double grooves ( 10 -- 12 cm apart ) in which the runner placed his toes . The design of these grooves were intended to give the runner leverage for his start . The winner of the stadion in the first ___MASK67___ was Coroebus of Elis . The race gave its name to the unit of length , the Stadion . The long jump ( historically called the broad jump ) is a ___MASK70___ and field ___MASK58___ in which athletes combine speed , strength , and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a take off point . Along with the triple jump , the two events that measure jumping for distance as a group are referred to as the " horizontal jumps ". This ___MASK58___ has a ___MASK75___ in the ___MASK95___ and has been a modern Olympic ___MASK58___ for men since the first Olympics in 1896 and for women since 1948 . The javelin throw is a ___MASK70___ and field ___MASK58___ where the javelin , a spear about in length , is thrown . The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area . Javelin throwing is an ___MASK58___ of both the men ' s decathlon and the women ' s heptathlon . Panhellenic Games is the collective term for four separate sports festivals held in ___MASK51___ . The four Games were : Description . The Olympiad was one of the ways the ___MASK93___ measured time . The ___MASK67___ were used as a starting point , year one of the cycle ; the Nemean and Isthmian Games were both held ( in different months ) in year two , followed by the Pythian Games in year three , and then the Nemean and Isthmian Games again in year four . The cycle then repeated itself with the ___MASK67___ . They were structured this way so that individual athletes could participate in all of the games . An Olympiad (" olympiás ") is a period of four years associated with the ___MASK67___ of the Ancient Greeks . During the Hellenistic period , beginning with Ephorus , it was used as a calendar epoch . By this reckoning , the first Olympiad lasted from the summer of 776 BC to that of 772 BC . By extrapolation to the Gregorian calendar , the 1st year of the (( 2017 + 779 )/ 4 -. 5 ) round 0th Olympiad begins in ( Northern - Hemisphere ) mid - summer 2017 . The discus throw is a ___MASK70___ and field ___MASK58___ in which an athlete throws a heavy disc  called a discus  in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors . It is an ancient sport , as demonstrated by the fifth - century - B . ___MASK14___ . Myron statue , " Discobolus ". Although not part of the modern pentathlon , it was one of the events of the ancient Greek pentathlon , which can be dated back to at least to 708 BC . The modern ___MASK67___ or Olympics are leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a ___MASK54___ of competitions . The ___MASK67___ are considered the world ' s foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating . The ___MASK67___ are held every four years , with the Summer and Winter Games alternating by occurring every four years but two years apart . The ___MASK67___ (" Olympia ", " the Olympics " also " the Olympiad ") were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city - states and one of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece . They were held in honor of Zeus , and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin . The first Olympics is traditionally dated to 776 BC . They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule , until the emperor Theodosius I suppressed them in 393 AD as part of the campaign to impose Christianity as the State religion of Rome . The games were held every four years , or " olympiad ", which became a unit of time in historical chronologies . The Ancient Olympic pentathlon was an athletic contest at the ___MASK95___ , and other Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece . The name derives from Greek , combining the words " pente " ( five ) and " athlon " ( competition ). Five events were contested over one day , starting with the " stadion " ( a short foot race ) followed by the Javelin throw , Discus throw , Long jump ( the order of these three events is still unclear ), and ending with wrestling . While Pentathletes were considered to be inferior to the specialized athletes in a certain event , they were superior in overall development and were some of the most well balanced of all the athletes . Their training was often part of military service  each of the five events was thought to be useful in battle . ___MASK51___ was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek ___MASK75___ from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th - 9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity ( AD ). Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine ___MASK3___ . Roughly three centuries after the Late ___MASK55___ collapse of Mycenaean Greece , Greek urban poleis began to form in the 8th century BC , ushering in the period of Archaic Greece and colonization of the Mediterranean Basin . This was followed by the period of Classical Greece , an ___MASK3___ that began with the Greco - Persian Wars , lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC . Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia , Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central ___MASK68___ to the western end of the Mediterranean Sea . The Hellenistic period came to an end with the conquests and annexations of the eastern Mediterranean world by the Roman Republic , which established the Roman province of Macedonia in Roman Greece , and later the province of Achaea during the Roman ___MASK79___ .