Who Was the First Woman to Win at the Ancient Olympics? Cynisca of Sparta

The first woman recorded as an Olympic champion was Cynisca of Sparta, a princess who won the four-horse chariot race at Olympia in 396 BC and again in 392 BC. There is a twist: she almost certainly never drove the chariot. Women could not compete as athletes at the ancient Olympics, but they could enter horses in the equestrian events, and in those races the crown went to the owner, not the driver. Cynisca used that loophole so well that she became the first woman listed among Olympic victors, and she made sure all of Greece knew it.

A Spartan princess

Cynisca was born in Sparta, probably around 440 BC. She was the daughter of King Archidamus II and Eupolia, and the sister of Agesilaus II, who later became one of Sparta's most famous kings. Her name means something like "little hound" or "female puppy", and may echo her grandfather Zeuxidamus, who was also known as Cyniscos.

Sparta was unusual among Greek cities in the way it treated girls. Elite Spartan women trained in sports, and Spartans believed that strong women would bear strong children who would become strong soldiers. Cynisca may have gained her sporting experience in this female physical education, the counterpart to the boys' famous training system.

The ancient Olympics: a men's festival

The Olympic Games were held every four years at Olympia in honour of Zeus, traditionally from 776 BC. Over time the programme grew from a single sprint to running races, wrestling, boxing, the pankration, the pentathlon and chariot races; the four-horse chariot race was added in 680 BC. Winners received a wreath of olive leaves, not money.

Competitors were mostly freeborn Greek men, who usually competed naked. Even watching was restricted. According to Pausanias, unmarried girls could watch the Games, but married women could not, and had to stay on the far side of the Alpheios River, although modern scholars call the evidence inconclusive.

The women's games at Olympia

Women did have a contest of their own at Olympia: the Heraean Games, held in honour of the goddess Hera. Unmarried young women raced on foot in three age groups over a course about one-sixth shorter than the men's stadion. Winners received an olive crown and a share of a cow sacrificed to Hera, and the festival was run by a committee of sixteen women. But no individual winner of the Heraea is known to history. Cynisca's fame came from somewhere else entirely.

The loophole: owners win chariot races

In the equestrian events, the prize belonged to the person who owned and entered the horses. Women were allowed to enter horses, which meant a rich woman could win an Olympic crown without ever setting foot in the hippodrome. Cynisca's family was wealthy enough for her to own racehorses, and Pausanias says she was the first woman to breed horses and was intensely ambitious to win at Olympia.

In 396 BC, at around the age of 40, her four-horse team won the tethrippon, the most prestigious race of the hippodrome. Four years later, in 392 BC, it won again. She employed charioteers to drive for her.

Was it her idea, or her brother's?

Ancient writers did not give Cynisca all the credit. Xenophon and Plutarch say that her brother Agesilaus encouraged her. In their telling, he thought a chariot victory proved only that the owner was rich, and hoped that a woman's win would show the sport was a display of wealth rather than manly excellence. Some modern scholars suspect a more political motive: her fame would also boost his own career and the prestige of their royal house. Either way, Pausanias insists that Cynisca herself was the ambitious one, and the monuments she left suggest she was proud of what she achieved.

"The only woman in all Greece"

Cynisca did not keep quiet. She dedicated a group of bronze statues at Olympia showing herself, her charioteer, her chariot and her horses. A statue base with her inscription survives and is now in the Museum of the Olympic Games in Antiquity at Olympia. In translation, it declares her the only woman in all of Hellas to have won this crown.

After her death, a hero-shrine was built for her in Sparta, at a place called the Plane-tree Grove. She was the first woman given that honour, which until then had been reserved for Spartan kings.

The women who followed

Cynisca did not stay the only one for long. Another Spartan woman, Euryleonis, won the two-horse chariot race in 368 BC, and later women chariot victors included Belistiche and Berenice II of Egypt. Berenice even commissioned a poem boasting that she had taken Cynisca's glory. Yet Pausanias says none of these women became as famous as Cynisca. Today her name lives on in sport: a women's professional cycling team and a girls' basketball club are named after her.

Learn with Cynisca: English phrases about firsts and breaking barriers

Phrase	Meaning	Example
to break new ground	to do something nobody has done before	Her research broke new ground in medicine.
to pave the way	to make it easier for others to follow	She paved the way for younger women in sport.
a loophole	a gap in the rules that lets you do something	He found a loophole in the contract.
to take credit for	to accept praise for something	Don't take credit for other people's work.
against the odds	despite great difficulty	Against the odds, they won the final.

Try this: Write three English sentences about a person who "broke new ground" or "paved the way" in your country. Use "against the odds" in one of them.