Grow stronger as you age
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
“For what utterance can be more pitiful than that of Milo of Crotona?
After he was already an old man and was watching the athletes training in the race-course, it is related that, as he looked upon his shrunken muscles, he wept and said:
“Yes, but they are now dead.”
Cicero (4BC-65AD), De Senectute 9.27
Poor Milo. If only he had continued his training regime, he might have enjoyed a more robust old age.Milo, called by ancient Greek geographer Strabo “the most illustrious of athletes” was a pretty amazing character who transcended both fact and fiction.
He first competed as a wrestler at the Olympic Games in 540BC where he won the boy’s division. He returned eight years later and commenced a winning streak that did not cease until his sixth Olympiad in 512BC. That’s five titles in a row, a feat unmatched by any modern Olympian. The Games were held, as now, at four year intervals so Milo must have been over 40 when he triumphed at the 67th Olympiad. That’s an astonishing achievement by today’s standards and almost unbelievable considering athletes of the ancient world had short careers and were rarely competitive past their prime.
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