Tug of war at the Summer Olympics its time as an Olympic sport, it was considered to be part of the Olympic athletics programme, although the sports of tug of war and athletics are now considered distinct. Teams consisted of 6 members in 1900 (Denmark and Sweden competed together), 5 members in 1904, and 8 members in the last three appearances of the sport. Tug of war at the Summer Olympics Tug of war was contested as a team event in the Summer Olympics at every Olympiad from 1900 to 1920. Originally the competition was entered by groups called clubs. A country could enter more than one
Tug of war (8th century BC to 5th century BC) to train warriors. During the Tang dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang promoted large-scale tug of war games, using ropes of up to with shorter ropes attached, and more than 500 people on each end of the rope. Each side also had its own team of drummers to encourage the participants. In ancient Greece the sport was called "helkustinda" (Greek: ἑλκυστίνδα), "efelkustinda" (ἐφελκυστίνδα) and "dielkustinda" (διελκυστίνδα), which derives from "dielkō" (διέλκω), meaning amongst others "I pull through", all deriving from the verb "helkō" (ἕλκω), "I draw, I pull". "Helkustinda" and "efelkustinda" seem to have