January 9, 2026 • 8 mins
The Winter Olympics are just weeks away. The athletes are celebrities! Now, imagine living 2 or 3,000 years ago and being an ancient Olympian. How did these guys compete, why did they compete, and how did they monetize their skill set? It was equal parts religion, eroticism, and highly valued body secretions.
Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover. On Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, the Winter Olympics are just a few weeks away.
We watch these people with a mixture of shock and awe.
I mean, how does anybody do what they do? And
you also ask yourself how they manage to monetize what
they do so they can afford to keep doing it.
But this isn't anything new. What's equally amazing is the
origin of the Olympic Games and how those athletes made
(00:23):
a living more than two thousand years ago. These guys
performed almost entirely in the nude, so there were no
sneakers to sell. I'm Patty Steele making a buck off
sweat equity. That's next on the backstory the book. We're
back with the backstory. When you watch world class athletes
(00:44):
compete in the Olympics, aren't you blown away by how
physically perfect they look? So jealous? Now, honestly, they're just
making the very most of what they have, and they're
doing their best to make a buck off of it. Right,
if you think about it, who wouldn't. Well, it turns
out there's a backstory about that motivation to look and
(01:04):
perform at your very best and also get some payback.
And it goes back thousands of years to ancient Greece
and the ancient Olympics. The original Olympics took place in Olympia,
Greece every four years from seven seventy six BC to
three ninety three AD. That's almost twelve hundred years. By comparison,
(01:26):
the modern Olympics have only been around since eighteen ninety six,
just the past one hundred and thirty years. What's interesting,
those ancient athletes performed in a surprising way. On top
of that, they and their trainers found a way to
make a lot of money off their physical perfection. I
guess it's kind of like our star athletes do today,
(01:47):
only ooh way different. Now. Today athletes pretty much agree
that their uniforms are totally about feeling good about themselves
physically and mentally so they can perform at their best.
You really have to look at them in their body
hugging uniforms and think about how crazy amazing they look
and the work that it takes to get there. So
(02:08):
where did it actually all begin. Well, it goes back
to those original ancient Olympics almost three thousand years ago.
Those guys even then were all about showing off their
perfect bodies and believe it or not. When they competed,
they did it completely in the nude. They trained that
way too. It was done in the nude for several reasons. First,
(02:32):
it was a tribute to the Greek god Zeus. They
wanted to honor him by showing him their physical power
and muscular exquisiteness as a show of gratitude for what
he'd given them. In addition, it was intended to strip
away social rank and just focus on physical prowess. And truthfully,
it was probably also an ego boost for the athletes
(02:53):
right because it didn't hurt that showing off their gorgeous,
powerful bodies could intimidate their competitors. Now here's the thing.
It was only guys both competing in and watching the games.
No women were allowed anywhere near these stadiums. These guys
wanted to be compared to the true heroes of their culture,
(03:13):
the big mythological names in art and literature like Achilles,
Hercules and Ammes and of course Adonis. So at these
ancient games they did everything from foot races to jumping
discus throwing, javelin throwing yikes, can you imagine javelins in
the nude? Wrestling the pentathlon and boxing, all totally naked
(03:35):
and very sweaty Ah, there's the magic ingredients that turned
these games into moneymakers. Sweat was the thing, the really
big thing. All right. Let's start from the beginning. These
guys got ready to rumble by having messuses rubbed their
bodies down with high end olive oil before their events
(03:56):
got underway. Everybody believed that the scent of the the
olive oil mixed with the sweat was incredibly masculine. Okay,
kind of like an exotic locker room right. Anyway, then
the competition began. Remember it's grease in August and September
during a festival for Zeus, it's usually well above eighty
(04:17):
five degrees and really humid, So these guys are oiled
up wildly sweaty from the heat and then the workout,
and they're covered with dust from running and rolling in
the dirt. At the end of each event, the athletes
took their dirty but still glistening naked bodies back to
the apoditarium or locker room or wherever, and either they
(04:39):
or the gymnasium sweat collector had the tasty job of
using a metal scraper called a strigel to scrape oil, sweat,
dead skin, and dust off the athlete's bodies. Now they
were left with a bunch of sticky goo called gloiose.
What did they do with that stuff? Well, it was
(05:00):
packaged in vials and sold. It was taken to markets everywhere.
I mean it was actually collected, marketed, and sold from
gymnasiums all the time, but it was especially valuable after
big games like the Olympics. In fact, the gym owners
would even scrape the gunk off the walls and floors
were popular, athletes trained, and businesses would bid on these
(05:24):
vials of goo. The cost was really high and it
funded athletes training in their lifestyle as well as supporting
the gymnasiums themselves. People that could afford it rubbed it
all over their bodies for a bunch of different medicinal purposes.
They especially used it to rub into aching body parts,
(05:44):
to reduce inflammation and even treat infections and works. Women
used it to help with monthly cramps, but they also
used it as a facecream and a tonic, and both
men and women used it as an aphrodisiac. They believed
that they would capture some of the athletes youth and
virility by soaking in this stuff. Bottom line is, athletes
(06:07):
back then as now were considered celebrities and their magic
sweat goo was a really sought after product. Hard to
imagine they smelled too good. But think about it, is
it any weirder than what we do these days? We
use botox, fillaers, plastic surgery. I mean, we all want
to feel good and look good and also feel better
(06:29):
about ourselves, right, we want to look like the celebrities
we admire. It was no different three thousand years ago.
And when it comes to merchandising stuff, stop and consider this.
Today athletes make a bundle selling all kinds of stuff, sneakers, clothing,
diet supplements, tons of other things. The ancient Olympians weren't
(06:49):
selling clothes since they did their thing in the nude.
They didn't sell sneakers or pretty much anything else except
for the gunk they scraped off their bodies with those trigules.
Everybody wanted some of that, and it was an incredible
revenue stream for the athletes and for the gyms these
guys trained in, so at the end of the day,
(07:10):
their motivation really wasn't any different than ours. We all
want to find a way to make the most of
what we're given right. Hope you're enjoying The Backstory with
Patty Steele. Please leave a review and follow or subscribe
for free to get new episodes delivered automatically. Also feel
free to dm me if you have a story you'd
(07:31):
like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and
on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories
a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Duran Group,
and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our
(07:52):
writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday.
Feel free to reach out to me with comments and
even stories. Ag coestions on Instagram at Real Patty Steele
and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to
the Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history you
didn't know you needed to know.
All right, the Winter Olympics are just a few weeks away.
We watch these people with a mixture of shock and awe.
I mean, how does anybody do what they do? And
you also ask yourself how they manage to monetize what
they do so they can afford to keep doing it.
But this isn't anything new. What's equally amazing is the
origin of the Olympic Games and how those athletes made
(00:23):
a living more than two thousand years ago. These guys
performed almost entirely in the nude, so there were no
sneakers to sell. I'm Patty Steele making a buck off
sweat equity. That's next on the backstory the book. We're
back with the backstory. When you watch world class athletes
(00:44):
compete in the Olympics, aren't you blown away by how
physically perfect they look? So jealous? Now, honestly, they're just
making the very most of what they have, and they're
doing their best to make a buck off of it. Right,
if you think about it, who wouldn't. Well, it turns
out there's a backstory about that motivation to look and
(01:04):
perform at your very best and also get some payback.
And it goes back thousands of years to ancient Greece
and the ancient Olympics. The original Olympics took place in Olympia,
Greece every four years from seven seventy six BC to
three ninety three AD. That's almost twelve hundred years. By comparison,
(01:26):
the modern Olympics have only been around since eighteen ninety six,
just the past one hundred and thirty years. What's interesting,
those ancient athletes performed in a surprising way. On top
of that, they and their trainers found a way to
make a lot of money off their physical perfection. I
guess it's kind of like our star athletes do today,
(01:47):
only ooh way different. Now. Today athletes pretty much agree
that their uniforms are totally about feeling good about themselves
physically and mentally so they can perform at their best.
You really have to look at them in their body
hugging uniforms and think about how crazy amazing they look
and the work that it takes to get there. So
(02:08):
where did it actually all begin. Well, it goes back
to those original ancient Olympics almost three thousand years ago.
Those guys even then were all about showing off their
perfect bodies and believe it or not. When they competed,
they did it completely in the nude. They trained that
way too. It was done in the nude for several reasons. First,
(02:32):
it was a tribute to the Greek god Zeus. They
wanted to honor him by showing him their physical power
and muscular exquisiteness as a show of gratitude for what
he'd given them. In addition, it was intended to strip
away social rank and just focus on physical prowess. And truthfully,
it was probably also an ego boost for the athletes
(02:53):
right because it didn't hurt that showing off their gorgeous,
powerful bodies could intimidate their competitors. Now here's the thing.
It was only guys both competing in and watching the games.
No women were allowed anywhere near these stadiums. These guys
wanted to be compared to the true heroes of their culture,
(03:13):
the big mythological names in art and literature like Achilles,
Hercules and Ammes and of course Adonis. So at these
ancient games they did everything from foot races to jumping
discus throwing, javelin throwing yikes, can you imagine javelins in
the nude? Wrestling the pentathlon and boxing, all totally naked
(03:35):
and very sweaty Ah, there's the magic ingredients that turned
these games into moneymakers. Sweat was the thing, the really
big thing. All right. Let's start from the beginning. These
guys got ready to rumble by having messuses rubbed their
bodies down with high end olive oil before their events
(03:56):
got underway. Everybody believed that the scent of the the
olive oil mixed with the sweat was incredibly masculine. Okay,
kind of like an exotic locker room right. Anyway, then
the competition began. Remember it's grease in August and September
during a festival for Zeus, it's usually well above eighty
(04:17):
five degrees and really humid, So these guys are oiled
up wildly sweaty from the heat and then the workout,
and they're covered with dust from running and rolling in
the dirt. At the end of each event, the athletes
took their dirty but still glistening naked bodies back to
the apoditarium or locker room or wherever, and either they
(04:39):
or the gymnasium sweat collector had the tasty job of
using a metal scraper called a strigel to scrape oil, sweat,
dead skin, and dust off the athlete's bodies. Now they
were left with a bunch of sticky goo called gloiose.
What did they do with that stuff? Well, it was
(05:00):
packaged in vials and sold. It was taken to markets everywhere.
I mean it was actually collected, marketed, and sold from
gymnasiums all the time, but it was especially valuable after
big games like the Olympics. In fact, the gym owners
would even scrape the gunk off the walls and floors
were popular, athletes trained, and businesses would bid on these
(05:24):
vials of goo. The cost was really high and it
funded athletes training in their lifestyle as well as supporting
the gymnasiums themselves. People that could afford it rubbed it
all over their bodies for a bunch of different medicinal purposes.
They especially used it to rub into aching body parts,
(05:44):
to reduce inflammation and even treat infections and works. Women
used it to help with monthly cramps, but they also
used it as a facecream and a tonic, and both
men and women used it as an aphrodisiac. They believed
that they would capture some of the athletes youth and
virility by soaking in this stuff. Bottom line is, athletes
(06:07):
back then as now were considered celebrities and their magic
sweat goo was a really sought after product. Hard to
imagine they smelled too good. But think about it, is
it any weirder than what we do these days? We
use botox, fillaers, plastic surgery. I mean, we all want
to feel good and look good and also feel better
(06:29):
about ourselves, right, we want to look like the celebrities
we admire. It was no different three thousand years ago.
And when it comes to merchandising stuff, stop and consider this.
Today athletes make a bundle selling all kinds of stuff, sneakers, clothing,
diet supplements, tons of other things. The ancient Olympians weren't
(06:49):
selling clothes since they did their thing in the nude.
They didn't sell sneakers or pretty much anything else except
for the gunk they scraped off their bodies with those trigules.
Everybody wanted some of that, and it was an incredible
revenue stream for the athletes and for the gyms these
guys trained in, so at the end of the day,
(07:10):
their motivation really wasn't any different than ours. We all
want to find a way to make the most of
what we're given right. Hope you're enjoying The Backstory with
Patty Steele. Please leave a review and follow or subscribe
for free to get new episodes delivered automatically. Also feel
free to dm me if you have a story you'd
(07:31):
like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and
on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories
a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Duran Group,
and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our
(07:52):
writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday.
Feel free to reach out to me with comments and
even stories. Ag coestions on Instagram at Real Patty Steele
and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to
the Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history you
didn't know you needed to know.
Elvis Duran and the Morning Show ON DEMAND News
Popular Podcasts
Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.
iHeartOlympics: The Latest
Listen to the latest news from the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Milan Cortina Winter Olympics
The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina are here and have everyone talking. iHeartPodcasts is buzzing with content in honor of the XXV Winter Olympics We’re bringing you episodes from a variety of iHeartPodcast shows to help you keep up with the action. Follow Milan Cortina Winter Olympics so you don’t miss any coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics, and if you like what you hear, be sure to follow each Podcast in the feed for more great content from iHeartPodcasts.