Nudity in sport (playing sports without any clothing) is uncommon in modern society but it was a norm in Ancient Greece, as well as many cultures in the tropics till today. Although the tradition is now mostly limited to naturist events, we still use words such as gym, gymnasium and gymnastics, which all come from the common Greek adjective γυμνός (gymnos) meaning "naked", by way of the related verb γυμνάζω (gymnazo), whose meaning is "to train naked".
Read more about Nudity In Sport: History, Nudity in Sports in Tropical Cultures, Streaking, Private Clubs, Nude Running
Famous quotes containing the words nudity and/or sport:
“They threw off their clothes, and he gathered her to him, and found her, found the pure lambent reality of her for ever invisible flesh. Quenched, inhuman, his fingers upon her unrevealed nudity were the fingers of silence upon silence, the body of mysterious night upon the body of mysterious night, the night masculine and feminine, never to be seen with the eye, or known with the mind, only known as a palpable revelation of living otherness.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“For generations, a wide range of shooting in Northern Ireland has provided all sections of the population with a pastime which ... has occupied a great deal of leisure time. Unlike many other countries, the outstanding characteristic of the sport has been that it was not confined to any one class.”
—Northern Irish Tourist Board. quoted in New Statesman (London, Aug. 29, 1969)