Artifacts and structures suggest sports in China as early as 2000 BC. J. Gymnastics seems to have been popular in China's past. The sports shoes monuments at the Pharaohs indicate that a number of sports, including swimming and fishing, were well developed and regulated thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt. Other Egyptian sports included javelin throwing, high jump, and wrestling. Ancient Persian sports such as Zourkhaneh's traditional Iranian martial art were closely related to warfare techniques. Other sports that come from ancient Persia are polo and jousting.
A wide range of sports was already established at the time of ancient Greece and the military culture and development of sport in Greece influenced sports shoes considerably. Sports became such an important part of their culture that the Greeks created the Olympic Games, which took place every four years in a small Peloponnese village called Olympia.