Sports in Byzantium were seen in a totally different way in comparison with the ancient greek world: young people were not engaged systematically with sports, sports ceased to function as a means of education, and the games turned into pure spectacle. In the 2nd-1st century BC athletes were professionals, who demonstrated their skills in the games and were paid for it receiving a salary. The games were often not fair: the umpires and judges could get bribed and set up the games.

After Theodosius I established Christianity as the official religion of the Empire (381 AD), all games that retained pagan elements such as Olympia (394 AD) were abolished. The Church Fathers and the ecclesiastic writers condemned in their writings the nakedness of mimes, who appeared naked on the scene making fun of the Christian ceremonies and the witnesses of faith. However, the Fathers encouraged the care of the body for health reasons.

From the Justinian Code (529 AD) we learn that the permitted events were: wrestling, high jump, long jump and javelin. Traditional sports venues, such as the stadium, the gymnasium and the palaestra continued to be in use during the first Christian centuries, but when the economic problems began to arise, from the 6th century onwards, these spaces were left without maintenance, resulting in their abandonment and ruins.
 
Hippodrome
The hippodrome was a large open-air building for spectacles and chariot races, that resembled the ancient greek stadium. Rome had the largest and oldest hippodrome, while these type of buildings also existed in Constantinople and other big cities of the empire, such as Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage and Thessaloniki. The chariot races were held at fixed dates, on Sundays and major religious festivals. Races were also held on the occasion of various official celebrations, such as the official nomination of a new king, the royal birthday, the palace weddings etc. The hippodrome also gave people the opportunity to publicly express their views on the policy of the emperor: they cheered him when there were happy or stated their dissatisfaction demanding satisfaction of their demands.

The Hippodrome of Constantinople was founded in the late 2nd century by Septimius Severus imitating the one of Rome. It was restored by Constantine the Great in the early 4th century and it operated until the 12th century. It had a horseshoe shape, with two long sides. The openings, constructed on one end of the building, closed with doors with bars; these were the starting point of the chariots. The opposite end had a closed shape and it was where the chariots turned. An oblong obstacle, the Euripus, was placed in the middle of the track, dividing the space in two parts. Euripus was surrounded by a ditch with water. Offerings and sculptures for timing and counting laps were placed on the Euripus, while flexors, which were the boundaries that marked the turning point for the chariots, were placed on its edges. The spectators sat at the stands on both sides of the track as well as at the curve. Ancillary areas (stables, warehouses, storage of floats, preparation areas, etc.) were placed under at the stands, while at the top, a corridor with columns connected by arches offered a panoramic view of the city. In the middle of the long side of the hippodrome the Seat was built, the special royal gallery from where the emperor, isolated from the surrounding stands, used to watch the races. The Seat had banquet halls and resting rooms for the emperor, the officials and the courtiers.

On the eve of the races a piece of cloth was hang at the gate of the hippodrome by the demes announcing that the next day racings will be held. The final series of the chariot races was decided with an officially draw taking place at the afternoon of the same day.  Nobody worked on the days of the races: shops, workshops, shipyards, everything was closed, and people of all classes, even the clergy, went to the hippodrome. When the emperor appeared on his Seat after the cheering, he raised his hand which was holding a white linen cloth; the falling of the cloth was the sing permitting the beginning of the chariot races. Of the four chariots appearing on the field, one from each deme, the winner was the chariot that first completed seven full rounds around the Euripus. Eight chariot races were held during the day, four in the morning and four in the afternoon. Meanwhile an intermission between the races gave to the spectators the opportunity to dine and be entertained by groups of dancers, actors, mimes, acrobats and tamers of wild animals. These spectacles intended to keep the public's interest and avoid potentially violent manifestations.

The four groups, the demes, taking part in the chariot races were sports clubs, with particularly significant power and influence on the people of the capital. Their names, Greens, Blues, White and Rousseau (red), derived from the distinctive color of clothing that their charioteer was wearing. Demes had their own horses, chariots, facilities and personnel as veterinarians and notaries for making records and keeping the accounts, people for keeping archives, poets for writing the slogans of the races, musical instruments and musicians. Demes were responsible for the acquisition and maintenance of horses, the payment of the charioteers and the distribution of tickets. They also had a parallel social and political presence: their members helped each other, assisted in the construction of public works or participated, if it was necessary, in the defence of the capital.
 
Other medieval events
Popular sport of the imperial court and the aristocracy was tzikanion, probably imported from Persia. It was played in open court, where players on horseback were trying with long sticks to hit a ball and score. Other popular games among the aristocracy of the period were tornemes and tzostra imported from the West and played according to the rules of the knightly encounters. In tzostra, a man with a helmet riding a horse and holding a shield and a spear was trying to throw his opponent off the horse while in tornemes, a sport of similar philosophy, the encounter occurred between two groups of horsemen confronting each other.