In June 2014, to mark the appearance of volume 25 of the journal NIKEPHOROS, a conference was held in Graz on the theme of sport in antiquity. It documented, through the work of 32 established and young scholars from Denmark, Germany, Greece, Great Britain, Italy, Canada, Croatia, The Netherlands, the USA and Austria, both the current interest in the theme of ancient sports and the increasing awareness of the importance of this specific aspect of culture in researching more general historical questions. The papers from the conference are published in edited form in volumes 27 and 28 of NIKEPHOROS.