Cycling is one of the newer sports. Cycle-like devices, possibly with four wheels, are shown in pictures from ancient Babylon. These and later similar vehicles were more like a kind of scooter where the rider would push with his feet on the ground. Most of these crude machines had no steering.

The first modern two-wheeled bicycle was invented by Kirkpatrick MacMillan of Scotland in 1839. The next major development was a chain-driven bicycle built by Tribout and Meyer in 1869. It was also in this year that the first bicycle race, from Paris to Rouen in France, took place. The air-filled tire, instead of a rather bumpy solid rubber tire, was invented in 1888.

By 1893, the design of the bicycle had been developed into the modern diamond frame with roller-chain drive wheels and air-filled tires. The biggest bicycle race is the Tour de France, lasting more than two weeks with hundreds of participants.