Macedonians were Greeks

Historical truth on the ancient Macedonians

"Now that these descendants of Perdiccas are Greeks, as they themselves say, I myself chance to know and will prove it in the later part of my history. Furthermore, the Hellenodicae who manage the contest at Olympia determined that it is so, for when Alexander chose to contend and entered the lists for that purpose, the Greeks who were to run against him wanted to bar him from the race, saying that the contest should be for Greeks and not for foreigners. Alexander, however, proving himself to be an Argive, was judged to be a Greek."
Herodotus
The Histories, 5.22.1

One of the most famous Macedonian participants in the Olympics was king Alexander I. He was not the only participant however, as we shall see later on.

Let’s elaborate on Herodotus’ quote above first though. We see that Herodotus himself knows (and later will prove – although this text has not survived) that ancient Macedonians were Greeks. He furthermore states that the Olympic judges (Hellenodicae) “determined that it is so” (i.e. that the ancient Macedonians were Greeks).

Slavic Macedonist propaganda will rely and insist on the part that Alexander’s Greek ethnicity was disputed by the other athletes. However, they conveniently ignore that these athletes were the competition and would employ any means necessary to disqualify a competitor. Besides, Macedonians at the time were a relatively isolated and backward Greek state, so some Greeks may not have seen them favourably, especially since Macedonia had become a vassal state of Persia.

Therefore, it is quite obvious that Herodotus was speaking the truth: ancient Macedonians were Greek.

In addition to king Alexander I, more athletes participated in pan-Hellenic games. One must note, however, that the names of athletes before Alexander I has not survived. It is more likely that due to the following two main factors:
1) Macedonia’s great distance from Olympia and its vicinity to enemy states, who would not observe the Greek ekecheiria (Olympic Truce), forced the Macedonians to restrain themselves from participating since they needed their soldiers alert and ready at all times (that is, of course, until they were able to subdue their enemies).
2) In the first 200 years of the games’ existence, they only had regional religious importance. Only Greeks in proximity to the mountain competed in these early games. This is evidenced by the dominance of Peloponnesian athletes in the victors’ rolls. [Wikipedia]

The ancient Macedonian athletes who participated in pan-Hellenic games were:

Horse race Olympic Victors as recorded in recent discovered epigrams of Posidippus of Pella (c. 3rd century BC)[14]