Commissioned in 478 BC by Polyzalos, the tyrant of Gela, this life-size bronze masterpiece, was dedicated to Apollo to celebrate a magnificent chariot victory in the Pythian Games. As one of the few surviving original hollow-cast bronze statues from the Severe style era, the sculpture captures the youth in a moment of intense concentration just after the race, wearing a heavily pleated xystis (tunic) that falls like a classical column.