Olympic Sports that came – and went.

The official body that decides which games will be in the Olympics is called The International Olympic Committee (IOC), and it has been doing so since the first modernOlympic Games  in 1896. When making this decision, their main consideration is how popular the sport is worldwide. But in hindsight, some of their decisions may seem odd, to say the least. Today, we'll be looking into 6 sports that made it into the Olympics against all odds. 

After the 1920 Summer games, the IOC removed:

After the 1920 Summer Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) removed tug-of-war, an Olympic sport from 1900 to 1920,f rom the Olympic program. Along with tug-of-war, pelota, lacrosse, Jeu de Paume - variously also called court tennis (British), real tennis (American), courte-paume (France), and royal tennis (Australian), croquet, basque pelota, polo, roque ( a sport similar to croquet), croquet, polo, rackets, motor boating (involving speedboats) and Cricket.

Some sports that were previously removed have returned to the Olympics. Lacrosse and cricket are set to return to the Olympics at the2028 Los Angeles Games, with cricket making its debut since 1900 and lacrosse returning as a medal event for the first time since 1908.

What goes around comes around – eventually.

In the 1900 Olympics there was: archery, football (soccer), rowing, and equestrian events were among those introduced at the 1900 Games. Women, competing in sailing, lawn tennis, and golf, participated in the Olympics for the first time even though women's events were not officially approved by the IOC.

Cricket was pencilled in as an event in the very first modern Olympic Games at Athens in 1896, it was listed in the original program but was later shelved due to an insufficient number of entries.

Cricket last featured in the Olympics in 1900 with just Great Britain and France competing (France got the silver medal!). A cricket tournament was scheduled for1904 Summer Olympics held inSt. Louis, but it was cancelled due to a lack of entries.

Cricket  - alongside baseball-softball, flag football, lacrosse and squash - was among the five additional sports proposed by the LA28 Organising Committee for inclusion at Los Angeles in 2028.

Golf and rugby were voted back in as official sports for Rio 2016, and baseball and softball returned at Tokyo 2020.

Golf featured in the Olympics only three times in 1900, in 1904, and then once again in 2016. Until 2016, golf had been featured in the Olympics only twice: in the 1900 and 1904 Games. The 1900 Paris Olympics featured a men’s and a women’s event. In 1904 in St. Louis, Missouri, a team golfing event supplanted the women’s event. After a 112-year hiatus, the sport returned to the Games for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Skeleton Sledding is quite a thrilling winter sport. A competitor lies face down on a sled and shoots down an icy bob run at speeds that can reach 93 miles (150 km) per hour. We'll say it again - 93 miles per hour! The sport first appeared at the Olympics in 1928, 1948, and then it returned for good in 2002. The steering, by the way, is aptly done solely through slight movements of the shoulders and knees. 

Rugby appeared a few times at the beginning of the modern Olympics, starting in 1900. This was thanks to Baron de Coubertin, who founded the modern Olympic movement and was a fan of the sport. When he retired from his seat, rugby retired with him, and only returned to the Games in 2016!

When he left the IOC, rugby dropped off the Olympic stage and remained dormant until the IOC voted to reinstate a version of the game - rugby sevens - into the Summer Olympics, beginning with the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. The IOC agreed on sevens rather than union (15s) because of the dynamic and fast-paced nature of the sport. Seven players must cover the field space that 15 players cover in union, and each half is only seven minutes long. The increased popularity of the sport internationally is what led to the IOC’s overwhelming support of reintroducing rugby to the Olympics: the sport saw a 2.6-million-player increase between 2011 and 2016, bringing the international player count to 7.2 million across 120 countries.

Curling was a demonstration sport at the 1932 Games, and then again after a lengthy absence in 1988 and 1992. The sport was finally added to the official program for the1998 Games in Nagano, Japan. 

Curling is a game played on ice, in which one team member slides a large stone on ice, and then2 players sweep the ice in front of the stone to guide the stone as it glides to the target. Their goal is to slide the 44-pound(20 kg) stone so that it stops perfectly inside the red circle, called the tee, which is inside a larger blue circle, called the house. The athletes zealously sweep the ice in front of the stone so that it starts melting, slowing the stone as it approaches the tee. 

The game is called curling because the path of the stone curves, or curls, as it approaches the tee. There is one physics-related  oddity that scientists have yet to figure out about the game: it curls in the wrong direction. This sport dates back to the 16th century in Scotland. It was first introduced as an Olympic sport in 1924. It appeared again only in 1988 and 1992 as a demonstration sport, meaning, the games were played not to win a medal but to promote the sport itself.

Solo Synchronized Swimming, like Synchronized Swimming, somehow seems to be everyone's favourite Olympic competition to watch; probably because it's so pleasing to the eye, like a mandala that keeps evolving in front of your eyes. 

Synchronized swimming was a latecomer to the Olympics, debuting as an Olympic sport in the 1984 Los Angeles Games. The sport had two main events: duet synchronized swimming and solo synchronized swimming. That’s right: solosynchronized swimming. It  seems like an oxymoron, but apparently the synchronization was supposed to be with the music rather than another swimmer. Both events were featured again in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics, but they were replaced by a team synchronized swimming event in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The duet was reinstated for the Olympics in 2000, but the solo event never resurfaced.
Baseball flirted with the Olympics throughout the 20th century, often being showcased as a demonstration event at the Summer Games. Finally, baseball was added as an official Olympic sport in 1992, with its sister sport soft ball joining in four years later. 

In 2012, however, both baseball and softball were dropped from the Olympic ticket, the first time since 1936 that the IOC shrank the number of sports. Professional baseball players had been allowed to compete in the Olympics but often wouldn’t, since the Olympics overlap with theMajor League Baseball(MLB) season. The IOC cited the MLB’s unwillingness to alter its season as a significant factor for dropping both sports. However, the snub didn’t last for long. 

It was announced in 2016 that baseball and softball would both return to Olympic sport status for the2020 Tokyo Games(which were held in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic). The two sports were then dropped from the 2024 Games in Paris but reinstated for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

On 16 October 2023, the IOC approved the addition of five optional sports for the 2028 Summer Olympics:baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash, while breakdancing was dropped. Cricket's only previous Olympic appearance was in 1900, while lacrosse was last on the Olympic programme in 1908.

Baseball and softball:Dropped from the 2012 program, was added back for the 2020 Games.

Breaking - also known as break dancing -   debuted in Paris but is not expected to return to the 2028 Games.

Obstacle swimming: The men's 200 metre obstacle event was an obstacle swimming event in the 1900 Summer Olympics held in Paris.It was held on 11 August and 12 August 1900. Twelve swimmers from five nations competed. The event was won by Frederick Lane of Australia, with Otto Wahle of Austria second and Peter Kemp of Great Britain third.

Dumbbell lifts: The event was held only once at the Olympic Games, in 1904. This competition attempted to determine the strongest of the strong, and included ten different lifts, five on each day. The winner was US strongman athleteOscar Osthoff.

Underwater swim:This unique competition combined endurance, precision, and breath-holding skill, with athletes competing for points based on how far they swam underwater and how long they remained submerged. It appeared just once; at theParis 1900 Olympics.

Running deer shooting:100 metre running deer programme was part of the Olympic program from 1908 to 1924, in 1952 and 1956  and from 1929 to 1962, when it was replaced by 50 meter running target. 

Being the original running target event, it was shot with centre fire rifles from a distance of 100 meters, with the target moving sideways across a 20-meter-wide opening. There were two versions: single shot and double shot. Occasionally combined competitions, with half the course fired single-shot and half double-shot, were held instead of or in addition to the others. 

TheNordic Shooting Region continued to hold championships in the discipline until 2004.The British Sporting Rifle Club continues to operate a 100 meter running deer range at theNational Shooting Centre, Bisley.

Plunge for distance:A 1904 Olympic event where divers jumped in feet-first and tried to travel the furthest underwater without moving their bodies.

Organizers were able to decide which sports or disciplines were included on the program from 1896 to 1920, with the IOC taking control of the program in 1924. As a result, a number of sports were on the Olympic program for relatively brief periods. of the eight discontinued early Olympic sports, the only one on the program after 1920 was polo (in 1924 and 1936).These sports were removed because of lack of interest or the absence of an appropriate governing body, and are considered unlikely to ever return.

Five early Olympic sports that were removed by the IOC have managed to return to the Games: archery in 1972, tennis in 1988, curling in 1998, golf in201 6and cricket in 2028. 

Further, three other early Olympic sports returned in a different format from which they were originally competed in: handball in1972(as indoor handball instead of field handball), rugby in 2016(as rugby sevens instead of rugby union), and lacrosse in 2028(as lacrosse sixes instead of field lacrosse).

For most of the 20th century, the Olympics included one or more demonstration sports, normally to promote a local sport from the host country or to gauge interest in an entirely new sport.Some such sports, like baseball and curling, were later added to the official Olympic program (in1992and1998, respectively. 

The competitions and ceremonies in these sports were identical to official Olympic sports, except that the medals were not counted in the official record. On some occasions, both official medal events and demonstration events have been contested in the same sport at the same Games, such as men's and women's judo in 1988. 

Due to logistical issues, theInternational Olympic Committee decided in 1989 to eliminate demonstration sports from the Olympic Games after 1992. An unofficial exception was made in2008, when theBeijing Organizing Committee received permission to organize a wushu tournament. 

When the modern Olympics began in 1896, no women were allowed to compete. In 1900, they could compete in only five events (tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrianism and golf). Today, women compete in just about every event and since 1991, any sport seeking to join the Olympic program has to have women's competitions.

Still, there are a couple of summer sports that currently only have men's divisions at the Olympic level. These are Greco-Roman wrestling and the Decathlon.

Even though freestyle wrestling has men and women's divisions, Greco-Roman wrestling is currently open only to men. Greco-Roman wrestling has been an Olympic sport since 1896; wrestlers use only their upper bodies and arms, while freestyle wrestlers can use any part of their body.

Decathlon: The winner of this series of 10 track and field events over two days (100-meter, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400-meter on day one, and 110-meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500-meter on day two) is considered to be the world's greatest athlete. 

Women compete instead in the heptathlon, which is seven track and field events (100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200-meter sprint, long jump, javelin throw and 800-meter run) over two days.

Who knows what sports there will be in the Olympic Games by end of the 21st century!

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