Olympic Sports You Won’t See in Rio This Summer
RIP solo synchronized swimming; we hardly knew ye.
While gymnastics, swimming and track and field consistently take center stage at the Summer Olympic Games, their supporting cast is often a revolving door of athletic accoutrement.
This summer, Rio 2016 adds kitesurfing to the bill and brings golf and rugby 7s back, but it will once again be lacking baseball (1992-2008) and softball (1996-2008)—much to the dismay of Jennie Finch fans everywhere.
Baseball and softball were officially removed from the Olympic docket via an International Olympic Committee vote in 2005, becoming the first sports officially taken off the roster since polo was eliminated in 1936. Events, or competitions under a sport umbrella (i.e. steeplechase as part of the track and field program), have been eliminated and replaced on a more regular basis, forming the revolving door we’ve come to expect from the Olympic Games.
The 2005 vote proved that few Olympic events are truly safe as competitive mainstays, as wrestling, one of the few remaining events from the Ancient Olympiads, was later voted out of the 2020 Tokyo Games in 2013. An emergency revote saved the sport at the 11th hour, but not before sending a warning to the rest of the Olympic disciplines.
While the wrestling decision ruffled some feathers, a few historic Olympic ax-jobs may have been a bit more warranted. After all, the international sporting event has a knack for including some very strange competitions. (Two-handed javelin, anyone?) Here are some of the strangest ghosts of Olympics past.
Tug of War
Turns out that this schoolyard competition hit the big stage as a track and field competition for two decades starting in 1900. The event was actually part of the Ancient Olympiads dating back to 500 B.C., but its modern reincarnation featured two teams of eight in face-to-face battle. During its short run, the sport was dominated by the British, who captured two gold medals and a silver during the rope pulling event’s Olympic tenure.
Underwater swimming
Featured as part of the 1900 Paris Games, this competition occurred over a 60-meter distance, awarding participants two points per meter traveled and one per second submerged. Two French walked away with gold and silver, but it was actually a third place finisher from Denmark that stayed underwater a full 30 seconds longer. His undoing? He swam in circles.
