With Breaking being introduced for the first time at the Paris Olympics, what are the sports that have been discontinued from the line up over the years?
The first Olympic Games in ancient Greece took place in Olympia around 776 B.C. and had only one event: a foot race. Over time, organisers added more sports to the roster. Many survive to this day, but here are some of the quirkier discontinued Olympic competitions, as well as a couple of ancient events that never crossed over to the modern Olympics.
Chariot Racing: Starting around 680 B.C., drivers raced each other in horse-drawn chariots. Only boys and men could participate in Olympic events as athletes, but wealthy women could sponsor chariots. Because it was a chariot’s sponsor who received the victory title, not the racer himself, this was the only way women could “win” at the Olympics.
Pankration: This ancient Olympic sport was included for about 800 years and was a truly brutal mix of boxing, wrestling and kicking. There were only two rules: you could not gouge out your opponent’s eyes and you couldn’t bite your opponent. In 564 B.C., one of the contestants was suffocated to death.
Hot Air Ballooning: The 1900 Olympics, which were tied to the months-long world’s fair in Paris, ran from May to October. With the expanded time frame, the 1900 Olympics featured multiple types of hot air balloon contests.
Pigeon Shooting: Another event that debuted at the 1900 Olympics was live pigeon shooting. In this contest, organisers released pigeons into the air in front of a competitor, who then shot as many as possible.
Pigeon shooting and hot air ballooning only made the line up in 1900; never to be seen again.
Tug of War: The 1900 Games also introduced tug of war, which managed to survive five Olympics but was discontinued after the 1920 Games.
Painting: Starting with the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm and continuing until the 1948 games in London, the Olympics held art competitions in painting as well as sculpture, music, architecture and literature. The IOC supposedly retired the art contests because so many competitors were professional artists, and the Olympics were supposed to highlight amateurs (i.e., people who didn’t get paid for their athletic or artistic talent).
Distance Plunging: The first and only time the 'sport' was included in the Olympics was in 1904. Apart from an initial dive, any form of exertion was strictly prohibited. The competitors began (there were only 5) with a regular standing dive and then had to keep their body perfectly still - they could not move a muscle or propel themselves in any way. No wonder the event was derided as "competitive floating" - and the sport's reputation as formidably soporific never wore off.
Comments