Abandoned Olympic Events
That Was a Really Considered a Sport?
Who hasn’t dreamed of participating in the Olympics and hearing the roar of the crowd as you stand on the podium to receive a medal? For most of us, the closest we’ll come to that experience is watching our favorite athletes go for the gold on TV or—if we’re lucky—cheering in person!
Paris is hosting this summer’s games, and it is spotlighting a new sport: break dancing (yes, break dancing). Adding or dropping Olympic events isn’t rare. Baseball made the cut for the 1992 Barcelona games only to be struck from the program in the 2012 London games—then added back again for the 2020 Tokyo games.
Here is a list of once-popular Olympic sports that would leave people scratching their heads if the sport appeared on ESPN today.
Underwater Swimming
Believe it or not, underwater swimming was an official event at the 1900 Paris Olympics. Competitors were awarded two points for every meter completed underwater and one point for every second they stayed underwater. The sport didn’t make a big splash with spectators and never appeared in the Olympics again.
Dueling Pistol Shooting
While it sounds like the brainchild of Aaron Burr (it wasn’t), dueling pistol shooting was a popular sport in France in the early 1900s. The first and only time it was an event was in the 1906 Olympic Games (aka the Intercalated Games). Standing 25 meters from a human silhouette dressed in a frock coat with a bull’s eye on the dummy’s chest, competitors were required to fire three shots before the official counted to three. Thirty shots where fired with the highest score winning.
Arts Competition
No feats of human strength were required for this event. Held in 1912 and again in 1948, the arts competition awarded medals in five categories: architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture. The one criterion for all works was that they had to be inspired by sports.
Fun fact: Walter Winans is the only person to win gold medals in both art and sports competitions. He won a gold medal in the deer shooting competition (yes, another discontinued sport), which entailed shooting a target moving sideways from 100 meters away, and a gold medal in sculpture in 1912.
Tug-of-War
It seems more like a family picnic or workout activity, but tug-of-war was an Olympic event in 1900 and 1920. It was played with two teams of eight. One team had to pull the other six feet along in order to win. If, after five minutes, no team succeeded, the team that pulled the greatest distance was declared the winner.
Equestrian Vaulting
No, horses didn’t pole vault, though that would be a sight to see. Equestrian vaulting basically entailed gymnastics and dance on horseback. Only three nations—Sweden, France, and Belgium—participated, and all of the athletes were Army officers. The heyday of this sport was short-lived. It only appeared in the 1920 Olympics.
