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Discontinued sports from past Olympics
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by Amy Judd | July 9, 2008 at 08:28 am
1023 views | 55 Recommendations | 9 comments
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As the Beijing Olympics draws closer and the competition becomes fierce for the athletes competiting for the gold, let's take a look back at past Olympic events that are no longer competitive sports, but must have been a lot of fun.
Rope climb (1896, 1904, 1924, 1932): Using only their hands, competitors try to see how fast they can get to the top of the rope.
One-hand weightlifting (1896): Similar to the modern snatch event, but athletes were only allowed to use one hand.
Tug-of-war (1900-1920): Two teams of eight try to pull a rope six feet; if neither team reaches the mark after five minutes, the team that pulls the farthest wins.
Standing high jump (1900-1912): Same as the traditional high jump, only without a run-up.
Standing broad jump (1900-1912): The long jump without a run-up.
Standing triple jump (1900-1904): Also known as the hop, step and jump; started from a stationary position.
Underwater swimming (1900): Swimmers were awarded points for how far they went and how long they stayed under water.
Swimming obstacle race (1900): Racers had to swim through the River Seine, climb up and down a pole, then go over and under several boats.
Live pigeon shooting (1900): The birds were released and shooters tried to kill as many as possible.
Equestrian high jump (1900): Riders see who can jump the highest on horseback.
Equestrian long jump (1900): Long jumping on horseback.
Basque pelota (1900): A form of handball played mostly on the border of Spain and France.
Rugby union (1900, 1908-24): One of the most popular team sports in the world still waiting to get back into the Olympics.
I would have been awesome at underwater swimming - bet I could have won gold for sure.
I'm less convinced about the 'live pigeon shooting' and am quite glad that one no longer exists. I mean, those birds can be pesky, but that doesn't seem to be a very humane Olympic sport. Although I'm sure that now they would have replaced live ones with clay ones.
Other events included 'plain high diving' where divers were not allowed to do any acrobatic moves, but just had to dive straight into the water and 'solo synchronized swimming'.
Interesting to say the least, although I think the 'modern' Olympics shows off the best ability of top athletes around the world.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (9)
at 08:29 on July 9th, 2008
Why is there not a Vince Vaughn comedy about Olympic tug-of-war?!
at 08:29 on July 9th, 2008
Tug! Of! War! Tug! Of! War!
at 08:31 on July 9th, 2008
amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff.
Some of those events would have been so much fun to watch.
at 08:53 on July 9th, 2008
I see a new event entirely.
Marathon run and live pigeon shoot. You have hundreds of runners armed with shotguns and carrying game bags running through the streets of the host city bagging pigeons.
Of course, the winner of the tug of war gold medal could decide who gets the pigeons.
at 10:01 on July 9th, 2008
Hilarious!
at 10:16 on July 9th, 2008
Excellent story :)
at 11:40 on July 9th, 2008
amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff. Thank you for posting this! It's nice remembering the traditions.
at 13:19 on July 9th, 2008
amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff. Interesting article amy! Yeah, I was shocked by the pigeon shooting. Imagine if rope climb and the one hand weight lifting still exists. I can't see people training 4 years for those events. Must be quite boring to be lifting weights with one hand for 1460 days. You'll end up looking liek THIS.
at 00:21 on July 10th, 2008
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