What Were Some Of The More Unlikely Olympic Events?

Pidgeon shooting and pistol duelling anyone?

The Olympic Games consistently add and remove events due to popularity and, as it turns out, common sense. I’m not talking about strange things they did at the Ancient Olympics, these are all in the ‘modern’ version. Quite a few of the events from the Ancient Olympics remain today, the main difference back then was that everyone took part while naked — something the International Olympic Committee decided not to run with.

The modern games began in 1896 with events changing depending on how many enjoyed it and what kind of governing body was in charge of the sport. This has led to some interesting events. Some of which clearly had to go, some odd ones have stayed in, and some should definitely be brought back.

Sports that understandably got cut from the Olympics

Live pigeon shooting

Happily, live pigeon shooting only appeared once as an Olympic event, in Paris at the 1900 games. The idea, as you can probably guess, was to shoot as many pigeons as possible in the allotted time. The winner was a Belgian man called Leon de Lunden who got the gold with 21 pigeons. There were an estimated 300 pigeons killed at the event and it was the last time at any Olympic games, that animals were killed in the name of sport.

The Plunge for Distance diving event

This was a strange idea that surely came about when they were simply trying to come up with an event. Possibly in a pub. The event occurred just the once in the 1904 games in St Louis. Unlike the twirling and spinning of modern diving events, in Plunge for Distance, the idea was to dive in and then stay utterly motionless under the water for a minute. Whoever got the furthest was the winner. So it was a slow-motion sub-aquatic long jump that must have been a pretty tedious thing to watch. To add to the boredom, all five contestants were from the US, so there was no question which country would win.

Rope climbing

Another event where the committee seemed to be scrabbling for event ideas, except this one ran from 1896 to 1932. Another beautifully simple idea where the aim was to climb a 46 feet (14 meters) high rope. The first time this featured in the 1896 Athens games, the climber was judged on speed and style and was won by a Greek man called Nikolaos Andriakopoulos. After a while, it was decided that climbing a rope in a stylish way was a bit daft so in later games, the Rope Climb was judged purely by the speed of the climb. It was dropped after 1932.

Motorboat and car racing

At the turn of the century, motors were the in thing and the Olympics wanted part of the action. In 1900 there was a motorcar race and in 1908 there were three motorboat races. Driving things was soon deemed to be veering too far away from an athletics competition and it was consequently dropped. Which makes sense.

Jeu de Paume

This was also last featured in the 1908 games and seems to have ended due to the need of a huge indoor court. A bit like tennis, two competitors would face off and hit a ball back and forth. But instead of a net, there was a velvet rope, and instead of a racket, they used their hands. The game literally means ‘game of the palm’. Tennis has dealt the death blow to the game both in general popularity and at the Olympics.

Croquet

Like a lot on this lost croquet only appeared once in 1900 before people realized that while it can be fun to play, it’s not much of a spectator sport. Apparently, the event had one spectator, a man who had travelled there specifically to watch it. It was notable in that it was one of the first sports to feature women, with three ladies and seven men taking part. As all those who took part were French, they won all the medals and all the winners were the men. Not surprisingly, it was dropped.

Club Swinging

This was an event that appeared in 1904 and 1932 and isn’t quite as dull or weird as it sounds. The event consisted of someone swinging around a club or clubs, reminiscent of a bowling pin, while they performed a gymnastic routine. It has since been replaced by that event where a gymnast twirls hoops and ribbons about themselves in time to the music.

It is mentioned here because of the story of the 1932 gold medal winner who was an American called George Roth. It was during the Great Depression and Roth was unemployed and hungry. He won the event in front of thousands of spectators but was so broke, he had to hitch-hike across the city to pick up his gold medal. Then, soon after, he was forced to hitch-hike home.

Sports and events that were cut but should arguably go back in

Pistol duelling

This sounds more exciting than it was and only featured in the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens and in the 1912 Stockholm Games. The crucial thing to know is that the participants shot at frock-coated stuffed dummies with targets on their chests, not at each other. So the word ‘duel’ seems a bit of a lie. This would be a fun sport to bring back with paintballs. Pistols are still fired in the Olympics in events such as the Modern Pentathlon (see below) but firing at each other would definitely raise the excitement.

The Tug of War

Fun to watch and fun to take part in, the Tug of War was a track and field event in the 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1920 games. It was also one of the events that took place in the original Olympic games around 500BCE. The rules were predictably simple. Two burly teams of eight held opposite ends of a rope and tugged. The winners were the ones who pulled the rope’s center-point six feet or had pulled it the furthest after five minutes. In future, the sport would ideally take part on either side of a river for tension but this is just a personal idea.

Swimming Obstacle Race

This was included only once in the Olympics in 1900. Which is a shame as it spices swimming up a bit. The race was 200 meters and won by an Australian called Fred Lane. There were only three obstacles, so there is still room to play with the format. The obstacles were: climbing over a pole, climbing over some boats, and finally, swimming under some boats. These could be more imaginative.

La Canne

I left this till the end of the section as La Canne was actually a display sport at the 1924 Paris games and is related to the martial art ‘Savate’. They have martial arts in the Olympics these days so they might as well include it. ‘La Canne’, meaning ‘the cane’ features two men with canes who attack each other with sticks. Like fencing but more violent.

Finally, current Olympic sports that already seem a bit odd and might not stay around

Race Walking

This has been around for over 100 years, debuting in the 1904 games. So this one isn’t likely to go any time soon. However, it is definitely odd to watch athletes, who have presumably trained hard for the event, waddle for miles. There’s no mocking their achievement, it looks exhausting and difficult but the fact that their feet can’t leave the floor, yet they are going as fast as possible, is amusing to watch. The first time people set eyes on it at the Olympics is usually accompanied by a load of questions as to why?

Modern Pentathlon

The ‘Modern’ Pentathlon has similarly been a feature for a century, starting in 1912. It consists of five events that seem somewhat random but are actually the requirement for someone wanting to be an army cavalryman in olden times. The five events are long-distance running, equestrian show jumping, fencing, swimming and pistol firing. All of which makes sense for joining a mounted army division but without knowing where the list originated, they just seem odd and arbitrary. It also seems unlikely that animals will remain in the Olympics forever.

Equestrian Dressage

This is probably the most controversial Olympic event right now. It is basically horse dancing and is incredibly difficult. When done right, it looks pretty amazing but when it doesn’t quite work, it comes across as something bizarre involving a well-turned-out horse and rider behaving strangely. What makes it controversial are accusations of cruelty and behind the scenes abuse by trainers and riders. Consequently, animal welfare officers have been working in dressage competitions since 2002. At the 2012 London Olympics, there were protests against the event. Whether the abuse witnessed and alleged over the years is justified or accidental, it seems like an event on the way out.

So there you have it, the weird and wonderful world of the Olympics. It will be interesting to see what events come and go in the future.