Olympic sports that discontinued now

Olympic Sports That Discontinued Now

This year, the 2024 Olympic is scheduled to be held in Paris between July 26 to August 11.

Most people in the world are expecting many events such as soccer, baseball, basketball and volleyball. Astonishingly, there are some sports that we cannot imagine that exist or find now. These sports are canceled because of various reasons. 

1. Tug-of-war

In annual field days, the tug of war is the main event where all students in class can participate and have fun with other classmates.  Today, tug-of-war is a sport that can be enjoyed lightly with friends at school fields day, but surprisingly, it was contested as a team event in the Summer Olympics from 1900 to 1920. After the 1920 games, it was removed from the Olympic Programme along with other sports. During that time, the IOC* decided there were too many sports and participants competing. This game was about 8 players per team and it played for about 5 minutes.     

*IOC: International Olympic Committee 

1. Singlestick

singlestick was a form of the fencing games that used either a wooden stick or similar to sabre. It is said that whoever makes the opponent's head bleed first with a single stick wins this game. Of course, the event was abolished immediately after the first round(1904) on the grounds that it was cruel because it caused great harm to the players and had a bad effect on the spectators.

1. Live pigeon shooting

Live pigeon shooting was held once in the Paris Olympics in 1900. The object of this event was to shoot and kill as many birds as possible. This was the first and only time in Olympic history that animals were killed on purpose, though the event is considered to be inappropriate, so live pigeon shooting is not listed in official IOC medal records.

There are more sports that have been discontinued in the Olympic games now. There are some sports that are disappointing because they disappeared, but the Olympics could have developed through this process to enjoy healthier sports as it is now. It would be good to watch this year's Paris Olympics while thinking about the events that existed in the past.