The Weirdest Sports Ever included in the Olympic Games

This water sport was introduced to the Olympic Games in 1972. After a 20-year-hiatus, it was brought back and athletes now compete on a closed course.

Photography: Wikimedia Commons

Nowadays, club swinging is performed as part of a workout routine more often than it is in competitive sport. The all-male sport didn’t last long on the Olympic stage after its debut in 1904 and is often referred to as a predecessor to the all-female event, rhythmic gymnastics.

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Known mostly as a fun backyard game, Croquet has the distinction of being the first Olympic sport that women were allowed to compete in. It only showed up at the Olympics once in 1900.

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To the layman, equestrian dressage sort of looks like it could be described as horseback rider dancing. Although it looks like fun, the routines are often very complicated and require the rider and horse to be completely in sync with each other. Admittedly, you've got to be involved in the sport to really understand how it works.

Photography: Wikimedia Commons

Rope climbing was another of the more basic, straight forward sports to be features in the Olympic Games. As a gymnastics event, it lasted from the first Olympic Games until the 1932 Games in Los Angeles.

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Although the name of the sport is an oxymoron in itself, the solo sport of synchronized swimming was a thing for three Olympic Games between 1984 and 1992. The more common two-person and eight-person events still exist today.

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Most folks describe this French sport as fencing with wooden sticks. Canne de Combat only stuck around for the 1924 games as a demonstration sport.

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The oddly archaic was the precursor to the weightlifting events we know as the snatch, and clean & jerk. Lifters were given three rounds to jerk a barbell into the air as high as they could. Sounds pretty simple.

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The game we all know from elementary school was an Olympic event from 1900 - 1920. Countries were able to enter multiple tug-of-war teams, and in 1904 the United States took home all three medals for the event.

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One of the most boring sports on this entire list, the Plunge for Distance event required swimmers to do just that -– plunge into the water to go as far as they could without moving. After staying underwater for a full minute, the swimmer’s distance was measured and recorded. Fortunately, the event was only included in one Olympic Games.

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Yes, flying in hot air balloons was considered an Olympic sport at some point. During the 2nd Olympic Games in Paris, ballooning was demonstrated, but The International Olympic Committee decided to pass on the low-action sport. Competitors in the 1900 Olympics tired to fly their balloons as close as possible to a target and drop a weighted marker as close as they could to said target.

Photography: FAI.org

Glima was another demo-only sport that was rejected by the Olympics committee after debuting in Stockholm at the 1912 Games. It's an old sport that was brought to Iceland by the Vikings and it remains popular in the country today. Competitors must always be standing straight up, and the goal is to get any part of the other person's body between the elbows and knees to touch the ground.

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This event is definitely not exactly what it sounds like. Instead of shooting at each other, athletes would face off against each other by shooting at stuffed dummies. The sport was a demonstration-only event at the 1908 Olympic Games in London.

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This Finnish competitive sport is very similar to American baseball. It was rejected by the International Olympic Committee after debuting as a demonstartion-only sport in the Helsinki Olympics in 1952.

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Although it resembles what kids do at school when they know they’ll get in trouble for running in the hallways, race walking goes way back to the 1904 Olympic Games. All walkers are required to keep their knees straight and maintain constant contact with the ground for the entire race, hence the humorous form and posture associated with the sport.

Photography: QZ.com

This old French sport is an obvious precursor to the game we all know as tennis. It’s played on a racquetball-like court and only appeared in the Olympic Games in 1908, mostly because of a lack of these types of courts.

Photography: Thibaut Chapotot