Some Olympic sports might seem offbeat, but they all earn their place

If you think some of the sports being contested at the Paris Olympics are a little unusual, you might be even more surprised by some of the codes that have been previously held at the quadrennial Games.

Looking back, the Olympic programme has featured some interesting disciplines, including tug of war, pigeon shooting and obstacle swimming.

None of these sports are still contested at the Games, but even some existing codes have been questioned in terms of why they are included on the greatest sporting stage of them all.

As much as you might not be used to watching competitive dressage or dancing, however, all codes in the programme have to tick a long list of boxes and must be voted in.

Criteria required

To be approved, sports must comply with the Olympic Charter and the World Anti-Doping Code, and they must receive enough votes from the member federations of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which takes various things into account. These include the sport’s global appeal, how long it has existed and how popular it is in the host country, among other factors.

The local organising committee for each edition of the Games can also add optional sports, as is the case in Paris, with the host nation introducing breakdancing (breaking) to the programme for the first time.

The Paris organisers have held on to three other sports which were introduced in Tokyo three years ago – skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing – while karate and baseball/softball have been dropped.

The LOC had also hoped to include esports for the first time in Paris, but it was not approved by IOC members as an optional sport.

No free passes

So, while some of them might seem a little strange to South Africans, none of the codes at the Olympics are given a free pass, as each sport must pass a series of tests in order to be included.

As individuals, we might not be interested in watching every sport at the showpiece, but there are many people around the world who are fans of each code. If they didn’t have widespread support, they wouldn’t be Olympic sports.