Discontinued/ex-demonstration/just-bubbling-under Summer Olympic sports

Tug of war, easy. Exactly the kind of primal physical trial that deserves to be in the Olympics more than water polo or basketball.

Also, a men's club from Milwaukee won the gold medal in this in 1920.

This was inspired by this NYT graphic of discontinued sports: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/magazine/803PLAY_TIMELINE02.pdf

Waterskiing easy.

I would happily have all of these at the Olympics, but they have this arbitrary ceiling of 28 sports. So many of them must be awesome TV. Bowling at Seoul was good times, I remember.

But my vote goes to:

http://www.randomtuesday.com/pictures/30rock/karate.gif

TUG. OF. WAR.

http://www.blatherandbosh.com/photos/blog/heathers.gif

Voted for squash, amazed it's not an Olympic sport right now.

It nearly was: http://www.olympic.org/uk/news/events/117_session/full_story_uk.asp?id=1437

http://gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/Archives/Culin/Hawaii1899/graphics/tug.jpg

No Swimming Obstacle Course, no credibility.

Jeu de Paume!

Real tennis is one of the few sports there that I have actually played. And it's really very hard.

2nd choice goes to bowls.

"Bowling" here is ten pin bowling, not bowls.

Oh I see. Well, that would be quite cool too, but, yes, I prefer to see middle aged folk dressed in their whites sedately rolling balls down manicured greens.

you should do another poll for sports that are in competition but shouldn't be.

Pesäpallo all the way.

you should do another poll for sports that are in competition but shouldn't be.

-- jed_, Sunday, August 3, 2008 11:02 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

I was just thinking the same thing.

2008 Summer Olympics - Which sport shouldn't be in there?

By the way, the glaring omission here is the unjustly obscure sport of apnea.

That shit involves ppl dying tho :-/

As does my proposed sport: Extreme-distance running. Competitors must run for as LONG as possible before they can run no more. This involves running around a track with sensors on their shoes. They must complete a circuit in a certain amount of time otherwise they are disqualified. Last one standing wins. AWESOME

head: Squash
heart: Tug O' War

I'd say karate, but it has the same judging issues that lead people to criticise the likes of synchronised swimming, figure skating, diving, etc.

Tug Of War gets really boring really quickly.

I'm amazed squash isn't already an Olympic sport.

Australian Rules Football, obviously. Much better and less homoeroticly class conscious than Rugby.

And bring in Cricket if Joe Scuderi can still captain the Italian team.

Much as I like Aussie football I can't see there being that many nations in with a shout of a gold medal (speaking from a position of pure ignorance, obviously).

And bring in Cricket if Joe ScuderiChristian Vieri can still captain the Italian team.

-- King Boy Pato, Monday, 4 August 2008 12:31 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Much as I like Aussie football I can't see there being that many nations in with a shout of a gold medal

It's the national sport of NAURU!

Voted squash but could have voted cricket, because the world wants to know if the England team can keep the gold medal it won in 1900 against France (actually only English dudes in that team too iirc)

I thought squash rather suffered because of the popularity of racketball or hardball-squash in North America; are there any leading squash players from the US/Canada? Has the "international" version of the game caught on over there?

The US win enough medals as it is, who cares if there is one event in which theyre not that competitive.

Australian rules football is fucking mental fwiw

I voted for tug of war but I hope when they reinstate it, they'll serve orange drink like at Field Day in elementary school.

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Am I correct in assuming all 6 votes for cricket are Louis'?

mate I already said I voted for squash, this is some crazy lurker action

That you did, my apologies. Thinking about it I regret not voting for Pelota; for this is truly a game for those wishing to inflict serious head injuries on others.

is that the one like petanque or jai alai where the ball travels at 200 mph?

200mph

the very same.

i believe the basque version is the most dangerous. which makes it the best.

As does my proposed sport: Extreme-distance running. Competitors must run for as LONG as possible before they can run no more. This involves running around a track with sensors on their shoes. They must complete a circuit in a certain amount of time otherwise they are disqualified. Last one standing wins. AWESOME

A slightly better way to arrange this hideous sport would be to set everyone off at once and maintain something like a 75-meter marker behind the frontrunner, and then anyone who falls behind that marker is out. In addition to introducing all kinds of strategy issues with regard to the pace you set (and in addition to probably being over a hell of a lot faster), you could win by firmly outpacing someone, rather than needing them to actually drop from exhaustion.

Actually, if you wanted extreme distances, it'd have to be a hell of a lot longer than a 75-meter gap -- that'd just create sprinting.

In the 1908 Olympics, held in Shepherd's Bush, London, they had some pretty freaky sports. Tug of War WAS a sport (Great Britain took all three medals), so was Jeu de Paume.

But there was also "Water Motorsports" (?). I would love to know what that entailed. There was also "Running Deer (single shot)" and "Running Deer (double shot)"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equestrian_at_the_1900_Summer_Olympics_-_Long_jump

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equestrian_at_the_1900_Summer_Olympics_-_High_jump

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equestrian_at_the_1900_Summer_Olympics_-_Mail_coach !!

Each contestant was required to deliver mail door-to-door over a 2km route driving an equestrian mail coach.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic_games/8292584.stm