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tcgv

The list of Discontinued sports at the Summer Olympics [1] also includes:

- Pigeon racing

- Cannon shooting

- Life saving

Among other interesting entries.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Discontinued_sports_a...

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Also cricket. It's coming back to the Olympics next time though.

The last time (and only one time) was in 1900 in Paris. Only two teams participated: one was France and the other of course Britain.

Only now that T20 cricket is played in many countries including USA and continental European countries does it make sense to have cricket in the Olympics. That really only became true in the past year with USA participating in the ICC T20 World Cup.

With older forms of the game (5-day test cricket and 1-day/50-over cricket), matches took too long and it was played by too few countries to make sense.

I’m sure another motivator to include cricket in the Olympics is to appeal to viewers in/from India, Pakistan and other south Asian countries that aren’t so prominent in other Olympic sports.

I’m kind of surprised bowling was an event (briefly) but now is not. I don’t keep up with it but I’ve somehow been bowling in a variety of countries. Is it the professional game is just too biased towards the USA? I believe top player is Australian?

Also I have to imagine Pickle Ball will be featured in the next Olympics. Maybe it can take break-dancings spot.

Flag Football and 6-player Lacrosse are next up in 2028.

It was an event at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, but attempts to have it made a permanent event failed, apparently partly because it requires expensive facilities that aren't always available in poorer countries. Doesn't seem to have been a blocker for sailing or ski jumping...

I suspect if Sailing and Skiing were proposed as events in 1998 and not 1896 and 1936 respectively, they would face similar issues.

They held an event in 1936 and tried to make it an official part of the 1940 Olympics. If the Olympic games of 1940 hadn't been cancelled it might have made it in.

https://www.topendsports.com/events/demonstration/bowling.ht...

Bowling lanes are a bit more involved than a race track, but it doesn't seem that involved. It's basically waxed wood flooring with some dividers. You can just put that down in a regular stadium for a couple days.

Normally bowling alleys are expensive because of the machinery, but the Olympics aren't lacking in manpower. Just dedicate one person per lane to manually setting the pins. If you dress them up a bit that can even add some visual flourish.

The concern isn't that the country hosting the Olympics won't be able to afford a bowling alley, it's that competing in the sport would be economically out of reach for much of the world.

it's that competing in the sport would be economically out of reach for much of the world.

I don't know anything about 'high end' bowling, but I cannot see how it could be any more expensive than many other sports at the Olympics.

My local bowling alley charges $25 an hour to rent a lane. Practicing 20 hours a week makes it $2000 a month. Admittedly, they probably have strong discounts for someone bowling that much, but that's only the price for a beginners practice spot.

Winter sports and some older competitions probably match that, but I think they try to be more aware of that for summer sports. Compare it to another recent addition, skateboarding. One of the competitor's (medalist I think?) family went without electricity for a month to afford her first board, but after that it with some luck it was affordable enough to get her to the Olympics.

But doesn't the same line of though still apply? Making a bowling lane in your back yard or in a community center is pretty cheap if you set the pins manually.

In terms of costs for a training spot with Olympic-like conditions it would be pretty middle of the pack and probably in the cheaper half. It's more expensive than say table tennis or marathon, but a lot cheaper than swimming, pole vault or golf, never mind the heavy hitters like ski jumping.

Making a 60ft flat level surface is harder than you'd think, and even with your human pin setters a lane would effectively allow 1 or 2 people to practice at a time.

Plus, as another poster pointed out, I think several other sports would be rejected for the same concerns if they weren't effectively grandfathered in.

You're basically describing the Winter Olympics.

And all of the equestrian events in the Olympics.

Tim Duncan famously took up basketball after his swimming career was derailed when a hurricane destroyed the only pool on st Croix, and they couldn't rebuild it.

>Plus, as another poster pointed out, I think several other sports would be rejected for the same concerns if they weren't effectively grandfathered in.

Including most of the Winter Olympics.

There's no such thing as grandfathered in, events are we considered every olympics. Just because there is no world where the 400 m sprint will be removed does that mean it is grandfathered in. Wrestling was almost removed from the Olympics a few years ago. Which is one of the actual events from the ancient olympics.

I am aware, which is why I said "effectively." The bar for removing a sport is different than for adding one. For one thing, swimming and similar events have over a century of work making them more accessible.

> Doesn't seem to have been a blocker for sailing or ski jumping...

The boats they use in the Olympics are generally standardized designs that have been around for a very long time.

The most common Olympic boat is the Laser, which has been around since the 1960s. You can make one yourself if you feel like it. They'll take out a measuring tape and if all the dimensions are correct you are good to go. You could buy an Olympic-quality one from a manufacturer for $6k or less, including all the sails. You can watch out for a Craigslist post offering one up for free if you just come get it. There are stacks and stacks of them all over sailing clubs everywhere in the world - because they've been building them exactly the same for 70 years. There are so many Lasers out there people don't know what to do with them.

The exact kiteboarding thingy they use can be bought off the shelf at plenty of sailing stores for $3k or less.

Yes, the bigger boats they are using for the two-person races can get pricy, but that's just a fraction of Olympic sailing.

The sports for 2028 have already been decided. Flag football, baseball/softball, cricket, lacrosse and squash will be added. Breaking will not be included.

Flag Football sounds interesting. I’m curious if much of the world will compete in it. Looks like a fun format with a small field, 5 players per side and clear rules - 4 tries to get a touchdown. And very fast I’m guessing.

I'd love to see Olympic capture the flag.

Apparently 42 teams competed in the last IFAF Flag Football World Championship. More countries than are members of the International Kabaddi Federation.

Breakdancing seemed way too late, like someone old on the decision team was out of place with that one.

At that rate, Pickleball will be added in 40yrs - "Oh yeah I remember back after the Covid Pandemic, Pickleball was popular", says 60-70yr old person.

Oh hey that's my mom-in-law!

Damn you, Raygun! /s

Though tbf, I'm not sure any competition with an artistic element belongs in the Olympics. I would ditch stuff like figure skating and synchronized swimming. Gymnastics can stay, but I'd prefer it be more standardized.

How familiar are you with gymnastics scoring? It's quite rigid. The ongoing controversy is not really related to the objectiveness of judging, but an administrative error (assuming the IOC is truly in the wrong here).

All the sports you mention have had most of the artistic elements beaten out of them by standardised scoring systems. No one wins olympic gold in figure skating or synchronised swimming by being artistic, they do it by repeatedly and perfectly executing the highest scoring techniques as defined in the rule book.

Oh good, that's what I want, then.

I was surprised to know pétanque was never included and that it is slated for the 2026 youth Olympics.

Still waiting for pankration's comeback and the addition of Quake 3 CPMA, though.

> Flag football, baseball/softball, cricket, lacrosse and squash will be added

Don't forget that modern pentathlon is dropping the equestrian portion and replacing it with a ninja-warrior obstacle course.

Running, swimming, fencing, shooting, obstacle course.

Jousting. That would have been marvelous.

I saw fire fighting was in there. That could make a comeback, there is (at least in the US) actually still a national circuit of firefighting challenge courses and they are pretty sweet to watch. Plus, firefighters are good for PR in basically every country in the world, right?

I've also seen lineman challenges where they compete to rescue a dummy from the top of a pole. Lineman is always interesting to me since nobody wants to get close to the kinda things they have to get close to, so they end up needing to do all of their own stunts.

I find it sadly shocking that they have "breakdancing" as an Olympic sport and not squash -- which is played worldwide at a very high level. It's not as popular in the US as other countries, but at least as popular as badminton.

Squash will be in the 2028 Olympics.

Honestly the last one needs to be a thing for so many reasons. I had an experience in the Florida keys a number of years ago that has stuck with me. I was on a snorkeling charter and some foreigners were aboard [of Asian decent]. (I've included their race here just for context, not racism, as formal swimming lessons overseas are not nearly as common as they are in the USA). I was near the front of the boat on the second level when I saw someone splashing. I had a small flashback of what a swim coach had told me at 13 years old: Drowning does not look like drowning in the movies. I yelled that captain who was setting an anchor, and the first mate who was helping tourists put their fins on. Both looked confused what I was trying to signal through the bussle, so I dove off the second deck and swam to the person. He was under before I got behind him, so I yanked him above water by his un-inflated vest and tipped his head back over my shoulder. He rapidly tried to pull me under so I had to restrain his arms with one hand and inflate his vest with my other hand and mouth, while treading with just my legs. Scariest 10s of my life, but it was over that quick once I got a little positive buoyancy into his vest. The current had pulled us about 35 yards from the boat at that point so I had to swim towards the boat a bit to grab the rescue line. Captain and first mate thanked me profusely. The guy couldn't speak english and didn't realize he needed to wait in line for the first mate to check everything (including vest inflation). Instead he just jumped in off another part of the boat. The tour company gave us a refund and bought us dinner.

What I'd like to see come back is amateurship, or at least non-professional, non-salaried participants again. Like, it's not their main gig. They do something else, but are level A amateurs who love a sport or activity without getting paid a salary.

Why is that better than the best of the best regardless of economic background?

There’s a reason most people prefer to watch professional soccer rather than pub leagues.

Because no one watches something like the shot put other wise, EVER.

It use to be the Olympics were the one showcase for the non-popular sports.

Case in point, the shot put. One of the long standing "unbreakable" records was Randy Barnes shot put from the late 80s.

Ryan Crouser broke that last year and won the gold medal this year, again.

It is an incredible accomplishment but no one cares because Lebron and Steph Curry were going for the gold or why watch the shot put when you can watch break dancing.

I feel bad for anyone who is not old enough to have watched it when it was all amateurs. It was something so special.

Just have the Taylor Swift karaoke event already. I am sure that would get great ratings and that is all that matters obviously.

I don’t see why allowing professionals to compete prevents anyone from enjoying other events.

It sounds like your complaint is that the professionals consume the oxygen of the Olympics and prevent the rest from getting as much share of the public’s attention.

For the record, the break dancing was really fun to watch, all the track and field events are always fun to watch, and the training and dedication to all the competitors is admirable.

The real problem is that the enshitification of all modern media means that there’s not a single repo of video of all the events. Even finding the video of one specific event is a gigantic PITA.

I want to see scrappy people with verve vie for glory, not a bunch of overpaid spoiled egotists showing off.

Professionals already get good remuneration, sponsorships and glory --have a forum for the college student and for the guy or gal who really love this one activity on the side so much they're willing to give it their all despite the meager monetary reward.

I goddamned hate these billion-dollar industries contaminating the spirit. I hate the quantization of performance where they're scientifically extracting the last bit of juice that they can out of a body. What the hell is the fun in that?

They do that in Olympic boxing.

> Cannon shooting

I'm sorry, WHAT? oO

Not the Olympic "cannon shooting" event, but there is a tradition of athletic competitions for gun crews. A 'famous' example is the Royal Navy Field Gun competition, an obstacle course for howitzer and crew:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhdcnQZf3fo

"This tradition came into being as a direct result of the heroic actions taken by Admiral Meux and his crew during the Boar War."

Those must have been impressive boars if they needed guns that big! ;-)

Search youtube for "texas boar hunt m134" or HeliBacon

Why not link directly to a relevant video?

In case it is taken down

Yup. Happens more than you like

"This video has been made private"

Cannon shooting made the addition of the life saving event necessary.

Possibly also fire fighting - which is also on the list...

I mean, we have pistol, which is a smol cannon shooting.

Hopefully not as depicted in Monkey Island.

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