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Forgotten — and surprising — Olympic events

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

OK, so there's been a lot of coverage of breaking or breakdancing, which, of course, made its Olympic debut this year in Paris.

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

That's right. But, you know, that made me wonder, Mary Louise - what sports and events have they taken out of the Olympics over the years? So I did some digging to find out.

KELLY: Excellent question. What did you find?

CHANG: Well, up first, hot-air ballooning - it was at the 1900 Olympics.

KELLY: Really? That was a sport?

CHANG: It was. I mean, I didn't compete in it, but basically...

KELLY: (Laughter).

CHANG: ...The participants had to fly their balloons as close as possible to a target and then drop a weighted marker as close as they could to that target.

KELLY: Fair enough. All right, what else did you find?

CHANG: Well, did you know, Mary Louise, that there used to be arts competitions?

KELLY: I did not. Art, like painting art?

CHANG: Well, more than that. Competitors could win an Olympic medal for architecture, literature, music, painting and sculpture. At the 1948 games, there were even medals given out for poetry.

KELLY: Finally, an event I could compete in.

CHANG: (Laughter).

KELLY: OK, what else?

CHANG: Well, we know they still have shooting competitions, but they used to have pistol dueling way back at the 1908 games.

KELLY: Pistol dueling?

CHANG: Yeah (laughter).

KELLY: I'm frightened to ask how you win.

(LAUGHTER)

CHANG: OK, well, it wasn't an actual duel, like in the old Western movies. Instead, competitors fired wax bullets at human-shaped dummies with a bullseye on the chest area.

KELLY: (Laughter).

CHANG: So it's kind of safe.

KELLY: OK. Any others to land this for us?

CHANG: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. OK, the last one - and I think they could actually bring this back - it is the classic tug-of-war.

KELLY: What - how did they ever get rid of that?

CHANG: (Laughter).

KELLY: That sounds perfect.

CHANG: I know, right? From 1900 to 1920s, when this event happened, eight players on each team, with a marker in the middle of the rope - both teams pull until the marker reaches their side.

KELLY: Now, that I could get behind watching.

CHANG: Me too.

(SOUNDBITE OF NEAL FRANCIS SONG, "DON'T CALL ME NO MORE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Jonas Adams
Jonas Adams is the director of All Things Considered.
Tinbete Ermyas
[Copyright 2024 NPR]