Today, the conventions of the Olympics are fairly completely plotted out. Each host city provides its own native flavor, after all, but it surely does so within the scope of the overarching guidelines and bylaws laid out in the Olympic Charter. For the most half, the viewers knows what to count on from one video games to the subsequent. Whether it’s the giddy fanfare that surrounds the Opening Ceremonies, the stirring performance of the winners’ national anthems, the glistening tears so widespread throughout the medal ceremonies, or the kaleidoscope of Olympic sports activities themselves giving the world’s best of the best their chance to shine. Occasionally, you would possibly see a new sport added or an outdated one dropped (the 1998 introduction of these rowdy snowboarders involves mind). But, by this level in Olympic historical past, it’s uncommon to see an array of latest events get tried out in a single video games. But throughout the considerably haphazard 1900 Olympic Games, that is just what occurred. The video games, which befell in France and accompanied the World’s Fair, bore little resemblance to the Olympics of immediately.

In fact, a few of the sports activities (many of them unofficial) that debuted there weren’t ever tried as Olympic sports once more — as a result of, boy, were they bizarre. Poodle grooming and van driving had been in the combo. Remember being within the schoolyard, viciously yanking a rope with no regard to blisters, all in order to ensure your opposing classmates ate dirt? Good occasions. But now think about grown males doing it. Scary stuff. Starting at the 1900 Summer Games, however, tug-of-conflict was a minor but hotly contested Olympic event. Teams were typically composed of people from totally different nations and the rules have been somewhat haphazard. Throughout the 1900 games, rivals from Sweden and Denmark teamed up in an try and squash the French, and the Scandinavians had been profitable. The destiny of the American group in the event’s debut is even more bizarre: Some sources say they never competed, while others say they have been disqualified. Teams had been tugging their hearts out till the 1920 Olympics.

After Slot , the sport was discontinued. What’s in a reputation? Some sports historians query whether or not the athletic exhibition that befell over the summer of 1900 in Paris needs to be thought of a real modern Olympiad at all. It was so underneath-promoted because the Olympic Games, that some victors left not even knowing they had been Olympians. But most view these Games as the true successor to the primary fashionable Olympics in Athens in 1896, regardless of the strangeness. Considered to have been a demonstration sport — a sporting event held through the Olympics, however not technically thought of an official sport of the games — hot air ballooning enthusiasts noticed their hopes of changing into official rise and fall all in the course of the 1900 Olympic Games. All in all, 61 males and 3 women competed in ballooning, which consisted of 18 occasions. Judges marked contestants on various factors, like distance, duration and elevation. Hot air ballooning hasn’t been the one odd aerial sport of word on the games.

Kite flying debuted in 1900, whereas canon shooting and pigeon taking pictures were given a shot in the same 12 months. Spectators would have executed nicely to hunt cover when these guys got going. As the Olympic torch takes its 70-day trek throughout the United Kingdom earlier than arriving on the 2012 Opening Ceremony, it will be traveling by some fairly unconventional modes of transportation, amongst them, a sizzling air balloon. Others embrace zip wire, motorcycle sidecar, cable car and horseback. Firefighting and lifesaving could also be important abilities for public servants, but compared to sports activities like canoeing, gymnastics and cycling, they seem just a little out-of-place on the Games. Although neither was ever added officially to the checklist of Olympic sports activities, that doesn’t suggest practitioners don’t have any place on the games. For example, Australian surf lifesavers — who patrol Australia’s intensive beaches as their day job — have a long history of creating robust showings in a number of related aquatic sports, including swimming, water polo, kayaking and rowing.