120 years have passed since the first modern Olympics were held in Greece, which saw 14 nations contest a total of 43 events in nine sports. Times have changed since then and in Rio, it will be a total of 207 countries fighting out in 306 different events in 26 sports.
As golf and rugby sevens get set to take their respective Olympic bows come this August at the Rio Games, let us take a look at a few peculiar events that were once part of the summer Games but were later discontinued.
1. Art Competitions
From 1912 to 1948, medals were awarded to artists for works inspired by sport. These were divided into five categories – music, literature, sculpture, painting and architecture. All entries were required to be original and as in the athletic events, gold, silver, and bronze medals were awarded to the highest ranked artists. However, not all medals were awarded in each competition and on a few occasions, no medals were presented at all.
At the 1952 Games in Helsinki, most artists sending in their entries were professionals, while all Olympic athletes at the time were required to be amateurs. This sparked a debate within the IOC, who decided to reinstate the competitions. However, the Finnish organizers claimed that there was no time to organize one and as a result, an art exhibition took place instead.
According to the medals won, Luxembourg painter Jean Jacoby is the most successful Olympic artist, as he won gold for his painting ‘Étude de Sport’ in 1924, and for his drawing ‘Rugby’ in 1928. Alex Diggelmann won three medals – gold in 1936, followed by a silver and a bronze in 1948.
2. Croquet
Perhaps croquet’s most popular appearance was in Lewis Carroll’s classic novel Alice in Wonderland, but it also featured in the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris as the home country picked up all the medals on offer. The sport involves hitting balls through hoops embedded in the ground with a large hammer called a mallet.
Currently, there are a large number of variations of the sport played across the world at club level as well as world championship level. In 1900, there were three events under the sport – singles (one ball), singles (two balls) and doubles. There were a total of 10 participants, all French, with Gaston Aumoitte and Chrétien Waydelich winning the gold medal in the one ball and two balls events respectively.
In the doubles category, the pair of Gaston Aumoitte and Georges Johin won the gold medal by virtue of a walkover, as they were the only participants in the event.
3. Equestrian long jump
The long jump and the equestrian events are both classic Olympic events, with the former featuring in every edition of the Games so far. Surprisingly, a cocktail of both events was on show at the 1900 Olympics – the only time such an event took place in history.
The gold medal-winning distance in the men’s long jump was 7.19 m by the USA’s Alvin Kraenzlein, but all it took to win the equestrian long jump was a length of 6.10 by a horse named Extra-Dry. This was due to the heavy ground as a result of torrential rains, as a majority of the 17 contestants were eliminated at the 4.90 m mark.
Constant van Langhendonck of Belgium picked up the gold medal, while Italian Gian Giorgio Trissino won silver with a mere 5.70 m jump.
4. Tug of war
Tug of war is a sport of strength that surely everyone has played at least once in their lifetimes, but not many people know that it has featured as a competitive event at the Olympics on five occasions - from 1900 to 1920. It is part of the World Games and the Tug of War International Federation (TWIF) organizes biannual World Championships for nations and club teams.
At the summer Olympics, teams contested in the form of clubs, which meant that a nation could enter more than one team. A total of six teams contested in 1900, with the winning team comprising of three Danish and Swedish athletes each.
In 1904, the USA picked up all three medals on offer while in the next edition in London, it was Britain who claimed a similar hat trick of medals.
5. Cricket
The only time cricket was a part of the Olympics was in Paris in 1900, with Britain winning the gold medal and France the silver. It was scheduled as an event in the 1896 Olympics but was scrapped due to an insufficient number of entries. Four years later, Belgium and the Netherlands withdrew their participation from the event, leaving only two countries to face off in a single match.
Neither side was nationally selected, with the Devon and Somerset Wanderers representing Britain and the French Athletic Club Union, comprising mainly of British expatriates living in Paris, representing France. By mutual agreement, the match was increased to a twelve-a-side game and was not covered by any national newspapers in England or France, with the exception of a few local English papers.
The venue was the Vélodrome de Vincennes and after two days of play, Britain won the match by 158 runs. They batted first and scored 117, and then bowled France out for 78. In the second innings, they scored 145 for 5 dec. and proceeded to bowl out the home team for a meager 26 to win the match by a large significant margin, but with only five minutes of the match remaining.
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