12 Olympic Sports That Have Gone Extinct
Sports Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010To keep Olympic sports interesting, it has invented new sports but it has also laid to rest some of the least known sports. Here are the 12 Olympic sports that have vanished from the Olympic games.
12 – Roque
By taking out the first and last letters from Croquet, the game of Roque was born. With similarities to Croquet like smacking a ball to get it through wickets, the game of Roque is different in that it is played on a rolled sand court with a permanent boundary and permanent wickets. It made its first and only appearance in the 1904 Olympics with the United States fielding the only team.
11 – Rackets
The game of Rackets is played similar to squash in that it requires an indoor court. It gained its popularity in United Kingdom with its distinctively long racquet, 30.5 inches in length. It appeared first in the 1908 Olympics and disappeared thereafter.
10 – Jeu de paume
This game was similar to lawn tennis but with a difference as it was played without racquets. Translated literally into ‘game of palm’, the game is about hitting the ball with your hand just like handball or volleyball. This was also played for the first and last time during the 1908 Olympics.
9 – Pelote Basque
This is a game where the players hit a ball off two walls using their hands, a bat, or some sort of racquet. When it made its sole appearance in the Olympics, Spain was awarded the gold medal by beating France.
8 – Croquet
This first appeared in 1900. Then it was removed from the Olympics altogether.
7 – Polo
Usually referred as the sport of royalty, this game involves 4 players each team with each on horseback trying to drive a wooden or plastic ball into the opponent team’s net using a giant wooden mallet. It only appeared in five Summer Olympics: 1900, 1908, 1920, 1924, and 1936 with a total of only 8 competing teams.
6 – Power Boating
This was only played during the 1908 Olympics. Only two competitors joined the 3 events with one competitor actually finishing each race.
5 – Cricket
Cricket’s first and only appearance was in the 1900 Olympics. Because of its poor showing, Cricket was abolished as an Olympic sport.
4 – Golf
There were only two Olympic games wherein golf was played. These were the 1900 and 1904 Olympics.
3 – Lacrosse
The game of Lacrosse entails players to do hit a hard rubber ball into their opponent’s net. This was played in the 1904 and 1908 Olympics. It reappeared as a demonstration event during the 1928, 1932 and 1948 Olympics and then it was entirely taken out from the Olympics.
2 – Rugby
This game was not an Olympic sport but an event during the 1900, 1908, 1920, and 1924 Olympics. It is very similar to football but more violent with less interruption of play.
1 – Tug-Of-War
This was an Olympic sport in 6 Olympic Games (1900, 1904, 1906 (Intercalated Games), 1908, 1912, and 1920). The game, which is won where a team is able to pull the other team across the line, was part of the track and field athletics program.
Aside from the 12 sports mentioned above, there are two other games that are considered as ‘honorable mentions’. These games made their brief appearances as demonstration events in the Summer Olympics. These are Water Skiing (1972 Olympics) and Rink Hockey (1992 Barcelona Olympics).
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