What are the Weirdest Olympic Sports?

The Paris 2024 Olympics are now in full swing, with 32 different sporting disciplines on show in the French capital. You can wager on each of these with the best betting sites in the US, whether you’re a fan of international football, ‘Rugby 7s’ or athletic disciplines like the Triathlon.

Of course, there are also several niche sports represented at the 2024 Olympics, such as shooting, trampolining and equestrian. What’s more, the history of the Olympic Games is littered with a number of even more eccentric sports, some of which have long since been discontinued. But what are the weirdest Olympic sports, both now and from the annals of history?

• The Strange Olympic Sports of Today
• Water Polo – One of the Most Unusual Olympic Sports of All-Time
• The Steeplechase – A Distinctly British Discipline
• Trampolining – The Most Unusual Competitive Olympic Sport
• What are the Most Unusual Olympic Disciplines of the Past?
• Live Pigeon Shooting – A Truely Shocking Olympic Discipline
• Poodle Clipping – Perhaps the Most Surreal Olympic Disciplines of All-Time
• Pistol Dueling – A Unique Meld of Sports and Disciplines

Appraising the Strange Olympic Sports of Today

As we’ve touched on, 32 sporting disciplines are on show at the 2024 Parisian Olympics, with representatives appearing from 206 countries in total. Of course, fans and punters need little introduction to sports like football and rugby, but other disciplines are far less mainstream and unlikely to be broadcast widely outside of the Olympics.

But what exactly are the most unusual Olympic sports of today? We’ll explore these in more detail below, while asking what makes these disciplines stand out in a packed Olympic schedule!

Water Polo – One of the Most Unusual Olympic Sports of All-Time

It’s rare to see water polo broadcast outside of the Olympics, while no professional leagues or competitions exist in the US. The sport is most popular in southern and eastern European countries like Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Serbia, while the LEN Euroleague and World Club Water Polo Challenge remain the most fiercely contested competitions.

Despite its relatively low global profile, water polo has been a part of the Summer Olympics program since the second games in 1900. A women’s water polo tournament was also inaugurated ahead of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Interestingly, Hungary has accumulated the most water polo medals in Olympic history, while the USA remains the only non-European team to win medals in the discipline.

Befitting of one of the weirdest Olympic sports, water polo is a highly competitive team sport that comprises elements of both basketball and handball. However, it has the distinction of being played exclusively in water, creating a physically demanding discipline in which players must either swim into position or tread water. So, in addition to being one of the most unusual sports in the Olympics, water polo is also incredibly tough to play.

The Steeplechase – A Distinctly British Discipline

The steeplechase is something that’s commonly associated with horse racing, but it remains an Olympic staple for both men’s and women’s teams. The men’s 3000 meters steeplechase has been a feature of the Olympic roster since the 1920 Summer Games, while the women’s event made its debut in Beijing in 2008.

But what makes the steeplechase stand out among the plethora of strange Olympic sports? Well, apart from the four 36-inch barriers that are dotted around the track (30 inches for women), there’s a fifth and final hurdle that sits in front of a 12-foot water pit. This is a nod to the event’s history and origins in the UK, with water pits used to simulate the rivers and creeks often present during countryside races.

Not only is the sight of runners plunging into water unusual, but this is a tricky hurdle that often causes competitors to lose their balance. It can also create ‘wipeouts’, which see several racers tumble and exit the race. It’s definitely one of the more bizarre Olympic sports, but one that remains incredibly popular among tournament organizers.

Trampolining – The Most Unusual Competitive Olympic Sport

For many of us, the trampoline is a fun recreational toy that you may have in your garden if you have a young child or two. However, this enduringly fun and thrilling pastime is also practiced competitively, while it made its Summer Olympics debut at the Sydney games in 2000. Currently, the event’s trampoline program comprises individual competitions for both men and women.

Participants will perform at least 10 different acrobatic maneuvers during their performance, including staples such as the ‘Cody’ (a somersaulting skill that initiates from the stomach after making contact with the trampoline bed) and the ‘Double Back’ (which refers to a double backward somersault). Five judges then score their efforts out of 10 before a winner is determined.

Despite its largely recreational and fun nature, trampolining is arguably one of the most dangerous Olympic events. Participants regularly incur fractures and soft tissue injuries, while dental injuries have also been widely reported. Since the event’s debut in 2000, Canada has been the most successful Olympic nation, winning six medals in total.

What are the Most Unusual Olympic Disciplines of the Past?

When appraising the weirdest Olympic sports, it should be noted that the most unusual are arguably no longer contested. So, despite the relatively bloated nature of the Summer Games, the disciplines listed below have been removed from the roster throughout history. Some will have gone due to popular demand, whereas others are too controversial to practice in the modern age.

So, let’s take a closer look at the strange and funny Olympic sports that are no longer contested at the Summer Games!

Live Pigeon Shooting – A Truely Shocking Olympic Discipline

Prior to the start of the Paris Olympics, GB equestrian star Charlotte Dujardin stepped down from the team after video footage emerged of here excessively whipping a horse during training. Animals rights campaigners Peta petitioned for both Dujardin and the sport to be removed from the Olympic roster, saying that the Games must move “into the modern era” and take animal welfare more seriously.

We can only imagine what Peta’s reaction would have been when confronted with live pigeon shooting, which ironically featured as part of the controversial 1900 Summer Games in Paris. As the name suggests, competitors were tasked with firing live ammunition and killing as many pigeons as possible, while those who missed two in a row were automatically eliminated.

The event was won by Belgium’s Leon de Lunden, who “succeeded” in shooting and killing 21 pigeons on his way to perhaps the hollowest gold medal in the history of the games. At the event’s conclusion, more than 300 dead pigeons lay strewn in the field, and it’s little wonder that live pigeon shooting failed to survive for long as a feature of the Summer Games.

Of course, competitive shooting remains incredibly popular at the Olympics, and different iterations of this discipline have existed throughout the years. Fortunately, however, no current events involve the death of live animals, which is something we should all be grateful for in the modern age!

Poodle Clipping – Perhaps the Most Surreal Olympic Disciplines of All-Time

Not only was the 1900 Summer Games strangely brutal, but it also featured one of the single most unusual Olympic sports of all-time. Put simply, poodle clipping featured 128 competitors, who were tasked with clipping as much fur off as many dogs as they could within two hours. Yes, you heard us right, although it should be noted that this was a test event that never earned full Olympic status.

Adding to the surreal nature of this event was the fact that it was held in front of 6,000 spectators at the Bois De Boulogne park. One can only imagine the looks of confusion on the faces of those gathered, while the questions that can be asked are almost innumerable. How did organizers ensure that the poodles were of equivocal size? Also, were they equally docile or did some participants have more difficult dogs than others to contend with? Such considerations are indicative of an incredibly bewildering and strange Olympic sports.

Avril Lafoule, a 37-year-old farmer’s wife from the Auvergne region of France, ultimately won the gold medal, after successfully clipping an admittedly impressive total of 17 poodles. Unsurprisingly, this event never earned full status and was never witnessed again in the Summer Games, and we can’t imagine it making another appearance in the near-term!

Pistol Dueling – A Unique Meld of Sports and Disciplines

This was another event that only made it into one iteration of the Summer Games, at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. However, this event wasn’t quite as risk-laden or exciting as the name suggests, as while participants engaged in a form of pistol dueling, they weren’t taking shots at each other or looking to actually eliminate the competition!

Instead, and somewhat bizarrely, those taking part in Sweden were tasked with firing blank rounds at mannequins dressed in fetching frock coats, with the latter element introducing yet another layer of surrealism to this unique event. To create an even more unusual spectacle, these mannequins had targets painted on their chests, with the most accurate shooters rewarded at the end of the event.

Not only does this seem likely an unnecessary waste of several decent frock coats, but it also sounds like an uninspiring event that offered little in the way of challenge or jeopardy. Certainly, hitting a stationary target that was dressed to the nines sounds relatively straightforward, also creating one of the easiest and most accessible Olympic events through history.

The Last Word

There are plenty of events that we could have featured on this list, including long and high jumps for horses (which unsurprisingly featured in the aforementioned and now infamous Paris Games of 1900) and the so-called “plunge for distance”. The latter event required competitors to dive into a pool and see how far they could drift underwater before they resurfaced, while it appeared in the 1904 Games in St Louis.

While many such events are no longer part of the Olympics roster, there remains several unusual events and disciplines that continue to be contested today. These range from the quaint to the genuinely unusual, but they all add to the unique appeal of the Olympics and its incredibly diversity.