The weirdest Olympic sports

Everyone's eyes are on London this summer, as the world's best athlets are competing for a place in the gallery of the immortal Olympic champions. The gold medal surely represents the highest achievment an athlete can dream of, the crown of a lifetime of hard training. But it seems that throught history, some events have challenged the skills of competitors in a weird way. Here are some of the most unusual events:



 Tug of war 1900-1920 

 Unusual but also one of the oldest Olympic event, dating since 500 BC, as it was played at the original greek Olympics, the tug of war was a feature at the modern Olympic games between 1900-1920. The game challenges the physical strength of two teams who are required to pull a rope in opposite direction until the midpoint of the rope passes in one or the others territory.




 Hot air ballooning 1900 

 I don't know about you but when I think of ballooning I think of Jules Verne's novels , but it seems this was a sport event in the 1900. Hm, I wonder what happened if they had bad weather.

 Long jump for horses 1900 

 Unfortunately the equestrian and not the horse would get the medal for this one. Seems a bit unfair, as all he did was to sit in the saddle.

 Rope climb 1896-1932 

 I remember when I was in highschool and our coauch would always make us climb the rope. I was pretty good at that, but I never imagined someone could win the Olympics with this skill.







 Live pigeon shooting- 1900

 You see, now, this is the kind of event that couldn't possibly happen in our days . People would be appalled, shocked, enraged. However, it make me imagine the 1900 athlete as a posh guy that spent his day hunting pigeons, ridding his horse, flying his hot air balloon , and all that while smoking his pipe.


 Poetry -1948

 Not so much as a sport event , poetry was part of the Art competitions at the Summer Olympics in London 1948. Aale Tynni from Finland won the gold medal not by showing physical prowness but rather with her poem "Laurel of Hellas". Well, this is a lesson for whoever though poems are for sissies.

 Poodle clipping - 1900

 I kid you not, this was an Olympic event back in the 1900. Geez, what kind of society did we have in the 1900? Believe it or not, in 1900 the Olympics in Paris, Avril Lafoule, a 37-year-old farmer's wife from the Auvergne won the gold medal after clipping 17 poodles in 2 hours. I can help by wondering how an american poodle clipping team would look like.




Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://dsc.discovery.com/life/weird-olympic-sports-slideshow.html