There are the classics. There are the novel. And then there are the weird and wacky. Ever since the inaugural edition of the modern Olympic Games in 1896, the quadrennial event provides a global stage for a vast array of sports, some thrilling and some tranquil.
A few activities attract audiences in the millions - or perhaps billions - all year round, such as football, basketball and tennis. Others may only be popular once every four years when a home hopeful goes for gold; your gymnastics, your swimming and your weightlifting.
Over 10,000 top sportsmen and women are to descend on the French capital of Paris for the 2024 Games, where 28 core sports will be contested, alongside the newly-introduced surfing, skateboarding, climbing and breaking, making its Olympic debut.
However, many an event has been tried, tested and discontinued both before and after the creation of the five iconic rings, and here, Sports Mole takes a look at some of the most unusual sports to ever be contested at the Games, excluding test events - sorry poodle clipping lovers.
Art competitions
While the globe's finest artists nowadays may be in hot pursuit of the Turner Prize or Hugo Boss prize, Olympic medals were on offer in the official art competitions for over 35 years, starting in the 1912 Games and concluding in 1948.
The event was the brainchild of the father of the modern Olympic Games - Pierre de Coubertin, who won a gold medal himself in the competition - the art categories comprised of architecture, music, painting, sculpture and literature; De Coubertin became an Olympic champion in the latter for his 1912 poem Ode to Sport.
In the architecture competition, there was even a town planning category, while dramatic and epic works were judged in the literature section. Germany were by far and away the most successful nation in art competitions with 23 medals, until it was discontinued from 1952 onwards.
However, the legacy of the art competitions remain alive and well today through the Cultural Olympiad.
Tug of War
© Imago
An all-time favourite in school sports days and funfairs, the Tug of War - fairly self-explanatory - was part of the Olympic programme for 20 years between 1900 and 1920, although there was only an event for male 'tug-of-warers'.
The Paris 1900 Games saw one mixed team comprising Swedish and Danish athletes defeat another mixed team for the gold, before the United States and Great Britain took all three places on the podium in the 1904 and 1908 Olympics.
However, GB had to settle for second behind Sweden's might in 1912, before taking the title in the final edition of the Olympic Tug of War event in 1920, where the Netherlands finished second and Belgium took third spot.
Over a century later, the Tug of War remains an event at the World Games, while there are also indoor and outdoor World Championships biennially; Switzerland, the Netherlands and Chinese Taipei are usually the dominant forces.
Underwater and obstacle swimming
For one year and one year only - at the notably unorthodox 1900 Paris Games - 14 men competed in an underwater swimming race, where athletes were given a total score based on their distance travelled and time spent underneath the surface.
Gold medallist Charles Devendeville and runner-up Andre Six completed a one-two for France, while Denmark's Peder Lykkeberg controversially took the bronze, spending far longer underwater but failing to travel as far in a straight line, instead going in circles.
A lack of popularity saw the underwater event scrapped after just one year, while obstacle swimming also made its first and only appearance 104 years ago, where participants had to clamber over a pole and a row of boats before also ducking underneath another section of the latter.
After three rounds of semi-finals, Australia's Frederick Lane scooped the gold for one of his two Olympic triumphs that year, having also won a more conventional swimming event; the men's 200m freestyle.
Live pigeon shooting
Not one for the animal lovers. For an entrance fee of 20 or 200 francs, Olympians at the 1900 Games could win medals and 20,000 francs by shooting as many live pigeons as possible.
Once the pigeons were gradually released from their traps one-by-one, shooters opened fire and were allowed to miss two targets before they were eliminated from the competition.
The 20-franc tournament was won by Australia's Donald Mackintosh - who killed 22 - while Belgium's Leon de Lunden gunned down 21 in the 200-franc tournament, but the results were quickly eradicated from the official Olympics history.
Just two years later, a motion was passed to prevent any more live animal killing in the Olympics, leading to the much more humane clay-pigeon shooting we see today.
Club swinging
The evolution of gymnastics at the Olympics has been astounding to witness. While fans now flock to arenas to watch Simone Biles flip and twist her way to glory, the 1904 programme included a discipline known as club swinging.
Purely a men's event - as were all the gymnastics categories - competitors would be handed clubs resembling juggling bats and bowling pins and awarded difficulty and execution points, just like in present-day competitions.
The USA's Edward Hennig was deemed to have been the best at swinging a club around his head and his body in complex movements, taking 13 points for the gold medal in the first and only edition of the event at the Olympics.
However, the competition returned with a slightly different name - Indian Clubs - in 1932, and the modern women's rhythmic gymnastics competitions include a baton category.
Plunge for distance
Before springboards and platforms began to dominate the diving scene, the discipline of 'plunge for distance' was hugely popular in the late 19th and early 20th century. The rules were simple; jump from the edge, land on your front and float as far as possible in 60 seconds.
A one-time Olympic sport at the 1904 Games in St Louis, William Paul Dickey of the USA 'plunged' the furthest out of the five competitors, travelling 62 feet and six inches, but even that was not a touch on the 1933 world record of 86 feet and eight inches, set by Great Britain's F.W. Parrington.
There was also a separate non-Olympic competition for the shortest time to travel 60 feet - the world record for which is 14.4 seconds - but within a few decades, plunge for distance began to lose its appeal. No real surprise - watching Tom Daley flip four-and-a-half times from 10 metres is far more mesmerising.
Water motorsports
A once-outlawed Olympic event that could potentially be making its return at Los Angeles 2028 - albeit on dry land rather than water - motorsports was contested at the 1900 and 1908 Olympic Games, with three different motor boat 'classes' in the latter.
Class A - the open category - was won by France's Emile Thubron on Camille, while the three-man Great Britain team riding Gyrinus took the title in Class B, where boats could not exceed 60 feet in length.
The Class C event consisted of boats ranging from 6.5m to 8m and also weighing at least 800kg on their own; once again, GB's Gyrinus reigned supreme before the competition was banned from the Games.
However, a report from Inside the Games from 2022 claims that motor sport has been presented to make its case for inclusion at the 2028 Olympics, where the best karters in the world may go for glory.
Ben Knapton
