Type of sport with events contested at the Olympic Games
Olympic sports are contested in the Summer Olympic Games and Winter 😄 Olympic Games.
The 2020 Summer Olympics included 33 sports;[1] the 2022 Winter Olympics included seven sports.
[2][3] Each Olympic sport is represented 😄 by an international governing body, namely an International Federation (IF).[4]
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) establishes a hierarchy of sports, disciplines, 😄 and events.
[4] According to this hierarchy, each Olympic sport can be subdivided into multiple disciplines, which are often mistaken as 😄 distinct sports.
Examples include swimming and water polo, which in the Olympic scheme are disciplines of the sport of "Aquatics" (represented 😄 by World Aquatics),[5] and figure skating and speed skating, which are each disciplines of the sport of "ice skating" (represented 😄 by the International Skating Union).
[6] In turn, disciplines are subdivided into events, for which Olympic medals are awarded.
[4] The number 😄 and types of events may change slightly from one Olympiad to another.
Previous Olympic Games included sports that are no longer 😄 included in the current program, such as polo and tug of war.
[7] Known as "discontinued sports", these have been removed 😄 due to either a lack of interest or the absence of an appropriate governing body for the sport.
[4] Some sports 😄 that were competed at the early Games and later dropped by the IOC, have managed to return to the Olympic 😄 program, for example archery, which made a comeback in 1972, and tennis, which was reintroduced in 1988.
The Olympics have often 😄 included one or more demonstration sports, normally to promote a local sport from the host country or to gauge interest 😄 in an entirely new sport.
[8] Some such sports, like baseball and curling, were added to the official Olympic program (in 😄 1992 and 1998, respectively).
Baseball was discontinued after the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, only to be revived again for the 2020 😄 Olympics in Tokyo, which saw the introduction of new disciplines within a number of existing Summer Olympic sports as well 😄 as several new sports, such as karate and skateboarding, making their Olympic debuts.
Breakdancing will make its debut at the 2024 😄 Summer Olympics in Paris and Ski Mountaineering will debut at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Olympic sports definitions
The term "sport" in Olympic 😄 terminology refers to all events sanctioned by an international sport federation, a definition that may differ from the common meaning 😄 of the word "sport".
One sport, by Olympic definition, may comprise several disciplines, which would often be regarded as separate sports 😄 in common usage.
For example, aquatics is a summer Olympic sport that includes six disciplines: swimming, artistic swimming, diving, water polo, 😄 open water swimming, and high diving (the last of which is a non-Olympic discipline), since all these disciplines are governed 😄 at international level by World Aquatics.
[3] Skating is a winter Olympic sport represented by the International Skating Union, and includes 😄 four disciplines: figure skating, speed skating (on a traditional long track), short track speed skating, and synchronized skating (the latter 😄 is a non-Olympic discipline).
[3] The sport with the largest number of Olympic disciplines is skiing, with six: alpine skiing, cross-country 😄 skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined, snowboarding, and freestyle skiing.
Other notable multi-discipline sports are gymnastics (artistic, rhythmic, and trampoline), cycling (road, 😄 track, mountain, and BMX), volleyball (indoors and beach), wrestling (freestyle and Greco-Roman), canoeing (flatwater and slalom), and bobsleigh (includes skeleton).
The 😄 disciplines listed here are only those contested in the Olympics-gymnastics has two non-Olympic disciplines, while cycling and wrestling have three 😄 each.
The IOC definition of a "discipline" may differ from that used by an international federation.
For example, the IOC considers artistic 😄 gymnastics a single discipline, but the International Federation of Gymnastics (FIG) classifies men's and women's artistic gymnastics as separate disciplines.
[9] 😄 Similarly, the IOC considers freestyle wrestling to be a single discipline, but United World Wrestling uses "freestyle wrestling" strictly for 😄 the men's version, classifying women's freestyle wrestling as the separate discipline of "female wrestling".[10]
On some occasions, notably in the case 😄 of snowboarding, the IOC agreed to add a sport that previously had a separate international federation to the Olympics on 😄 condition that they dissolve their governing body and instead affiliate with an existing Olympic sport federation, therefore not increasing the 😄 number of Olympic sports.
An event, by IOC definition, is a competition that leads to the award of medals.
Therefore, the sport 😄 of aquatics includes a total of 46 Olympic events, of which 32 are in the discipline of swimming, eight in 😄 diving, and two each in artistic swimming, water polo, and open water swimming.
The number of events per sport ranges from 😄 a minimum of two (until 2008, there were sports with only one event) to a maximum of 47 in athletics, 😄 which despite its large number of events and its diversity is not divided into disciplines except on an informal basis 😄 - the division between, for example, swimming and diving in aquatics is not replicated within athletics by divisions between track 😄 and field events, or stadium and road events.
Criteria for inclusion and thresholds
In the past there have been numeric criteria about 😄 widely practiced sports, disciplines or events.
Nowadays such criteria have been abolished.[11]
The sports that are eligible for inclusion in the programme, 😄 beside the current Olympic International Federations, are only those "governed by other IFs recognised by the IOC", as per the 😄 Bye-law to Rule 45 of the Olympic Charter (§1.3.2).
If this criterion is met, then the opportunity to propose additional sports 😄 to the programme is at the full discretion of the respective Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and subject to 😄 the final decision of the IOC Session.[12]
However, there are indicative thresholds which restrict the addition of new sports, disciplines and 😄 events.
According to Bye-law 3.
2 to Rule 45 of the Olympic Charter, in the edition of 2021: "Unless agreed otherwise with 😄 the relevant OCOG [Organising Committee for the Olympic Games], the following approximate numbers shall apply:
– with respect to the Games 😄 of the Olympiad, ten thousand five hundred (10,500) athletes, five thousand (5,000) accredited coaches and athletes' support personnel and three 😄 hundred and ten (310) events.
– with respect to the Olympic Winter Games, two thousand nine hundred (2,900) athletes, two thousand 😄 (2,000) accredited coaches and athletes' support personnel and one hundred (100) events."[13]
However, such thresholds have already been surpassed.
Changes in Olympic 😄 sports
Curling was promoted to an official Olympic sport at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.
The list of Olympic sports has 😄 changed considerably during the course of Olympic history, and has gradually increased over time.
The only summer sports that have never 😄 been absent from the Olympic program are athletics, aquatics (the discipline of swimming has been in every Olympics), cycling, fencing, 😄 and gymnastics (the discipline of artistic gymnastics has been in every Olympics).
The only winter sports that were included in all 😄 Winter Olympic Games are skiing (only nordic skiing), skating (figure skating and speed skating), and ice hockey.
Figure skating and ice 😄 hockey were also included in the Summer Olympics before the Winter Olympics were introduced in 1924.
For most of the 20th 😄 century, demonstration sports were included in many Olympic Games, usually to promote a non-Olympic sport popular in the host country, 😄 or to gauge interest and support for the sport.
[8] The competitions and ceremonies in these sports were identical to official 😄 Olympic sports, except that the medals were not counted in the official record.
Some demonstration sports, like baseball and curling, were 😄 later added to the official Olympic program.
This changed when the International Olympic Committee decided in 1989 to eliminate demonstration sports 😄 from Olympic Games after 1992.
[14] An exception was made in 2008, when the Beijing Organizing Committee received permission to organize 😄 a wushu tournament.[15][16]
Women are still barred from Greco-Roman wrestling and Nordic combined, but on the other hand, there are women-only 😄 disciplines, such as rhythmic gymnastics and artistic swimming.
In previous years, sports that depend primarily on mechanical propulsion, such as motor 😄 sports, could not be considered for recognition as Olympic sports, though there were power-boating events in the early days of 😄 the Olympics before this rule was enacted by the IOC.
[4][17] Part of the story of the founding of aviation sports' 😄 international governing body, the FAI, originated from an IOC meeting in Brussels, Belgium on 10 June 1905.
[18]The relevant strict clause 😄 excluding motorsports, stating that "Sports, disciplines or events in which performance depends essentially on mechanical propulsion are not accepted"[19] has 😄 been removed from the Olympic Charter.
[20][21] FIA[22] and FAI[23] are included in the International Federations recognised by the International Olympic 😄 Committee,[24] and therefore in theory could be eligible.
Previous Olympic Games included sports which are no longer present on the current 😄 program, like polo and tug of war.
[3] In the early days of the modern Olympics, the organizers were able to 😄 decide which sports or disciplines were included on the program, until the IOC took control of the program in 1924.
As 😄 a result, a number of sports were on the Olympic program for relatively brief periods before 1924.
[4] These sports, known 😄 as discontinued sports, were removed because of lack of interest or absence of an appropriate governing body, or because they 😄 became fully professional at the time that the Olympic Games were strictly for amateurs, as in the case of tennis.
[4] 😄 Several discontinued sports, such as archery and tennis, were later readmitted to the Olympic program (in 1972 and 1984, respectively).
Curling, 😄 which was an official sport in 1924 and then discontinued, was reinstated as Olympic sport in 1998.
The Olympic Charter decrees 😄 that Olympic sports for each edition of the Olympic Games should be decided at an IOC Session no later than 😄 seven years prior to the Games.
Changes since 2000
The only sports that have been dropped from the Olympics since 1936 are 😄 baseball and softball, which were both voted out by the IOC Session in Singapore on 11 July 2005,[25] a decision 😄 that was reaffirmed on 9 February 2006,[26] and reversed on 3 August 2016.
[27] These sports were last included in 2008, 😄 although officially they remain recognized in the Olympic Charter as a single sport, since both are now governed internationally by 😄 the World Baseball Softball Confederation.
Therefore, the number of sports in the 2012 Summer Olympics was dropped from 28 to 26.
Following 😄 the addition of women's boxing in 2012, and women's ski jumping in 2014, there are only Greco-Roman wrestling and nordic 😄 combined, respectively, that are only for men in those games.
Two previously discontinued sports, golf and rugby, returned for the 2016 😄 Summer Olympics.
On 13 August 2009, the IOC Executive Board proposed that golf and rugby sevens be added to the Olympic 😄 program for the 2016 Games.
[28] On 9 October 2009, during the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen, the IOC voted to 😄 admit both sports as official Olympic sports and to include them in the 2016 Summer Olympics.
[29] The IOC voted 81–8 😄 in favor of including rugby sevens and 63–27 in favor of reinstating golf, thus bringing the number of sports back 😄 to 28.[29]
In February 2013, the IOC considered dropping a sport from the 2020 Summer Olympics to make way for a 😄 new sport.
Modern pentathlon and taekwondo were thought to be vulnerable, but instead the IOC recommended dismissing wrestling.
[30] On 8 September 😄 2013, the IOC added wrestling to the 2020 and 2024 Summer Games.[31]
On 3 August 2016, the IOC voted to add 😄 baseball/softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding for the 2020 Summer Olympics.
[27] On 21 February 2019, the Paris Organising Committee 😄 announced they would propose the inclusion of breakdancing (breaking), as well as skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing-three sports which debuted 😄 at the then-upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics as optional sports.
[32] All four sports were approved during the 134th IOC Session in 😄 Lausanne, Switzerland on 24 June 2019.[33]
On 18 June 2021, the International Olympic Committee issued a proposal for a new winter 😄 sport, ski mountaineering, for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The proposal was approved during the IOC's session in Tokyo on 20 July.[34]Summer 😄 Olympics
Volleyball has been part of the Summer Olympics since 1964.
At the first Olympic Games, nine sports were contested.
[35] Since then, 😄 the number of sports contested at the Summer Olympic Games has gradually risen to twenty-eight on the program for 2000–2008.
At 😄 the 2012 Summer Olympics, however, the number of sports fell back to twenty-six following an IOC decision in 2005 to 😄 remove baseball and softball from the Olympic program.
These sports retain their status as Olympic sports with the possibility of a 😄 return to the Olympic program in future games.
[25] At the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen on 9 October 2009, the 😄 IOC voted to reinstate both golf and rugby to the Olympic program, meaning that the number of sports to be 😄 contested in 2016 was once again 28.[36]
In order for a sport or discipline to be considered for inclusion in the 😄 list of Summer Olympic sports, it must be widely practiced in at least 75 countries, spread over four continents.
Current and 😄 discontinued summer program
The following sports (or disciplines of a sport) make up the current and discontinued Summer Olympic Games official 😄 program and are listed alphabetically according to the name used by the IOC.
The discontinued sports were previously part of the 😄 Summer Olympic Games program as official sports, but are no longer on the current program.
The figures in each cell indicate 😄 the number of events for each sport contested at the respective Games; a bullet ( • ) denotes that the 😄 sport was contested as a demonstration sport.
Eight of the 32 sports at the 2024 Summer Olympics consist of multiple disciplines.
Each 😄 discipline is marked with a unique 3-character identifier code by the IOC.
[37][38] Disciplines from the same sport are grouped under 😄 the same color:
Aquatics – Basketball – Canoeing – Cycling – Gymnastics – Volleyball – Equestrian – Wrestling – Baseball and 😄 Softball
Demonstration summer sports
The following sports or disciplines have been demonstrated at the Summer Olympic Games for the years shown, but 😄 have never been included on the official Olympic program.
Organizers of the 1900 and 1904 Olympic Games, which were staged in 😄 conjunction with world's fairs, included numerous sporting events on an equal footing under their programmes.
Historians generally regard many of these 😄 as not satisfying retrospective inclusion criteria to qualify as "official.
"[39] However, the IOC has never made a determination regarding which 😄 events were official and which were not.
[40] Designation of official demonstration sports began with the 1912 Olympic Games.
Like all the 😄 1900 Olympic events widely regarded today as official, there were other events conducted during the 1900 World's Fair.[40][41][42]
Gliding was promoted 😄 from demonstration sport to an official Olympic sport in 1936 in time for the 1940 Summer Olympics, but the Games 😄 were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II.[44][45]
Tenpin bowling, demonstrated separately from the Olympics in 1936 in Germany 😄 (alongside forms of ninepin bowling), but part of the demonstration sports at Seoul in 1988, has been a regular medal 😄 sport of the World Games since 1981 and the Pan American Games since 1991.
Classification of Olympic sports for revenue share
Summer 😄 Olympic sports are divided into categories based on popularity, gauged by: television viewers (40%), internet popularity (20%), public surveys (15%), 😄 ticket requests (10%), press coverage (10%), and number of national federations (5%).
The category determines the share the sport's International Federation 😄 receives of Olympic revenue.[46][47]
The current categories, as of 2013, are as follows, with the pre-2013 categorizations also being available.
[48] Category 😄 A represents the most popular sports; category E lists either the sports that are the least popular or that are 😄 new to the Olympics (golf and rugby).
Category Sport A athletics, aquatics, gymnastics B cycling, tennis, basketball, football, volleyball C archery, 😄 badminton, boxing, judo, rowing, shooting, table tennis, weightlifting D canoe/kayaking, equestrian, fencing, field hockey, handball, sailing, taekwondo, triathlon, wrestling E 😄 modern pentathlon, golf, rugbyWinter Olympics
Ice hockey was introduced at the 1920 Summer Olympics and then moved to the Winter Games 😄 in 1924.
Before 1924, ice sports like figure skating and ice hockey were held at the Summer Olympic Games.
[49] These two 😄 sports made their debuts at the 1908 and the 1920 Summer Olympics respectively, but in 1924 they were moved to 😄 the first edition of the Winter Olympic Games and became permanent fixtures on the sports program for the Winter Olympics 😄 from then on.
The International Winter Sports Week, later dubbed the I Olympic Winter Games and retroactively recognized as such by 😄 the IOC, consisted of nine sports.
The number of sports contested at the Winter Olympics has since been decreased to seven, 😄 comprising a total of fifteen disciplines.[50]
A sport or discipline must be widely practised in at least 25 countries, and on 😄 three different continents, to be eligible for inclusion on the Olympic program for the Winter Games.[4]
Current winter program
The following sports 😄 (or disciplines of a sport) make up the current Winter Olympic Games official program and are listed alphabetically, according to 😄 the name used by the IOC.
The figures in each cell indicate the number of events for each sport that were 😄 contested at the respective Games (the red cells indicate that those sports were held at the Summer Games); a bullet 😄 ( • ) denotes that the sport was contested as a demonstration sport.
On some occasions, both official medal events and 😄 demonstration events were contested in the same sport at the same Games.
Three out of the eight sports consist of multiple 😄 disciplines.
Disciplines from the same sport are grouped under the same color:
Bobsleigh – Skating – Skiing
^ [51] Men's and women's Alpine 😄 Combined events have been included in the 2026 program on a provisional basis, subject to further review.
^ [52] however, the 😄 official website of the Olympic Movement designates military patrol as a separate sport.
[53][54] The Official Report of the 1924 Games 😄 regards it as an event within the sport of skiing.
[55][56] Military Patrol is considered to be the precursor to biathlon 😄 however, the official website of the Olympic Movement designates military patrol as a separate sport.
The Official Report of the 1924 😄 Games regards it as an event within the sport of skiing.
Demonstration winter sports
The following sports have been demonstrated at the 😄 Winter Olympic Games for the years shown, but have never been included on the official Olympic program:
Ice climbing was showcased 😄 at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, was on the non-competition program at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games, and 😄 aims to become an official competition sport.
[57] Ski ballet was a demonstration event under the scope of freestyle skiing.
Disabled sports 😄 are now part of the Winter Paralympic Games.
Recognized international federations
Tug of war was contested at the 1904 Summer Olympics.
It was 😄 later dropped from the Olympic program but remains a recognized sport.
Many sports are not contested at the Olympics although their 😄 governing bodies are recognized by the IOC.
[58] Such sports, if eligible under the terms of the Olympic Charter, may apply 😄 for inclusion in the program of future Games, through a recommendation by the IOC Olympic Programme Commission, followed by a 😄 decision of the IOC Executive Board and a vote of the IOC Session.
When Olympic demonstration sports were allowed, a sport 😄 usually appeared as such before being officially admitted.
[8] An International Sport Federation (IF) is responsible for ensuring that the sport's 😄 activities follow the Olympic Charter.
When a sport is recognized by the IOC, the IF becomes an official Olympic sport federation 😄 and can assemble with other Olympic IFs in the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF, for summer sports contested 😄 in the Olympic Games), Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations (AIOWS, for winter sports contested in the Olympic Games), 😄 or Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF, for sports not contested in the Olympic Games).
[3] A number of 😄 recognized sports are included in the program of the World Games, a multi-sport event run by the International World Games 😄 Association, an organization that operates under the patronage of the IOC.
Since the start of the World Games in 1981, a 😄 number of sports, including badminton, taekwondo, and triathlon have subsequently been incorporated into the Olympic program.
In 2020, the IOC altered 😄 the way it plans the Olympic sports program: rather than basing it on a maximum number of sports, the total 😄 number of events are now taken into account, opening the schedule up for the inclusion on a per-Games basis of 😄 additional sports to the 25 "core" sports.
For the 2020 Summer Olympics, the local organizing committee was thus permitted to add 😄 five sports to the program in addition to the existing 28, taking the total to 33.
[27][59] Baseball and softball have 😄 been treated by the IOC as a single sport since the governing bodies for baseball and softball merged into a 😄 single international federation in 2013 (with male athletes competing in baseball and female athletes competing in softball).
The governing bodies of 😄 the following sports, though not contested in the Olympic Games, are recognized by the IOC:[60]
1 Official sport at the World 😄 Games
2 Discontinued Olympic sport
3 The Olympic Charter no longer forbids motorized sports from being included in the Olympic program, but 😄 environmental impact is now considered when deciding whether to adopt new sports making the inclusion of motorized sports unlikely.[63]
4 Skateboarding, 😄 a discipline within roller sports, was included at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Inline and roller skating has never been contested.
5 Baseball 😄 and softball share the same governing body.
6 Waterski and wakeboard share the same governing body.
Cable waterskiing and cable wakeboarding have 😄 been proposed as sports that do not rely on motorboats.
See alsoNotes
