Olympic Sports
Learn about the diverse sports contested at the Olympics, from track and field to lesser-known disciplines. Explore the rules, techniques, and what makes each Olympic sport unique and compelling.
Aquatics Disciplines at the Olympics
Aquatic sports come second only to track and field in terms of the number of Olympic medals up for grabs. The four disciplines - swimming, diving, waterpolo...
Disciplines and Weight Divisions in Olympic Weightlifting
To the untrained eye, weightlifting can appear a straightforward test of brute strength, but the sport's apparent simplicity is deceptive. Weightlifting is,...
Disciplines of Olympic Cycling
Cycling is one of the few sports to have been contested at every Olympics and, although the programme has varied, it now includes track, road, mountain bike...
Disciplines of Olympic Fencing
Fencing is one of the few sports to have been contested at every Olympic Games and was the first to allow professionals to compete for medals. Baron Pierre d...
Disciplines of Olympic Gymnastics
Gymnastics is one of the defining sports of the Olympics and has been present at every Games. The sport can be traced back to ancient Greece and similar disc...
Format of Olympic Badminton
For a sport with such ancient roots, badminton has a relatively short Olympic history. It was introduced to the Games as a demonstration sport in 1972 at Mun...
Format of Olympic Baseball and Softball
Anyone who thought that introducing baseball to the Olympic Games was like giving the USA a licence to produce gold medals was well wide of the mark. Basebal...
Format of Olympic Volleyball and Handball
The phenomenon that is beach volleyball opened the sport up to a completely new market when it made its debut at the Olympic Games at Atlanta in 1996. The sa...
Former Olympic Sports
Baseball and softball will become the first Olympic sports to be dropped for 76 years when they are cut from the programme for the London 2012 Games. In rece...
Guide to Olympic Tennis and Table Tennis
Table tennis is the world's largest participation sport, with an incredible 40 million competitive players and countless millions more playing recreationally...
Olympic Equestrian Events
Equestrianism is the only Olympic sport to team up athletes with animals and one of the few in which men and women compete on equal terms. Horse and rider wo...
Olympic Track and Field Events
In many ways, track and field athletics epitomises the Olympic Games. It is the original Olympic sport, dating back to the first recorded ancient Games in 77...
Rowing and Canoeing Events at the Olympics
The recorded modern history of competitive rowing precedes that of most other Olympic sports. The first Oxford-Cambridge race took place in 1828 and in 1852...
Rules & Format of Olympic Hockey
India produced one of the longest winning streaks in the history of the Olympic Games by winning six consecutive hockey gold medals between 1928 and 1956. Th...
Rules & Weight Divisions in Olympic Wrestling
Wrestling is widely recognised as the oldest competitive sport in the world. Cave drawings have been found from the Sumero-Akkadian civilisation depicting wr...
Rules and Format of Olympic Basketball
Few Olympic sports have been dominated by one nation in the way that basketball has been dominated by the USA. The Americans have won the men's tournament 12...
Rules and Format of Olympic Football
Football was the first team sport included in the Olympic Games when introduced for the 2nd Olympiad at Paris in 1900. With the exception of 1932 in Los Ange...
Rules and Skills in Olympic Shooting and Archery
The bullseye in Olympic archery measures only 12.2 centimetres in diameter and archers have to hit it from 70 metres away. The accuracy required is staggerin...
Rules and Weight Divisions in Olympic Boxing
The noble art of boxing is one of the most illustrious sports at the Olympics and has produced a string of legends, although it is perhaps surprising that a...
Rules and Weight Divisions: Olympic Judo and Taekwondo
Judo, a traditional Japanese wrestling sport, means 'the gentle way', yet it is the only Olympic sport that allows choking an opponent in a submission hold o...
Rules of Olympic Modern Pentathlon and Triathlon
Triathlon is the youngest of all Olympic sports. It was invented by San Diego Track Club as an alternative workout, with the first known events held in 1974....
Sailing Classes at the Olympics
In a way, sailing made its Games debut at Sydney in 2000, when it became the first Olympic sport to change its name. Up until then it had always been called...