10 Strangest Olympic Sports


Bangalore:  Since the modern Olympic Games kicked off in 1896, a few weird and wonderful sports have come and gone, from live bird shooting to solo synchronized swimming. Here is a glimpse of the few of the strangest sports in Olympics, as listed by CNN.

Live Pigeon Shooting (Played 1900):

When Paris hosted the 1900 Olympic Games, live pigeon shooting was a key event. The object of this event was to shoot and kill as many birds as possible. This was the first and only time in Olympics history when animals were killed on purpose. The birds were released in front of the participants and the winner was the one who shot down the most birds from the sky. The participant was eliminated once they missed two birds. Nearly 300 birds were killed. The event turned out to be quiet messy in the end with dead or injured birds on the ground and blood and feathers all over the place. An award of 20,000 Francs was the prize for the winner, with Belgium’s Leon de Lunden earning gold with 21 hits. Well, good news is the sport is banned in Olympics.

Kabaddi (Played 1936):

Kabaddi is an ancient rural Indian sport, popular in India. In 1936, it was a little known sport (as it is today) but it got some international exposure being played in Berlin Olympics in 1936. The sport was demonstrated by Hanuman Vyayam Prasarak Mandal, in Amravati, Maharashtra. The game involved two teams of seven players, on a field roughly half the size of a basketball court, and played over two 20-minute halves. The team takes turn in sending a ‘raider’ across to the opposite team’s half, where the aim is to tag as many opponents as possible before returning to the home half. Tagged members are then “out” and sent off the field. All the while the raider must hold his breath and to prove it, he must continually chant a word ‘Kabaddi” in the Indian form of the game, hence the name. But the sport is no longer recognized in modern Olympic Games.