Modern Olympic Sports
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010The Summer and Winter Olympic games are made up of a total of thirty-five different sports with fifty-three disciplines. Breaking it down further, the Summer Olympics is made up of twenty sports with thirty-eight disciplines, while the Winter Olympics comprise seven different sports with fifteen disciplines.
On a whole four hundred events are conducted. Each of the sport has an International Governing Body. More athletes and nations participate in the Summer Olympics.
The IOC, or International Olympic Committee uses a hierarchical organization for the sports, disciplines and events. The sports are subdivided into disciplines, with disciplines being further subdivided into events. After analyzing the popularity of a particular sport on a worldwide basis, the IOC then decides whether or not that sport should be part of the Olympic games. In order to be included as a part of the Olympic games, an event must have at minimum, participation by men from fifty countries and three continents, and by women from thirty-five countries and three continents.
Sports, which are no longer a part of today’s Olympics, are polo, golf, rugby union, tug of war, cricket, water skiing, etc. The reason for their discontinuation is lack of adequate participation, lack of interest and lack of a governing body. Tennis and archery are also some of the dropped sports, which were again a part of the Olympics in the year 1988 and 1972, respectively. Sports, which are included in the Olympics to promote the local sports of a particular region, are known as demonstration sports. Some of the demonstration sports, which are a part of the Olympics sports, are curling and baseball.
1896 saw the first ‘modern’ Summer Olympics, at the time there were 9 sports. We now have a total of 28 sports in our Summer Olympics, however 2 sports, baseball and softball, have been dropped for the 2012 Olympics, which makes the total of 26 sports. To qualify for the Summer Olympics a sport must have the participation of men from at least 75 nations and 4 continents, whilst having women from 40 nations and 3 continents.