Olympic games that are lowkey super cool.
The Olympic games is a leading international sporting event that features a variety of summer and winter sports competitions among thousands of athletes from all over the world. It is held every four years with 200+ nations participating. The first recorded games date back to 776BC although there is a consensus that the games had been existing, five hundred years before then.
The structure of the games have evolved massively from the first games back then in Athens, in 1896, so now, provisions have been made to accommodate young athletes, 14–18 years of age in the Youth Olympic games, as well as athletes with disabilities in the Paralympic games. The Winter Olympics for snow and ice sports have also been created.
There are also five continental games (Pan American, African, Asian, European and Pacific) and the world games for sports that are not contested in the Olympic games.
The symbol for the Olympic games- called the Olympic rings- consists of five intertwined rings representing the unity of the five inhabited continents: Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. The rings are coloured blue, yellow, black, green, red, drawn over a white field. The governing body is the IOC (International Olympic Committee), founded in 1894. They decide the host for each game and they handle the fundraising and organizing of all the events.
Apart from the Olympic flag, other symbols of the games are the Olympic torch as well as rituals like the opening and closing ceremonies (a personal faaaaavveeeeee). The Olympic medals are gold, silver and bronze for first place winners, second place finishers and third place holders, respectively. Participating athletes are given a chance to showcase their talents, some of them go on to become famous. The most important thing in the games, as expressed in the Olympic creed is that taking part in the games at all trumps winning. Fighting well is more essential than conquering, just as it is with life that the struggle is more important than the triumph.
…“that giving one’s best and striving for personal excellence were worthwhile goals.”
Some games are quite popular among the competitors and the viewers. But, there have been many occasions when I randomly walked into my living room, during the Olympics, turned on my TV and just bumped into one or two sports that I had been seeing for the first time. And they were always so surprisingly fun! Some of them were
- The Biathlon: a combined cross-country ski and shooting event. European-dominated, exciting and intense.
2. Field Hockey: popular among Indians and Pakistanis, but not restricted to them.
3. Race Walking: funnily enough, this has been an Olympic sport since 2012, for both men and women.
4. Slalom canoeing and other sailing events.
5. Triathlon: an endurance multisport race that consists of swimming, cycling and running over various distances.
6. Fencing and archery: these games require maximum concentration, accuracy and speed.
There are three forms of Olympic fencing: Foil, Épée and Sabre.
Foil: A foil is one of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing. It is a metal, flexible, rectangular in cross section, and weighs under a pound. In foil the valid target area includes the torso (including the lower part of the bib of the mask) and the groin. The head (except the lower part of the bib of the mask), arms, and legs are considered off target. Contact with the side of the blade (a slap or slash) does not result in a score. The tip of the foil must be depressed for at least 15 (± .5) milliseconds while in contact with the opponent’s lamé (wire-mesh jacket which covers valid target area) to score a touch. Thrusting here is light.
Épée is the largest and heaviest of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing. This is the only type of fencing in which the entire body is the target. Thrusting is heavy.
The sabre weapon is for light thrusting and cutting with both the cutting edge and the back of the blade, unlike the other two, where the hit is scored by using the tip of the blade.
Archery: a summer Olympic sport and one of the oldest sports practiced. Most important fact about this sport is that there is no minimum age to compete. And you can compete as an individual or as a team.
7. Pistol Shooting: target shooting, air shooting, glass shooting.
8. Judo and Taekwondo: both are combat sports and martial art forms played at the Summer Olympics. Competitors in Judo are called Judoka and they compete in weight classes.
The difference between both sports lies in their origin and subtlety, I guess. While Judo is an unarmed Japanese combat sport, Taekwondo is a Korean martial art form. Judo is gentle and involves using every leverage you have to hold and unbalance your opponent while Taekwondo involves constantly kicking and striking and punching your opponent. Judo was practiced as a form of exercise while Taekwondo was used in the military.
9. Mountain Biking: involves riding bicycles off roads and sometimes rough terrains.
10. Pole Vault
11. Long Jump
12. Synchronized Swimming, Marathon Swimming, Artistic Swimming
13. All the variants of Gymnastics!!
To be candid, I love Gymnastics a lot. I don’t even stumble on them, I seek them out.
What other Olympic sports do you think do not get enough recognition? Let me know!
