Croquet - Discontinued Olympic Sports Discontinued Olympic Sports If you do not know the game of croquet, it is a game that is played by hitting wooden balls with mallets through hoops (commonly known as wickets). This game is played on a grassy open court. Croquet has been enjoyed by many all over the world (mainly Europe) for centuries. Croquet only made one appearance in the 1900 Paris Olympics. Like many of the sports in the 1900 Paris Olympics, it was messy for many various reasons like: small number of spectators, poor organization, lack of diversity, and scarcity of publicity, and many other reasons. The croquet event in the Olympics was not very popular. The event only had one spectator, an Englishman, who traveled all the way from Nice, France , just to watch the events. This was one of the main reasons that croquet did not return because nobody wanted to watch it. It was no surprise that croquet did not reappear the next Summer Olympics in 1904. The 1900 Summer Olympics also very special.

Two of the French croquet competitors were women, although they did not win any medals, they were the first woman to compete in the Olympic Games (competing with other men), in a match of croquet that began on June 28, 1900. One of the other major reasons that croquet is no longer an Olympic sport is because of the lack of diversity. Nine out of the ten competitors were French, two woman and seven men. The remaining competitor was Belgian, named Marcel Haentjens. Haentjens received last place and did not medal in anything. This lack of diversity was another cause of the loss of croquet. The game of croquet began in the mid 1800s, starting in France and then traveling from Ireland through England. It was not popular among women, they did not enjoy games that were outdoors. The game was always closely chaperoned, making pressure build up on the competitors, which was another reason why the game was so challenging. As time passed, croquet became more popular in England and France,which was why they thought it would be a good idea to put it in the 1900 Summer Olympics.

Today, croquet is played all over the world (most commonly in Europe). Fun facts about croquet: 1. Croquet balls were originally made from wood but now, they are mainly made from hard plastic. 2. There are not enough countries that play croquet for it to be accepted again as an Olympic sport. 3. Croquet was played in the movie and book Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Hedgehogs were used as ball and flamingos were used as mallets. 4. It was the first game in history to celebrate equality for both the sexes. 5. Tobacco smoke was the only thing that spread faster than croquet in the British Empire. 6. Croquet is believed to have origins from the 17th century palle-maille, a game usually played in London’s Pall Mall. 7. Croquet first came to the South Pole in 2005, played by American Scientists in the snow.

Create a free website History - Croquet in the 1900 Olympics and Roque in 1904 Croquet in the 1900 Olympics and Roque in 1904 James Hawkins writes Croquet was one of a number of sports whose appearance began and ended with the 1900 Olympics (along with, among others, Live Pigeon Shooting - the reintroduction of which might be an option in 2012 for controlling London's verminous population). Croquet remains France's most successful Olympic sport. They won all the medals, because no one else entered. Similarly in 1904, the US swept the board with Roque. The game was invented, as far as I've been able to determine, because a faction of Americans refused to play a game with any English connotations, and because inventing sports which no one else plays is a surefire strategy for medal success. They tweaked the rules and changed the name deliberately to dissociate the game from Croquet. The game seems to have become extinct in the 1960s, after most of the country's roque courts were concreted over to make parking lots.

I direct anyone interested to John Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday , which has an entertaining account of infighting at a roque club. Bob Alman adds For Chris Hudson's exhaustive account of croquet at the 1900 Olympics, see . I'm not sure I agree with James' cynical explanation about roque's origins. I'm inclined to imagine that the game is a PRACTICAL solution to the problems of space and maintainence presented by regulation croquet courts. The comparatively small roque court on low-maintenance clay-and-sand surfaces bounded by backboards made sense for that time, fitting into almost any small city park. The WPA (the public works administration invited by Roosevelt's cabinet as a response to the economic depression in the 30's built hundreds of these courts, most of which (but not all) are no longer used or which have been replaced. A roque champion who played on the municipal courts in San Diego as recently as the 1990's played a lot of croquet as well in the 80's and 90's - the near legendary (in the American West) C.B. Smith. Rhys Thomas adds “Roque & CB Smith” A little more on C.B.

Smith, a three-time US Roque Champion. He won his national first title in 1973, and two subsequent titles in the years following (thus, Roque did not die in the 1960s). CB switched to Croquet in the early 1980s, bringing along his 24 inch roque mallet, which he used until informed that rubber tips were not allowed. He then modified a proper croquet mallet to his preferred 24 inch length, and then proceeded to play at the championship level for years, flummoxing many an opponent with his unorthodox strategy and style of play. Those who had the pleasure and privilege of playing this remarkable character well remember "the periscope" and "the eagle," to say nothing of the stuffed parrot that often adorned his shoulder or the back pocket of his pants. In one of the more memorable games I've ever seen, C.B. played John Solomon at the San Francisco open. Before the game, I told John he was in for a treat, playing CB. John replied that he was sure he'd already seen everything in croquet.

After the game, which CB won 11-10, John came back to me and said, "You're right. I've never seen anyone play like CB." The next day John brought his VHS recorder out to document our colorful colleague. CB served for three and a half years in the US submarine corps during World War Two--aboard the USS Spearfish and the USS Seal. He was also very fond of Honolulu's "Hotel Street" where he found the pleasures of the Pacific as a "Three Minute Man." Today he continues to enjoy his retirement, playing poker, watching sports and savoring life in "Paradise"--his little slice of Santa Monica, California. One of the great individuals of our game... and a heart of gold. Sweet Thursday By John Steinbeck Chapter 8 The Great Roque War Pacific Grove and Monterey sit side by side on a hill bordering the bay. The two towns touch shoulders but they are not alike. Whereas Monterey was founded a long time ago by foreigners. Indians and Spaniards and such, and the town grew up higgledy-piggledy without plan or purpose, Pacific Grove sprang full blown from the iron heart of a psycho-ideo-legal religion.

It was formed as a retreat in the 1880s and came fully equipped with laws, ideals, and customs. On the town's statute books a deed is void if liquor is ever brought on the property. As a result, the sale of iron-and-wine tonic is fantastic. Pacific Grove has a law that requires you to pull your shades down after sundown, and forbids you to pull them down before. Scorching on bicycles is forbidden, as is sea bathing and boating on Sundays. There is one crime which is not defined but which is definitely against the law. Hijinks are or is forbidden. It must be admitted that most of these laws are not enforced to the hilt. The fence that once surrounded the Pacific Grove retreat is no longer in existence. Once, during its history, Pacific Grove was in trouble, deep trouble. You see, when the town was founded many old people moved to the retreat, people you'd think didn't have anything to retreat from. These old people became grumpy after a while and got to interfering in everything and causing trouble, until a philanthropist named Deems presented the town with two roque courts.

Roque is a complicated kind of croquet, with narrow wickets and short-handled mallets. You play off the sidelines, like billiards. Very complicated, it is. They say it develops character. In a local sport there must be competition and a prize. In Pacific Grove a cup was given every year for the winning team on the roque courts. You wouldn't think a thing like that would work up much heat. particularly since most of the contestants were over seventy. But it did. One of the teams was called the Blues and the other the Greens. The old men wore little skullcaps and striped blazers in their team colors. Well, it wasn't more than two yean before all hell broke loose. The Blues would practice in the court right alongside the Greens but they wouldn't speak to them. And then it got into the families of the teams. You were a Blue family or a Green family. Finally the feeling spread outside the family. You were a partisan of the Blues or a partisan of the Greens. It got so that the Greens tried to discourage intermarriage with the Blues, and vice versa. Pretty soon it reached into politics, so that a Green wouldn't think of voting for a Blue.

It split the church right down the middle. The Blues and the Greens wouldn't sit on the same side. They made plans to build separate churches. Of course everything got really hot at tournament time. Things were very touchy. Those old men brought a passion to the game you wouldn't believe. Why, two octogenarians would walk away into the woods and you'd find them locked in mortal combat. They even developed secret languages so that each wouldn't know what the other was talking about. Well, things got so hot and feeling ran so high that the county had to take notice of it. A Blue got his house burned down and then a Green was found clubbed to death with a roque mallet in the woods. A roque mallet is short-handled and heavy and can be a very deadly weapon. The old men got to carrying mallets tied to their wrists by thongs, like battle-axes. They didn't go any place without them. There wasn't any crime each didn't charge the other with, including things they'd outgrown and couldn't have done if they'd wanted to. The Blues wouldn't trade in Green stores. The whole town was a mess. The original benefactor, Mr.

Deems, was a nice old fellow. He used to smoke a little opium, when it was legal, and this kept him healthy and rested so that he didn't get high blood pressure or tuberculosis. He was a benevolent man, but he was also a philosopher. When he saw what he had created by giving the roque courts to the Pacific Grove retreat he was saddened and later horrified. He said he knew how God felt. The tournament came July 30, and feeling was so bad that people were carrying pistols. Blue kids and Green kids had gang wars. Mr. Deems, after a period of years, finally figured that as long as he felt like God he might as well act like God. There was too much violence in town. On the night of July 29 Mr. Deems sent out a bulldozer. In the morning. where the roque courts had been, there was only a deep, ragged hole in the ground. If he'd had time he would have continued God's solution. He'd have filled the hole with water. They ran Mr. Deems out of Pacific Grove.

They would have tarred and feathered him if they could have caught him, but he was safe in Monterey, cooking his yen shi over a peanut-oil lamp. Every July 30, to this day, the whole town of Pacific Grove gets together and burns Mr. Deems in effigy. They make a celebration of it, dress up a life-size figure, and hang it from a pine tree. Later they burn it. People march underneath with torches, and the poor helpless figure of Mr. Deems goes up in smoke every year. There are people who will say that this whole account is a lie, but a thing isn't necessarily a lie even if it didn't necessarily happen. Croquet World Online Magazine | News & Features by Chris Hudson Posted February 9, 1999 Although 1225 "athletes" competed in the second Olympics of the modern era in 1900 in Paris, historians concede that it was a poorly organized and monumental failure in most respects. It was here, however, that croquet, a sport "with hardly any pretensions to athleticism" according to the official report, was introduced to the Olympics.

The Parisian croquet players forestalled competition from overseas by spreading the croquet over many weeks; there was only one paying spectator - an English gentleman. Organized croquet and the Olympic Games have both matured immeasurably in the last 100 years, but croquet - at last on the brink of becoming a truly worldwide sport - will be nowhere in evidence in Sydney at the quadrennial games in 2000. Chris Hudson, Secretary-general of the World Croquet Federation, researched the history of croquet's inauspicious Olympic debut for the WCF Newsletter WORLD CROQUET, from which is adapted the following article. The cover of the official program for the 1900 Paris Olympic games. Dateline: Sunday, 28th June, 1900. Location: Paris, Cercle du Bois de Boulogne (Pelouse de Madrid). Croquet is making Olympic history. Two French croquet players, Madame Brohy and Mademoiselle Ohnier, have just become the first female competitors in the modern Olympic Games.

For years, people have talked vaguely about croquet having been part of the Olympic Games held in France; of 600 French competitors; of its disappearance from the Olympic scene. But what was the real story? Did it ever happen? Which Olympics was it? Who was the Olympic Champion, and what were the results? Here are the facts! Baron Pierre de Coubertin is regarded, rightly, as the father of the modern Olympic Games. To him, the amateur ideal was paramount, underlining the "noble and chivalrous character" of physical exercise. Rewards had to come from the sporting activities themselves. However, the effect of this policy - no material gifts, no desire for profit, no business interest in sport - was to limit the games to the aristocracy, who could afford to pursue sporting activities in this way. A matter, incidentally, that was to lead to trouble later when the lower social classes refused to be excluded! Coubertin first raised the idea of reviving the Olympic Games in 1892, but his enthusiasm met with little comprehension.

Undeterred, he invited interested persons from all over the world to participate in a sports congress in Paris in 1894, which passed a unanimous resolution to revive the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. The plan was that, after Athens, the competition would be hosted by all capitals in turn at four-year intervals. The Olympics resume in Athens - without croquet The games in Athens were held from 6th to 15th April, 1896, and were attended by 211 competitors representing 14 countries. 40,000 spectators attended the Opening Ceremony. Many athletes entered privately, including holidaymakers, and the British contingent included two employees of the Embassy in Athens. The events included athletics, gymnastics, wrestling, cycling, and pistol shooting. Events in the stadium were dominated by the United States. The U.S. team was composed entirely of college students who arrived only the day before the competition, having traveled by ship to France, then by train to Greece. They won 11 gold medals; Greece came second with 10.

Paris Olympic Games reduced to a sideshow After such a promising start in Athens, the games of 1900 proved to be a disappointment. Despite strong Greek pressure for the exclusive rights to organise future games, Coubertin stuck to his guns and won agreement for the second modern Games to be held in Paris. However, he made the serious mistake of making them part of the 5th Universal Exposition that was also being held there in 1900. In the event, the Games simply became a sideshow to the Fair. An additional complication was that numerous internal rivalries within French sport left many of the sports without experienced officials or adequate venues. Generally there were few spectators, and those who had bothered to make the trip had a lucky escape when the 1896 discus champion despatched the implement into the crowd on all three throws. Cricket, croquet, and golf made their appearance at these Games, but amid the general confusion many competitors, even medal winners, were not aware until much later that they had been competing at the Olympics.

Because the Games were linked in with the Exhibition, they actually ran from 20th May until 28th October, 1900, an incredible length of time. France, the host nation, fielded 884 competitors, the largest team ever entered for the Games. The decision to hold competitions on Sundays upset many athletes, who refused to compete. Woman were allowed to compete for the first time, but not in the major sports. (Great Britain's Charlotte Cooper, one of the 19 women competing and a Wimbledon champion, won the ladies' tennis title on 9th July.) Another unique record was set in the coxed pairs rowing final, in which a small French boy was drafted in at the last moment to cox the winning Dutch crew. His name was never recorded and he disappeared without trace afterwards, but he was no more than 10 years old, and possibly as young as 7, in either case the youngest ever Olympic Gold medalist. Press coverage was barely apparent, with many of the events not mentioned at all, and for years afterwards there was much confusion as to the names and nationalities of even the medalists.

In the medals table, France won 27 Golds, with the USA in second place with 19 and Great Britain third with 17. In all 1225 competitors took part, representing 26 countries. Symbols of the 1900 World Exhibition were the Eiffel Tower, erected for the World Exhibition of 1889, and a huge globe which has not survived to the present day. The Paris Exhibition was a huge commercial success, but the Olympic Games were the object of derision. Athletics events, the major attraction of the Games, were staged in July and averaged only 3000 spectators per day. This compared with an estimated total of 48 million people who paid to visit the Exhibition, a daily average of around 300,000. The athletics events, held at Croix-Catalan in the west part of Paris, encountered problems. The athletic programme was due to start on Saturday 14th July, Bastille Day, but fearing that the general public would be too interested in enjoying themselves to bother with the Games, the organisers at the last minute delayed the start by one day.

Many athletes complained that they were not prepared to compete on a Sunday. Several of the athletics events suffered as a result of competitors not being prepared to put fleeting glory above their religious beliefs. Two of the field events were reduced to farcical proportions, showing the innocence of the times and the organisers' lack of experience in running major competitions. Sophisticated Paris folk split their sides with amusement at the antics of some of the so-called Olympic sportsmen in the discus and hammer events. The organisers had located the events down a narrow avenue of trees on the Bois de Boulogne, thus forming a perfect trap for every discus and a snag for every hammer wire. Rarely can such precision have been required to win Olympic Gold. For many reasons, the Games were thus more of a charade than a festival of Olympic excellence. Even the first long-awaited French success - in the marathon - ridiculed the concept of Olympism: The Champion was not officially declared until 12 years later! Michel Theato, a Paris baker's roundsman, won a controversial race in stifling temperatures.

He was rumoured to have accepted participation money, and with one of the American runners filing an unsuccessful, though prolonged, lawsuit against the IOC, his was a somewhat hollow triumph. Even more bizarre was the case of the French cyclist Vasserot, who on being tracked down in 1965, recollected a race in 1900 but then admitted he had been unaware at the time that he was competing in the Olympic Games. Swimming with the current in the Seine As the Games continued, so too did the confusion. The myriad of events, many of which only vaguely passed for sport, detracted from serious attempts to give the Games global respectability. It became increasingly difficult to take some events seriously. In swimming, for instance, the men's 200M freestyle race was, like all other races, held in the muddied waters of the Seine where, incredibly, races were swum with the current. There was an obstacle race where the chief requirement was to climb a pole and then swim over and under a row of boats. Underwater swimming was another novel twist thrown in by the organisers, who did much to demean the Games.

It was often rather by chance that passers-by came across the sporting events taking place at various places across Paris. Even the athletes themselves seem to have had little chance to savour the Olympic spirit that should have pervaded this meeting of the "youth of the world" The disarray of the Committee was such that to this day there is still considerable doubt about the authenticity of the 1900 Olympic Roll of Honour. Moreover, some of the events were staged for non-amateurs by the Exhibition organisers themselves. These events were held separately from the Games, and the winners were rewarded with 250 French francs (about �400 sterling these days). Military events, such as shooting and fencing, enjoyed great prominence, and the Games encompassed other sports that thereby enjoyed a fleeting acquaintance with the Olympic movement. Like croquet, all of them were the preserve of the well-to-do, a further reflection of where the emphasis lay in terms of which sports were admitted to the Games.

Despite the farce, some atheletes achieve Olympic excellence Though posterity was to judge the Paris Games of 1900 as the worst on record, there were performances that deserved acclaim: The Swedish gymnastic team demonstrated new styles and technique; a United States athlete, Alvin Kraenzlein, introduced the leg-extended style in hurling. But Coubertin's gamble to exploit the Exhibition as a means to protect the Games had failed miserably. If history sees him in a more favourable light today, it is because his refusal to capitulate to demands for a permanent site for the Games in Athens has come to be seen as a momentous triumph for diversity - the enduring beauty of the Olympic games. Coubertin did not have the benefit of hindsight when he made his final summation of the games: "There was much goodwill, but the interesting results had nothing Olympic about them. We made a hash of our work." Nevertheless, the official report of the Games itemises the number of competitors taking part in each event, and when school competitions, military manoeuvres, balloon racing and the like are taken into account, nearly 60,000 people had taken part in the activities. Quite a triumph in itself.

Excerpt from The Official Report of the 2nd Olympic Games "This game, French in name and origin (though some writers, more fashionable than athletic and more 'snob' than well-informed, affect to call it 'crocket') has hardly any pretensions to athleticism and the reason it joined the USFSA (The Union of French Sports Clubs) is due to the fact that its governing body wished to elevate this gentle pastime to the rank of a sport by holding annual croquet championships. "One would be wrong, however, to disdain croquet. It develops a combinative mind - one has only to see it transform young girls into reasoners, and from reasoners into reasonable people. "Mr. Andre Despres, civil engineer by profession and the legislator of croquet, lavished the most enlightened and devoted care on the Exhibition tournament. Baron Gourgaud provided him with a sand court built specially for the occasion, not without expense, in a pretty corner of the Cercle du Bois de Boulogne. The best players in Paris competed there, and were very pleased with the facilities. "One must admit that there were not many players; about a dozen.

The obstinacy of the Paris "set" in spreading the different competitions over several weeks totally ruled out any players from the provinces and overseas. Spectators were not at all numerous; although I must mention an English lover of the game who made the journey from Nice to Paris to watch the first matches of the competition; unless I am very much mistaken, however, this gentleman was the only paying spectator. "The Exhibition competition did however have one result; it brought together players who did not know each other and enlarged this sport's rather restricted group of experts." Details of the Croquet Competition According to the Official Report, croquet events included not only singles and doubles, but also handicap and "one-ball" play, as detailed below: "Six people made up the Technical Commission in charge of croquet at the Games: Messrs Despres, A. Foucault, G. Foucault, Gaullet, Dumont, Johin, and de Saint-Cyr. "Play started on Wednesday 24th June, and continued every Sunday thereafter until 15th August. There were four events: "Singles Championship with one ball on points: Prize - 1 Souvenir Medal. Winner - Mr Aumoitte. 2.

Mr Johin. 3. Mr Waydelich. "Singles Championship with two balls per side: Prize - A presentation croquet set, a Souvenir Medal and 2 presentation mallets. Winner - Mr Waydelich. 2. Mr Vignerot. 3. Mr Sautereau. "Doubles Championship: 10 fascinating facts about croquet - Telegraph 10 fascinating facts about croquet By Sandy Macaskill 12:01AM BST 10 Jul 2008 1. Croquet is believed to have its origins in 17th-century palle-maille, a game often played in London’s Pall Mall. It has been said that only tobacco smoke spread faster through the British Empire. Martin Johnson: British Open Croquet set for hoop action 2. The most common form of the game is Association Croquet, which is the international version of the sport and is played by the majority of tournament croquet players. The top two players in the world, Chris Clarke and Robert Fulford, are both English. In fact, England have six players in the world top 10. 3.

Rapper P Diddy held a croquet party in May to celebrate becoming the first rap performer to be given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 4. Croquet was the first outdoor sport to embrace equality, allowing both sexes to play the game on an equal footing. Related Articles Jaques of London, the company that invented croquet, ping pong and Happy Families 19 Jun 2014 5. Croquet reached the South Pole in 2005 when American scientists became the first to play a game there, in the snow, outside the South Pole Observatory. 6. Croquet was a one-off Olympic sport in 1900 – although it was so poorly organised that one competitor went to his death without ever having known he was an Olympian. Sadly for croquet fans, there are not enough countries who play the game for it to be accepted for London 2012. 7. Pictures of then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescot playing at his official residence, Dorneywood, in 2006 while supposedly running the country prompted a 300 per cent surge in sales of croquet sets at Asda. 8.

Croquet balls were originally made from wood, but they are now largely comprised of cork or nylon in very hard plastic. 9. Croquet has been reinvented in many forms: eXtreme eschews the garden setting for more robust terrain, featuring hills, sand, mud and water hazards. Bicycle croquet is another variation, in which players are allowed just 10 seconds to complete a shot. Meanwhile, two million people play Japanese 'gateball’, a sort of five-a-side speed croquet. 10. Lewis Carroll featured a surreal version of the game in Alice in Wonderland. A hedgehog was used as the ball and a flamingo as the mallet, while soldiers doubled over to make the hoops. Women at the Olympic Games Home > Events > Olympics > Summer > History > Women Women at the Olympic Games It has been a long road to equality for women at the Olympic Games, and it is still continuing. Participation in the Ancient Olympic Games was limited to male athletes only. The only way women were able to take part was to enter horses in the equestrian events. There are records of several winning women horse owners.

As the owner of the horse teams, they were credited with the victory, though they were most likely not present at the events. Even in the early years of the modern Olympics, women were not well represented (consequently a rival Women's Olympics was held). Women participated for the first time at the 1900 Paris Games with the inclusion of women's events in lawn tennis and golf. Women's athletics and gymnastics debuted at the 1928 Olympics. Over time more women's events were added. In 2012, women's boxing was introduced, resulting in no remaining sports that do not include events for women. Equality in the available sports is one thing, but in many countries women do not have equal rights to participate in sports and the opportunity to participate in the Olympic Games. Prior to the 2012 Olympics in London, three Muslim countries have never before sent a female athlete: Qatar, Brunei, and Saudi Arabia. However, they all bowed to IOC pressure and sent female athletes to London. Now every national Olympic committee has sent women to the Olympic Games, a small step.

Milestones At the first modern Olympic Games in Athens 1896 , no women competed, as de Coubertin felt that their inclusion would be "impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and incorrect." Women first competed at the 1900 Paris Games. Women were allowed to compete in lawn tennis and golf, though there were three French women competing in croquet and there was at least one woman sailor as part of mixed crews. It is commonly believed that first woman to win an Olympic event was England's Charlotte Cooper, who won the tennis singles title, however Swiss sailor Hélène de Pourtalès won a gold medal as part of a team in sailing earlier than this. (see more firsts , and more on Pourtalès ) Here are the first women competitors in the Modern Olympic Games of 1900, in chronological order were May 22 - Helen de Pourtales, Switzerland (Yachting) May 31 - Elvira Guerra, France (Equestrian). There may have been another woman also competing in the equestrian events.

Jun 28 - Mme Ohnier, Madame Depres, and Mme Filleaul Brohy, France (Croquet) July 11 - winner Charlotte Cooper, Great Britain (Tennis) plus other female competitors. Oct 3 - winner Margaret Abbott, USA (Golf) plus other female competitors. Women competed in swimming events for the first time in 1912, but none of them were from America, which did not allow its female athletes to compete in events without long skirts. The first women's swimming gold medal was won by the Australian Sarah 'Fanny' Durack, who won the 100m freestyle in 1912. In 1928, women competed in track and field events for the first time; however, so many collapsed at the end of the 800-meter race that the event was banned until 1960. Women's shooting events were first included in the Olympics in 1984. There were three events, three position rifle, air rifle and sport pistol.

In 1996, a women's only sport was introduced - Softball (softball is no longer part of the Olympic program) The 2000 Olympics was the first time that women were allowed to compete in the Olympics in weightlifting. A women's wrestling competition was introduced in 2004. Women compete in freestyle wrestling , but not greco-roman. There are only two Olympic sports where men and women compete directly against each other; equestrian and sailing , though in sailing it is now only in one event. Tennis (in early Games in since 2012) and Badminton (since 1996) have mixed doubles events. Qatar, Brunei and Saudi Arabic all sent female participants to the London 2012 Olympic Games, meaning now every national Olympic committee will have sent women to the Olympic Games. With the addition of women's boxing at the 2012 London Games, there are men and women competing in all Olympic sports. However, there are still two sporting disciplines that are solely for women: synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics.

In cycling in 2012, for the first time men and women competed in the same number of events in all cycling disciplines. However, women have shorter distances for some events. In Rio 2016, 44% of medals were be awarded in women's events, the highest ever. In 1984, the figure was only just over 25%. Great Female Olympic Achievements In 1948, Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen won four gold medals, the equivalent of the medals Jesse Owens had won twelve years earlier. She held the world record in the high and long jumps, but did not compete in those as the rules prohibited women from competing in more than three individual events. British Equestrian, Lorna Johnstone was 70 years and 5 days old when she rode at the 1972 Games, thus being the oldest woman ever to compete at an Olympic Games. Joan Benoit of the USA won the first women's Olympic marathon in Los Angeles in 1984.

Soviet Maria Gorokhovskaya - unhindered by the limits set on female competitors at earlier Games - in 1952 set a record for most medals won by a woman in one Olympics, with two golds and five silvers. US Shooter Margaret Murdock won a silver medal in rifle competition (which at that time included men and women) at the 1976 Olympics. She was the first woman to win a medal in shooting at the Olympic Games. Share: Olympic Events Through History Olympic Events Through History July 27, 2012 11:36am ET MORE An Olympic tug-of-war competition in Saint-Louis, 1904. Credit: Charles Lucas Olympic events have changed dramatically over time [ Learn How & Why ]. Here's the full history: Sports at the Games This summer's Olympics in London showcase 28 officially recognized sports, with their disciplines listed below and the date of their initial appearances in parentheses: Aquatics (1896) Greco-Roman (1896) Freestyle (1904) Note that some of these events were not offered during every Summer Olympic Games between their initial appearance and now.

For example, tennis was an Olympic sport from 1896 to 1924. It was then removed from Olympic competition due to disputes between the International Tennis Federation and the IOC over allowing amateur players to compete. But tennis has been played again at the Olympic level since 1988. Rugby was re-introduced in 2012 for the first time since 1924. Sports at the Inaugural modern Olympics The first Modern Olympics in 1896 consisted of nine sports, all of which are currently included in the Summer Games: Athletics Wrestling The has-beens Since the birth of the Modern Olympics, a number of events have come and gone. And most of the discontinued sports, listed below, led short lives prior to 1924. The initial protocol allowed the host country to largely determine the sporting schedule. But in 1924 the IOC assumed this role.

Ultimately, these sports faded due to a lack of international appeal and/or a governing body that would have otherwise boosted their standing in the eyes of the IOC: Baseball (1912* – Stockholm, 1936*, 1956*, 1964*, 1984*, 1988*, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008) Cricket (1900 – Paris) Croquet (1900 – Paris) Golf (1900 – Paris, 1904) Jeu de paume (1900* – Paris, 1908); players hit the ball with their hands in this French precursor of tennis Lacrosse (1904 – Paris, 1908, 1928*, 1932*, 1948*) Pelote bisque (1900 – Paris, 1924*, 1968*, 1992*); a Spanish version of handball Polo (1900 – Paris, 1908, 1

920, 1924, 1936) Rackets (1908 – London); played indoors, it is similar to squash Roque (1904 – St.

Louis); an American version of croquet Softball (1996 – Atlanta, 2000, 2004, 2008) Tug of war (1900-1920); included as a track-and-field event Water Motorsports (1900* – Paris, 1908) * indicates a demonstration sport Demonstration sports These sports were first intended to offer the Olympic host an opportunity to showcase sports unique to this country. So in 1932, the Olympics in Los Angeles included American football. And the Australians added their version of football, which is similar to rugby, to the 1956 Melbourne Games. (This trend is evident in the list of demonstration sports below.) But because sports for the next summer games are approved or rejected shortly after the completion of its predecessor, demonstration sports transitioned into the role of trial runs for a medal sport in the next Olympics. Demonstration sports are scattered among various Summer Olympics from 1900 to 1992: American football (1904 – St.

Louis, USA, 1932) Australian rules football (1956 – Melbourne/Stockholm: equestrian events held in Stockholm due to foreign horse quarantine laws); similar to rugby Ballooning (1900 – Paris) Boules (1900 – Paris); like in bocce, players of this French game try to roll heavy balls close to a small 'jack' Bowling (1988 – Seoul) Budo (1964 – Tokyo); Japanese martial arts Field handball (1952 – Helsinki) Glima (1912 – Stockholm): Icelandic folk wrestling Kaatsen (1928 – Amsterdam); this Dutch game of handball may be one of the oldest ballgames Korfball (1920 – Antwerp, 1928 – Amsterdam); players score by throwing a ball into an elevated basket without a backboard in this mixed-gender game La canne (1924 – Paris); this French game is similar to fencing Longue paume (1900 – Paris); an outdoor precursor to modern tennis Motorsport (1900 – Paris) Roller hockey (1992 – Barcelona) Savate (

1924 – Paris); a French version of kickboxing Surf lifesaving (1900 – Paris); this hybrid event, originating in Australia, requires skills as a surfer and lifeguard Swedish (Ling) gymnastics (1948 – London) Water skiing (1972 – Munich) Mourning the loss of softball as an Olympic sport - latimes LONDON OLYMPICS Mourning the loss of softball as an Olympic sport Last played in 2008 in Beijing, softball was voted out of the Games right after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics.

'I don't think I have moved past the heartbreak of being voted out,' says one British supporter of the sport. August 07, 2012 |By Philip Hersh LONDON – It was a cool evening. The setting sun found a tiny hole in the clouds. The occasional sprinkle fell on Regent's Park, and tall grasses that looked as if they belonged on a Midwest prairie began to sway. Then you looked at the grass, looked through the mind's eye, and you saw it move even more as the women pushed through it. There were Tanya Harding and Crystl Bustos, Lisa Fernandez and Yukiko Ueno, Stacey Porter and Laura Berg and all the other great softball players whose sport was banished from the Olympics. This would have been their field of dreams, where London Olympic organizers planned to put the tournament that would have been reaching its final stages Monday night. Maybe Ueno would be starting a streak of pitching 28 innings in two days, as she had to give Japan a surprise victory over the United States in the 2008 Olympics. This was where men and women from J.P. Morgan played Bloomberg LP in a City Bankers Softball League game Monday night.

The Bank of Montreal had at Barclay's on another of the 15 pieces of the Regent's Park greensward used for softball. None has a backstop. All are soccer fields most of the year. <script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\""></script>");document.close();})();' frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="649" height="160"> Slow-pitch softball. Mixed softball. Social softball "Oh, wow," Jessica Mendoza said. "A bankers league. Was that kind of like softball in the Olympics?" We were talking by telephone. Mendoza was at her home in Florida. The two-time Olympian, winner of gold and silver medals, should have been at magnificent Regent's Park, where she and U.S. coach Mike Candrea had done a clinic after the 2008 Olympics, a clinic so popular people had to be turned away. "I remember how beautiful the location was," Mendoza said. "And the promise of what softball could be in Great Britain. I would do anything to be there." It was a promise broken when the International Olympic Committee voted softball off the program two days after awarding the 2012 Games to London in July 2005.

The scandal wasn't throwing games. It was an IOC made up of 85% men throwing out a women's sport now played competitively in 127 countries. How many play modern pentathlon or do canoe-kayak or track cycling? A simple majority was needed for softball to retain the place it first earned for the 1996 Olympics and kept through 2008. The vote ended in a tie, with one abstention, an abstention that proved a rare display of ethical rectitude by an IOC member faced with a conflict of interest. It came from U.S. member Jim Easton, whose company makes and sells much of the softball equipment used worldwide. Softball fell by a wayside of discontinued Olympic sports that include croquet and tug of war. Jenny Fromer was watching the bankers league games Monday night. She was born in Britain and went to Coe College in Iowa but began playing slow-pitch softball here in 1992. Her father, Bob, the general manager of Great Britain's national team, is considered the founder of softball in the country. She is co-chief executive of Baseball Softball UK. She hasn't watched much of the 2012 Olympics.

"I'm struggling with the Olympics, and I'm struggling with acting like the one person in London who doesn't care it's going on," Fromer said. "I don't think I have moved past the heartbreak of being voted out. I can't get past that we are not there. It would have been a game changer for the sport in our country." The British softball team finished 11th in a global event last month. It was a world championship in Whitehorse, Yukon, population 23,000. Eight of the 16 teams in the worlds had Olympians, 37 in all. The U.S. did not. Six 2008 Olympians are playing with Mendoza on the USSSA Pride in the four-team National Pro Fastpitch league. <script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\""></script>");document.close();})();' frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="649" height="110"> Japan won the world title over the United States. It was an upset, just like Japan's victory in the last Olympics.

That outcome was supposed to end objections that there was no reason to have softball in the Olympics after the way the United States had dominated the first three tournaments. When the 2008 Olympic final ended, the players used softballs to spell "2016" on the field. That was part of a failed effort to get the sport back for the upcoming Olympics. In 2008, the IOC gave softball and baseball a more resounding rejection and added golf and rugby for 2016. Rugby is a favored sport of IOC President Jacques Rogge of Belgium. Don Porter, the indomitable octogenarian who runs the International Softball Federation, was in London for several days before these Olympics began, refighting a battle he thought won for good after 29 years of previous effort. The goal now is the 2020 Olympics. The chances aren't good. "The most difficult part of this has been reading emails from hundreds of young female softball players worldwide saying that their Olympic dreams have been taken," Porter said. An artistic interpretation of one of London's mascots, "Animal Wenlock," was placed on a pedestal next to the where the bankers league teams played.

It mocked the dreams those fields might have inspired. Olympic Sports List Home > Events > Olympics > Summer > Sports Sports of the Olympic Games At the first Olympic Games in 1896, there were nine sports contested. Since that time many sports have been added (and removed too) from the program. Only five sports have been contested at every summer Olympic Games since 1896: Athletics , Cycling , Fencing , Gymnastics and Swimming . In 2012 there were 26 sports contested, and in 2016 there was 28, and 33 are scheduled for 2020 (see list ). In addition to the official sports on the program, there are other recognized sports that are set for possible inclusion in the future. See also the pages about the number of sports at each Olympiad, and also the changes over time . Recent Changes After the 2008 Olympics the sports of Baseball and Softball were dropped from the program. In August 2009 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted on the two sports to be added to the program for Rio 2016 .

There was a list of seven sports that they chose from: golf, rugby union, roller sports, karate, softball, baseball and squash. They selected golf and rugby union . There are many other possible new sports for future Games. In February 2013, wrestling was dropped from the core sports list, and joined with baseball and softball (joint bid), climbing , karate , roller sport , squash , wakeboard and wushu to attempt to gain a place on the program for 2020. In May 2013 the IOC cut Karate, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu from this list, leaving Baseball-softball, squash and wrestling to be shortlisted. Then in September 2013, they voted to return wrestling to the list of sports for the 2020 Olympic program. In 2015, further voting was held for the inclusion of more sports. 2020 Summer Olympic Sports

Question: How many times has croquet been an Olympic sport?
Answer: 1