Let’s take note of the norms and changes at the Olympics!
The Olympics are often seen as rich in tradition, yet only four sports—athletics, fencing, swimming, and artistic gymnastics—have been part of every Summer Games since 1896. The inaugural Olympics included 43 events across nine sports, exclusively featuring male competitors. This summer in Paris, 329 gold medals will be awarded in 32 sports, reflecting a significantly more diverse group of athletes. Clearly, much has changed over the years.
Each Olympic sport is overseen by an international governing body, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) defining a sport as encompassing all disciplines managed by that federation. For example, "aquatics," governed by World Aquatics, includes five Olympic disciplines: swimming, artistic swimming, diving, water polo, and open water swimming. Most sports, however, consist of just one discipline. Starting with the 2020 Summer Games, the IOC introduced a group of "core" sports that are mandatory and remain constant across different Olympics.
Additionally, up to six optional sports can be proposed by the organizing committee for each specific year. In Tokyo 2020, skateboarding, surfing, sport climbing, karate, and baseball & softball were introduced as new Olympic sports. Sports frequently add new disciplines as well. For instance, BMX freestyle debuted under the cycling category in 2020, and 3×3 basketball was also introduced in Tokyo.
Breaking, an urban dance style rooted in hip-hop culture, will debut at the 2024 Olympics. Karate and baseball and softball are not returning from the previous Games, but the Paris Olympics will bring back skateboarding, surfing, and sport climbing in 2020. These additions complete the lineup of four optional sports for 2024. The inclusion of these sports reflects the dynamic and evolving nature of the Olympic programme, showing both traditional and contemporary athletic disciplines. This mix of sports aims to engage a diverse audience and celebrate a broad spectrum of athletic talent and cultural expression.
The five optional sports approved for the 2028 Olympics are baseball and softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, and squash, while breaking will be dropped. Additionally, surfing, climbing, and skateboarding will become core sports, bringing the total number of core sports to 30.
Throughout much of the last century, the Olympics featured demonstration sports to promote or gauge interest in new sports without officially including them in the medal count. Some of these, like baseball, eventually became official Olympic sports. However, the practice of having demonstration sports is no longer done. Additionally, several sports, such as bowling in 1988 and wushu in 2008, were played at the Olympics despite not being officially recognised by the IOC as demonstration sports.
Athletics, considered a single discipline despite its variety of events, has had the most medal events in every Summer Olympics and will feature 48 in Paris. Swimming, with 35 events, ranks second. The only other discipline to surpass 20 medal events in a single summer was shooting, which had 21 events in Belgium in 1920 before being temporarily dropped in 1928. Typically, the number of events in each sport has increased over time. However, weightlifting, with only 10 weight categories in 2024, down from 14 in 2020, is a rare exception. Overall, the 329 events in Paris are slightly fewer than the record 339 from the previous Summer Games.
Each edition of the Olympic Games brings with it the it the hopes and eyeballs of the entire world. With that, any new event will get the proper legitimacy it deserves!
