6 of the oddest sports in the history of Olympics

The 2024 Paris Olympics is set to begin later this week with the opening ceremony scheduled to take place on 26 July in River Seine

Before the Olympics get underway, we take a look at some of the weirdest sports in the history of the world's biggest sporting event

Ballooning

Ballooning had athletes piloting gas balloons in events that were judged on the basis of distance, altitude, duration and longest distance travelled. It made its only appearance in Paris 1900

Tug-of-War

Tug-of-War featured in five editions of the Olympics between 1900 and 1920 with a combined team from Sweden and Denmark winning the first-ever gold medal in the sport

Live Pigeon Shooting

It’s literally what the name suggests — participants were required to shoot down as many live pigeons as possible, and were eliminated after missing two in a row. Thankfully, it was dropped from the Olympics after making its debut in Paris 1900

Distance Plunging

Distance plunging made its only appearance at the 1904 Games in St Louis and required athletes to dive into a pool and remain underwater as well as completely still for at least 60 seconds or until they returned to the surface. Those who drifted the furthest were declared winners

Croquet

Croquet is another of those games that made its only appearance at the 1900 Games in Paris, in which only French athletes participated and only one spectator attended to watch. Croquet, however, holds the distinction of being the first Olympic event to have a female participant

Obstacle Swim

The 200-metre Obstacle Race was also held exclusively in the 1900 Paris Games and featured athletes swimming through The Seine while overcoming a series of obstacles, from climbing over a pole to swimming under a row of boats

Next: What's inside the Paris athletes' village for Olympics