9 peculiar summer Olympic sports that have been discontinued

Photo by: Eythorsson

Glima — 1912, Stockholm (demonstration)

Back before the IOC stepped in and ruined all the fun in 1924, the Summer Olympics were somewhat of a free-for-all as organizers were left in charge of selecting which sports, both official and unofficial, would be included in the Games. A shining example of this was the inclusion of a form of Icelandic folk wrestling known as glima in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. In addition to... more 

Photo by: Eythorsson

Glima — 1912, Stockholm (demonstration)

Back before the IOC stepped in and ruined all the fun in 1924, the Summer Olympics were somewhat of a free-for-all as organizers were left in charge of selecting which sports, both official and unofficial, would be included in the Games. A shining example of this was the inclusion of a form of Icelandic folk wrestling known as glima in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. In addition to glima, Greco-Roman wrestling was an official sport, but host country Sweden forbade boxing, a former Olympic crowd-pleaser. And the other demonstration sport that appeared (for the second time) at the 1912 Summer Olympics? It's one that's not quite obscure as Icelandic folk wrestling - baseball. Unlike glima, after years of appearing as a demonstration sport, America's Favorite Pastime graduated to official Olympic sport status at the 1992 Summer Olympics and remained part of the official program up until 2008. In 2005 and 2009, the IOC eliminated both baseball and softball from the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympic programs, making them the first sports to be voted out since polo in 1936. Replacing them in 2016? Not tug-of-war and ballooning (we wish), but golf and rugby sevens.

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