A poodle in a 1917 car brings to mind the claim that in the 1900s, poodle clipping was an Olympic sport. Was it really? Who knows?
While the world waits to find out which sports will be added to the Olympics in Los Angeles (Baseball and softball? Cricket? Squash? Flag football?), it’s as good a time as any to note that over the years, we’ve seen our fair share of sports added in, only to be dropped later.
And we’re not talking about showcase sports – those came about with the implementation of the IOC’s Agenda 2020 which allowed hosting cities to suggest medal sports that might (or might not) get picked up for future editions of the Games. Case in point: Paris has added breakdancing.
In this case, however, we’re talking about sports that were officially added, then removed after a few years. Why? Well, you be the judge.
Ballooning: With all the flap and hot air going on right now about that balloon, it might be interesting to learn that competitive ballooning was an Olympic sport. In fact, it was contested in Paris in 1900.
The report from Inside The Games, found in the link above is an absolute hoot, and includes the stories of one balloonist who made an unscheduled landing “in a stubble-field not far from Paris, whereupon the landowner is said to have ordered a guard to trample it with his big iron shoes” and another case, in which “in rural Ain, west of Geneva, another competitor, on touching down was taken for an English spy.” (Shots were fired and ballooning was quickly scratched from the Games).
Firefighting: In two divisions, professional and amateur (meaning, apparently, that you could just get a club together and as long as they had no training, they were a team). Also held in Paris in 1900, also never to be seen again.
Poodle Clipping: You can’t make this stuff up. Or maybe you can (keep reading). The Coolist notes, “at the 1900 Games in Paris, the wholly absurd Olympic event of poodle clipping took place. 128 competitors lined up to be crowned the Olympic champion poodle clipper. What makes this even funnier is that the contest was judged not on style but a simple count of who could trim the most poodles in two hours. There was no real thought given to poodle size or coat condition; however, the only and therefore reigning Olympic poodle clipping champion was Avril Lafoule, who clipped 17 poodles in two hours.”
Note: This particular sport gets fact-checked. A lot. The name of Avril Lafoule alone has raised enough red flags to make sure that happens. That's not to say this was a total hoax, though. In 1900, the Games went through two organizing committees; at the same time, multiple competitions were held as part of the Paris World's Fair. Even the IOC's website notes, "The organizers spread the competitions over five months and under-promoted their Olympic status to such an extent that many athletes never knew they had actually participated in the Olympic Games." This also means that many records (including, perhaps, those pertaining to poodle clipping) have been lost to history.
By the way, the 2032 Games will be in Brisbane, Australia, and the local organizing committee is pushing hard for sheep dog trials as an event.
Rope Climbing and Swimming Obstacle Courses: Maybe obstacle racing was actually making inroads to the Olympics long before it was actually obstacle racing as we know it. Rope climbing, for example, was included in four non-consecutive Olympics: 1896, 1904, 1924 and 1932. (The United States won 50 percent of the available medals in this discipline, noted Coolist). Then there was the sport of the 200m swimming obstacle course. Competitors needed to climb poles, scale boats, and swim under other boats. It was held in the River Seine in the Paris Games of 1900, then dropped.
Croquet: Yes, croquet was an Olympic sport. No, we’re not kidding. Like ballooning and (maybe) poodle clipping, it is recorded as being contested in Paris in 1900 (Paris, what is it with you?) and was one of the few sports that allowed female participation, so at least there’s that.
Basque Pelota: Also Paris in the 1900 Games (although it was a demonstration sport in 1924, 1968 and 1992 – bet you didn’t know that). If you know what jai alai is, you may be able to figure out at least part of Basque Pelota. The problem, however, is its complexity. It is actually a combination of sports spread across four different court sizes, and fourteen different game rule sets depending on the equipment used.
Coolist notes: “One interesting point of note about this sport’s Olympic history is that in 1900, there were only two teams competing, France and Spain. The French side subsequently withdrew from the tournament, and so the gold medal was awarded to Spain without a single game being played.”
Ski Ballet: Those who are Baby Boomers (and those who are older) likely remember that ski ballet, also known as acro skiing, was prominently featured in the Winter Games. In fact, said the NBC Olympics, site, it “was featured on professional freestyle skiing tours in the 1970s and 1980s and was always a unique fan favorite. Competitors performed two-minute routines set to music and filled with spins, flips and flair.”
One of the USA’s more well-known athletes was Suzy Chaffee, who became known by the moniker, "Suzy ChapStick" (don’t miss the cheesy TV commercial, featuring the sport, in the link). The nickname came about in the 1970s, when she was a spokesperson for ChapStick lip balm. (The discipline was dropped prior to the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer and ski ballet, though not ChapStick, faded into obscurity).
Live Pistol Dueling: Olympic sports don’t come much stranger than this (except for live pigeon shooting, once also contested, by the way). But dueling, according to Europeana, was “featured at the male-only Olympic Games held in Athens in 1906 as an unofficial event. The competitors had to shoot at plaster dummies. [The sport] returned in 1908 where competitors actually fired at each other, but thankfully, no one was harmed because the bullets were made of wax and the duelists wore protective masks and uniforms.”
It was dropped after that. Can’t imagine why.
Tug Of War: Oddly, this was a big hit in the English-speaking countries. Tug of war was a medal sport between 1900 (there it is again) and 1920. Something that is even more unusual is the fact that countries could enter multiple clubs in the discipline (in other words, there was not just one Team USA), allowing those countries to win more than one medal. For example, Europeana notes, both the United States and Great Britain won the gold, silver and bronze medals in 1904 and 1908, respectively.
Plunge for Distance: Yeah, we can’t do better than the description given here: “Plunge for distance diving enjoyed its greatest popularity in the late 19th and early 20th century. In 1904, it was included as an official event at the Olympic Games in Saint Louis. The goal was to dive into and then glide in water without making any additional movement for one minute. The person who travelled the farthest won. However, the event was neither very popular nor convincing. A New York Times sports writer described it as ‘mere mountains of fat who fall in the water more or less successfully and depend upon inertia to get their points for them’.”
This is by no means an exhaustive listing. Over the years, the Olympics have featured horse long jump, la canne (attacking your opponent with a wooden stick similar to a broom handle), one-handed weight lifting, jeu de paume (tennis played without a racquet; contestants hit the ball with their hands) and club swinging – as well as plenty of others. And if you look at the sports whose governing bodies have Olympic recognition as an international federation, you can see there are plenty of sports that might be lobbying for inclusion down the line. Hint: Underwater sports and powerboating are among them.
Better, stronger, faster, together. That’s what the IOC wants. Where will it take us next?
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