Olympic sports are contested in the
Summer Olympic Games and
Winter Olympic Games
The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were he ...
. The
2020 Summer Olympics included 33 sports;
the
2022 Winter Olympics
The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Bei ...
included seven sports.
Each Olympic sport is represented by an
international governing body, namely an
International Federation
This is a list of international sports federations, each of which serves as a non-governmental governing body for a given sport and administers its sport at a world level, most often crafting rules, promoting the sport to prospective spectator ...
(IF).
The
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...
(IOC) establishes a hierarchy of sports, disciplines, and events.
According to this hierarchy, each Olympic sport can be subdivided into multiple disciplines, which are often mistaken as distinct sports. Examples include
swimming and
water polo
Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with t ...
, which are in fact disciplines of the sport of "Aquatics" (represented by the
International Swimming Federation),
and
figure skating
Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympics, 1908 Olympics ...
and
speed skating, which are both disciplines of the sport of "Ice skating" (represented by the
International Skating Union
The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in Scheveningen ...
).
In turn, disciplines are subdivided into events, for which Olympic medals are awarded.
The number and types of events may change slightly from one
Olympiad to another.
Previous Olympic Games included sports that are no longer included in the current program, such as
polo and
tug of war.
Known as "discontinued sports", these have been removed due to either a lack of interest or the absence of an appropriate governing body for the sport.
Some sports that were competed at the early Games and later dropped by the IOC, have managed to return to the Olympic program, for example
archery, which made a comeback in
1972, and
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...
, which was reintroduced in
1988. The Olympics have often included one or more
demonstration sports, normally to promote a local sport from the host country or to gauge interest in an entirely new sport.
Some such sports, like
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...
and
curling
Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...
, were added to the official Olympic program (in
1992 and
1998, respectively). Baseball was discontinued after the
2008 Olympics in Beijing, only to be revived again for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, which saw the introduction of new disciplines within a number of existing Summer Olympic sports as well as several new sports, such as
karate
(; ; Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the influence of Chinese martial arts, particularly Fuj ...
and
skateboarding, making their Olympic debuts.
Breakdancing will make its debut at the
2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and
Ski Mountaineering will debut at the
2026 Winter Olympics.
Olympic sports definitions
The term "sport" in Olympic terminology refers to all events sanctioned by an
international sport federation, a definition that may differ from the common meaning of the word "sport". One sport, by Olympic definition, may comprise several disciplines, which would often be regarded as separate sports in common usage.
For example,
aquatics is a summer Olympic sport that includes six disciplines:
swimming,
artistic swimming,
diving,
water polo
Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with t ...
,
open water swimming, and
high diving (the last of which is a non-Olympic discipline), since all these disciplines are governed at international level by the
International Swimming Federation.
Skating is a winter Olympic sport represented by the
International Skating Union
The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in Scheveningen ...
, and includes four disciplines:
figure skating
Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympics, 1908 Olympics ...
,
speed skating (on a traditional long track),
short track speed skating, and
synchronized skating (the latter is a non-Olympic discipline).
The sport with the largest number of Olympic disciplines is
skiing
Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee ...
, with six:
alpine skiing
Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel bindings, unlike other types of skiing ( cross-country, Telemark, or ski jumping), which use skis with free-heel bindings. Whether ...
,
cross-country skiing,
ski jumping,
Nordic combined,
snowboarding, and
freestyle skiing.
Other notable multi-discipline sports are
gymnastics
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...
(artistic, rhythmic, and trampoline),
cycling
Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from tw ...
(road, track, mountain, and BMX),
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
(indoors and beach),
wrestling (freestyle and Greco-Roman),
canoeing
Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. Common meanings of the term are limited to when the canoeing is the central purpose of the activity. Broader meanings include when it is combined with other ac ...
(flatwater and slalom), and
bobsleigh
Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Fe ...
(includes skeleton). The disciplines listed here are only those contested in the Olympics—gymnastics has two non-Olympic disciplines, while cycling and wrestling have three each.
The IOC definition of a "discipline" may differ from that used by an international federation. For example, the IOC considers artistic gymnastics a single discipline, but the
International Federation of Gymnastics
The International Gymnastics Federation (French: Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, FIG) is the body governing all disciplines of competitive gymnastics. Its headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was founded on July 23, 1881, i ...
(FIG) classifies men's and women's artistic gymnastics as separate disciplines. Similarly, the IOC considers freestyle wrestling to be a single discipline, but
United World Wrestling
United World Wrestling (UWW) is the international governing body for the sport of amateur wrestling; its duties include overseeing wrestling at the Olympics. It presides over international competitions for various forms of wrestling, including ...
uses "freestyle wrestling" strictly for the men's version, classifying women's freestyle wrestling as the separate discipline of "female wrestling".
On some occasions, notably in the
case of snowboarding, the IOC agreed to add a sport that previously had a separate international federation to the Olympics on condition that they dissolve their governing body and instead affiliate with an existing Olympic sport federation, therefore not increasing the number of Olympic sports.
An event, by IOC definition, is a competition that leads to the award of medals. Therefore, the sport of aquatics includes a total of 46 Olympic events, of which 32 are in the discipline of swimming, eight in diving, and two each in artistic swimming, water polo, and open water swimming. The number of events per sport ranges from a minimum of two (until 2008, there were sports with only one event) to a maximum of 47 in
athletics, which despite its large number of events and its diversity is not divided into disciplines except on an informal basis - the division between, for example, swimming and diving in aquatics is not replicated within athletics by divisions between track and field events, or stadium and road events.
Criteria for inclusion and thresholds
In the past there have been numeric criteria about widely practiced sports, disciplines or events. Nowadays such criteria have been abolished.
The sports that are eligible for inclusion in the programme, beside the current Olympic International Federations, are only those “''governed by other IFs recognised by the IOC''”, as per the Bye-law to Rule 45 of the Olympic Charter (§1.3.2). If this criterion is met, then the opportunity to propose additional sports to the programme is at the full discretion of the respective Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and subject to the final decision of the IOC Session.
However, there are indicative thresholds which restrict the addition of new sports, disciplines and events. According to Bye-law 3.2 to Rule 45 of the Olympic Charter, in the edition of 2021: "Unless agreed otherwise with the relevant OCOG
rganising Committee for the Olympic Games the following approximate numbers shall apply:
– with respect to the Games of the Olympiad, ten thousand five hundred (10,500) athletes, five thousand (5,000) accredited coaches and athletes’ support personnel and three hundred and ten (310) events.
– with respect to the Olympic Winter Games, two thousand nine hundred (2,900) athletes, two thousand (2,000) accredited coaches and athletes’ support personnel and one hundred (100) events."
However, such thresholds have already been surpassed.
Changes in Olympic sports
The list of Olympic sports has changed considerably during the course of Olympic history, and has gradually increased over time.
The only summer sports that have never been absent from the Olympic program are
athletics, aquatics (
the discipline of swimming has been in every Olympics),
cycling
Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from tw ...
,
fencing
Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, ...
, and gymnastics (
the discipline of artistic gymnastics has been in every Olympics).
The only winter sports that were included in all Winter Olympic Games are skiing (only
nordic skiing), skating (
figure skating
Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympics, 1908 Olympics ...
and
speed skating), and
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...
. Figure skating and ice hockey were also included in the Summer Olympics before the Winter Olympics were introduced in 1924.
For most of the 20th century, demonstration sports were included in many Olympic Games, usually to promote a non-Olympic sport popular in the host country, or to gauge interest and support for the sport.
The competitions and ceremonies in these sports were identical to official Olympic sports, except that the medals were not counted in the official record.
Some demonstration sports, like
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...
and curling, were later added to the official Olympic program.
This changed when the
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...
decided in 1989 to eliminate demonstration sports from Olympic Games after 1992.
An exception was made in
2008, when the
Beijing Organizing Committee received permission to organize a
wushu tournament.
Women are still barred from Greco-Roman wrestling and Nordic combined, but on the other hand, there are women-only disciplines, such as
rhythmic gymnastics
Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform on a floor with an apparatus: hoop (rhythmic gymnastics), hoop, ball (rhythmic gymnastics), ball, Clubs (rhythmic gymnastics), clubs, ribbon (rhythmic gymnastics), ribbon. The sport combi ...
and
artistic swimming.
In previous years, sports that depend primarily on mechanical propulsion, such as motor sports, could not be considered for recognition as Olympic sports, though there were power-boating events in the early days of the Olympics before this rule was enacted by the IOC.
Part of the story of the founding of aviation sports' international governing body, the
FAI, originated from an IOC meeting in Brussels, Belgium on 10 June 1905.The relevant strict clause excluding motorsports, stating that "Sports, disciplines or events in which performance depends essentially on mechanical propulsion are not accepted" has been removed from the Olympic Charter.
FIA and
FAI are included in the International Federations recognised by the International Olympic Committee, and therefore in theory could be eligible.
Previous Olympic Games included sports which are no longer present on the current program, like
polo and
tug of war.
In the early days of the modern Olympics, the organizers were able to decide which sports or disciplines were included on the program, until the IOC took control of the program in 1924. As a result, a number of sports were on the Olympic program for relatively brief periods before 1924.
These sports, known as discontinued sports, were removed because of lack of interest or absence of an appropriate governing body, or because they became fully professional at the time that the Olympic Games were strictly for amateurs, as in the case of
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...
.
Several discontinued sports, such as
archery and
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...
, were later readmitted to the Olympic program (in
1972 and
1984, respectively). Curling, which was an official sport in
1924 and then discontinued, was reinstated as Olympic sport in 1998.
The Olympic Charter decrees that Olympic sports for each edition of the
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...
should be decided at an IOC Session no later than seven years prior to the Games.
Changes since 2000
The only sports that have been dropped from the Olympics since
1936 are
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...
and
softball, which were both voted out by the IOC Session in Singapore on 11 July 2005,
a decision that was reaffirmed on 9 February 2006, and reversed on 3 August 2016.
These sports were last included in 2008, although officially they remain recognized in the
Olympic Charter as a single sport, since both are now governed internationally by the
World Baseball Softball Confederation
World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC; french: Confédération internationale de baseball et softball) is the Sports governing body, world governing body for the sports of baseball, softball, and Baseball5. It was established in 2013 by th ...
. Therefore, the number of sports in the
2012 Summer Olympics was dropped from 28 to 26.
Following the addition of women's boxing in 2012, and women's ski jumping in
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
, there are only
Greco-Roman wrestling and
nordic combined, respectively, that are only for men in those games.
Two previously discontinued sports,
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...
and
rugby, returned for the
2016 Summer Olympics. On 13 August 2009, the IOC Executive Board proposed that golf and rugby sevens be added to the Olympic program for the 2016 Games. On 9 October 2009, during the
121st IOC Session in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, the IOC voted to admit both sports as official Olympic sports and to include them in the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The IOC voted 81–8 in favor of including rugby sevens and 63–27 in favor of reinstating golf, thus bringing the number of sports back to 28.
[
In February 2013, the IOC considered dropping a sport from the 2020 Summer Olympics to make way for a new sport. Modern pentathlon and ]taekwondo
''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. ...
were thought to be vulnerable, but instead the IOC recommended dismissing wrestling. On 8 September 2013, the IOC added wrestling to the 2020 and 2024 Summer Games.
On 3 August 2016, the IOC voted to add baseball/ softball, karate
(; ; Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the influence of Chinese martial arts, particularly Fuj ...
, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding for the 2020 Summer Olympics. On 21 February 2019, the Paris Organising Committee announced they would propose the inclusion of breakdancing (breaking), as well as skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing—three sports which debuted at the then-upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics as optional sports. All four sports were approved during the 134th IOC Session in Lausanne
Lausanne ( , , , ) ; it, Losanna; rm, Losanna. is the capital and largest city of the Swiss French speaking canton of Vaud. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway between the Jura Mountains and the Alps, and fac ...
, Switzerland on 24 June 2019.
On 18 June 2021, the International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...
issued a proposal for a new winter sport, ski mountaineering, for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The proposal was approved during the IOC's session in Tokyo on 20 July.
Summer Olympics
Volleyball has been part of the Summer Olympics since 1964.
At the first Olympic Games
The 1896 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 1896, Therinoí Olympiakoí Agónes 1896), officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 1ης Ολυμπιάδας, Agónes tis 1is Ol ...
, nine sports were contested. Since then, the number of sports contested at the Summer Olympic Games has gradually risen to twenty-eight on the program for 2000–2008. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, however, the number of sports fell back to twenty-six following an IOC decision in 2005 to remove baseball and softball from the Olympic program. These sports retain their status as Olympic sports with the possibility of a return to the Olympic program in future games. At the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen on 9 October 2009, the IOC voted to reinstate both golf and rugby to the Olympic program, meaning that the number of sports to be contested in 2016 was once again 28.
In order for a sport or discipline to be considered for inclusion in the list of Summer Olympic sports, it must be widely practiced in at least 75 countries, spread over four continents.
Current and discontinued summer program
The following sports (or disciplines of a sport) make up the current and discontinued Summer Olympic Games official program and are listed alphabetically according to the name used by the IOC. The discontinued sports were previously part of the Summer Olympic Games program as official sports, but are no longer on the current program. The figures in each cell indicate the number of events for each sport contested at the respective Games; a bullet () denotes that the sport was contested as a demonstration sport.
Eight of the 32 sports at the 2024 Summer Olympics consist of multiple disciplines. Each discipline is marked with a unique 3-character identifier code. Disciplines from the same sport are grouped under the same color:
Aquatics –
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
–
Canoeing
Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. Common meanings of the term are limited to when the canoeing is the central purpose of the activity. Broader meanings include when it is combined with other ac ...
/ Kayaking –
Cycling
Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from tw ...
–
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...
–
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
–
Equestrian –
Wrestling –
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...
and Softball –
Karate
(; ; Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the influence of Chinese martial arts, particularly Fuj ...
Unofficial IOC Discipline code used to disambiguate sports
Demonstration summer sports
The following sports or disciplines have been demonstrated at the Summer Olympic Games for the years shown, but have never been included on the official Olympic program. Organizers of the 1900 and 1904 Olympic Games, which were staged in conjunction with world's fairs, included numerous sporting events on an equal footing under their programmes. Historians generally regard many of these as not satisfying retrospective inclusion criteria to qualify as "official." However, the IOC has never made a determination regarding which events were official and which were not. Designation of official demonstration sports began with the 1912 Olympic Games.
* American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...
(1932)
* Australian football (1956)
* Tenpin Bowling (1988)
* Budō (1964)
* Pesäpallo (1952)
* Gaelic football
Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by ki ...
(1904)
* Glima (1912)
* Gliding (1936)
* Hurling (1904)
* Kaatsen (1928)
* Korfball (1920 and 1928)
* La canne (1924)
* Roller hockey (1992)
* Savate (1924)
* Swedish ( Ling) gymnastics (1948)
* Weight training
Weight training is a common type of strength training for developing the strength, size of skeletal muscles and maintenance of strength.Keogh, Justin W, and Paul W Winwood. “Report for: The Epidemiology of Injuries Across the Weight-Tra ...
with dumbbells (1904)
* Water skiing (1972)
Like all the 1900 Olympic events widely regarded today as official, there were other events conducted during the 1900 World's Fair
The Exposition Universelle of 1900, better known in English as the 1900 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate developmen ...
.
* Angling
* Ballooning (hydrogen-filled, non-fueled)
* Boules
''Boules'' () is a collective name for a wide range of games similar to bowls and bocce (In French: jeu or jeux, in Croatian: boćanje and in Italian: gioco or giochi) in which the objective is to throw or roll heavy balls (called in France, ...
* Cannon shooting
* Fire fighting
* Kite flying
* Surf lifesaving
* Longue paume
* Motor racing
* Motorcycle racing
* Pigeon racing
* Water motorsports
Gliding was promoted from demonstration sport to an official Olympic sport in 1936 in time for the 1940 Summer Olympics, but the Games were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.
Tenpin bowling, demonstrated separately from the Olympics in 1936 in Germany (alongside forms of ninepin bowling), but part of the demonstration sports at Seoul in 1988, has been a regular medal sport of the World Games since 1981 and the Pan American Games since 1991.
Classification of Olympic sports for revenue share
Summer Olympic sports are divided into categories based on popularity, gauged by: television viewers (40%), internet popularity (20%), public surveys (15%), ticket requests (10%), press coverage (10%), and number of national federations (5%). The category determines the share the sport's International Federation receives of Olympic revenue.
The current categories, as of 2013, are as follows, with the pre-2013 categorizations also being available. Category A represents the most popular sports; category E lists either the sports that are the least popular or that are new to the Olympics (golf and rugby).
Winter Olympics
Before 1924, ice sports like figure skating and ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...
were held at the Summer Olympic Games. These two sports made their debuts at the 1908
Events
January
* January 1 – The British ''Nimrod'' Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the ''Nimrod'' for Antarctica.
* January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean, and is the 46 ...
and the 1920 Summer Olympics respectively, but in 1924 they were moved to the first edition of the Winter Olympic Games and became permanent fixtures on the sports program for the Winter Olympics from then on.
The ''International Winter Sports Week'', later dubbed the I Olympic Winter Games and retroactively recognized as such by the IOC, consisted of nine sports. The number of sports contested at the Winter Olympics has since been decreased to seven, comprising a total of fifteen disciplines.
A sport or discipline must be widely practised in at least 25 countries, and on three different continents, to be eligible for inclusion on the Olympic program for the Winter Games.
Current winter program
The following sports (or disciplines of a sport) make up the current Winter Olympic Games official program and are listed alphabetically, according to the name used by the IOC. The figures in each cell indicate the number of events for each sport that were contested at the respective Games (the red cells indicate that those sports were held at the Summer Games); a bullet () denotes that the sport was contested as a demonstration sport. On some occasions, both official medal events and demonstration events were contested in the same sport at the same Games.
Three out of the eight sports consist of multiple disciplines. Disciplines from the same sport are grouped under the same color:
Bobsleigh
Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Fe ...
–
Skating –
Skiing
Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee ...
Demonstration winter sports
The following sports have been demonstrated at the Winter Olympic Games for the years shown, but have never been included on the official Olympic program:
* Bandy ( 1952)
* Disabled skiing
Paralympic alpine skiing is an adaptation of alpine skiing for athletes with a disability. The sport evolved from the efforts of disabled veterans in Germany and Austria during and after the Second World War. The sport is governed by the Internat ...
( 1984 and 1988)
* Ice stock sport (1936, 1964)
* Ski ballet
Ski ballet is a form of ballet performed on skis. It is very similar to figure skating, combining spins, jumps, and flips in a two-minute routine choreographed to music. It was part of the professional freestyle skiing tours of the 1970s and 19 ...
(acroski) (1988 and 1992)
* Skijoring (1928)
* Sled-dog racing (1932)
* Speed skiing (1992)
* Winter pentathlon
Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultures de ...
(1948)
Ice climbing was showcased at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, was on the non-competition program at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games, and aims to become an official competition sport. Ski ballet was a demonstration event under the scope of freestyle skiing. Disabled sports are now part of the Winter Paralympic Games.
Recognized international federations
Many sports are not contested at the Olympics although their governing bodies are recognized by the IOC. Such sports, if eligible under the terms of the Olympic Charter, may apply for inclusion in the program of future Games, through a recommendation by the IOC Olympic Programme Commission
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
, followed by a decision of the IOC Executive Board and a vote of the IOC Session. When Olympic demonstration sports were allowed, a sport usually appeared as such before being officially admitted. An International Sport Federation (IF) is responsible for ensuring that the sport's activities follow the Olympic Charter. When a sport is recognized by the IOC, the IF becomes an official Olympic sport federation and can assemble with other Olympic IFs in the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations
The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) is a non-profit association of international sports federations that compete in the Summer Olympic Games. It is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, the same city where the I ...
(ASOIF, for summer sports contested in the Olympic Games), Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations
The Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations (AIOWF) is an association of winter sports federations recognized by the International Olympic Committee that compete in the Olympic Winter Games.
Among other tasks, the AIOWF en ...
(AIOWS, for winter sports contested in the Olympic Games), or Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF, for sports not contested in the Olympic Games). A number of recognized sports are included in the program of the World Games, a multi-sport event run by the International World Games Association, an organization that operates under the patronage of the IOC. Since the start of the World Games in 1981, a number of sports, including badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...
, taekwondo, and triathlon
A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the d ...
have subsequently been incorporated into the Olympic program.
In 2020, the IOC altered the way it plans the Olympic sports program: rather than basing it on a maximum number of ''sports'', the total number of ''events'' are now taken into account, opening the schedule up for the inclusion on a per-Games basis of additional sports to the 25 "core" sports. For the 2020 Summer Olympics, the local organizing committee was thus permitted to add five sports to the program in addition to the existing 28, taking the total to 33. Baseball and softball have been treated by the IOC as a single sport since the governing bodies for baseball and softball merged into a single international federation in 2013 (with male athletes competing in baseball and female athletes competing in softball).
The governing bodies of the following sports, though not contested in the Olympic Games, are recognized by the IOC:
* Air sports1,3
* American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...
(provisional)
* Auto racing
Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primaril ...
3
* Bandy
* Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...
2,5
* Billiard sports
Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as .
There are three major subdivision ...
1
* Boules
''Boules'' () is a collective name for a wide range of games similar to bowls and bocce (In French: jeu or jeux, in Croatian: boćanje and in Italian: gioco or giochi) in which the objective is to throw or roll heavy balls (called in France, ...
1
* Bowling
Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), thoug ...
1
* Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
* Cheerleading
Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ent ...
(provisional)
* Chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...
* Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...
2
* Floorball1
* Flying disc
A frisbee (pronounced ), also called a flying disc or simply a disc, is a gliding toy or sporting item that is generally made of injection-molded plastic and roughly in diameter with a pronounced lip. It is used recreationally and competitiv ...
1
* Ice stock sport
* Karate
(; ; Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the influence of Chinese martial arts, particularly Fuj ...
1,2
* Kickboxing
Kickboxing is a combat sport focused on kicking and punching. The combat takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouthguards, shorts, and bare feet to favour the use of kicks. Kickboxing is practiced for self-defense, gen ...
(provisional)1
* Korfball1
* Lacrosse1
* Lifesaving1
* Motorcycle racing3
* Mountaineering and climbing
* Muaythai1
* Netball
Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...
* Orienteering1
* Pelota vasca
* Polo2
* Powerboating3
* Racquetball1
* Roller sports1,4
* Sambo
* Softball2,5
* Squash1
* Sumo
is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a '' rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring ('' dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by ...
1
* Tug of war1,2
* Underwater sports1
* Water skiing1,3,6
* Wakeboarding1,3,6
* Wushu
Wushu may refer to:
Martial arts
* Chinese martial arts, the various martial arts of China
* Wushu (sport), a modern exhibition of traditional Chinese martial arts
* Wushu stances, five key stances utilized in both contemporary wushu and traditio ...
1 Official sport at the World Games
2 Discontinued Olympic sport
3 The Olympic Charter no longer forbids motorized sports from being included in the Olympic program, but environmental impact is now considered when deciding whether to adopt new sports making the inclusion of motorized sports unlikely.
4 Skateboarding, a discipline within roller sports, was included at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Inline and roller skating has never been contested.
5 Baseball and softball share the same governing body.
6 Waterski and wakeboard share the same governing body. Cable waterskiing and cable wakeboarding have been proposed as sports that do not rely on motorboats.
See also
*Association of Summer Olympic International Federations
The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) is a non-profit association of international sports federations that compete in the Summer Olympic Games. It is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, the same city where the I ...
*Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations
The Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations (AIOWF) is an association of winter sports federations recognized by the International Olympic Committee that compete in the Olympic Winter Games.
Among other tasks, the AIOWF en ...
* Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations
Notes
References
External links
International Olympic Committee - Sports
IOC Olympic Programme Commission
International Sports Federations
{{Authority control
Sports
Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...
Sports at multi-sport events by competition