Do you know, Tug of war was contested at the 1904 summer Olympics ?
But bowling, sepak tkraw., motor cycle racing, pelota vasca, orienteering, darts, softball, futsal..There are so many known or unknown sports which are not included in the Olympic. In order to keep the Games at a convenient size, not every sport can be included. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has strict criteria for evaluating these games.
Sports not in Olympic :
Our listing of top 5 sports not in Olympic includes those games and sports having huge international following, but never become a permanent Olympic event.
5. Bowling
10-pin bowling has long been one of the world’s most popular sports, with an estimated 100 million participants worldwide. In 1979 the IOC officially recognized the Fédération Internationale des Quilleurs as the governing body of bowling In 1988 bowling came painfully close to fulfilling its Olympic dream when it was included as a demonstration sport at the Seoul Summer Games. Only 20 nations competed, however, and the competition received little media coverage because of its demonstration status.
4. Squash
It is played in Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, but not in the Olympics.
Another one up for inclusion in 2012, it’s inexplicable why this has never been on the program. It’s one of the biggest sports still missing.
Today, 17 million people in some 185 countries play the indoor racquet sport, which Forbes magazine judged the world’s healthiest sport in 2007.
Both squash and karate also campaigned for a spot in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio but lost out to rugby sevens and golf.
2. Cricket
Yes, being an Indian I absolutely had to mention this, didn’t I? Hopefully, with the rising popularity to Twenty-20, we can expect to see it sometime in the near future.
It was rejected for 2016, but will maybe be included some time in the future in T20 format.
Though relatively uncommon in the United States, cricket is the second most popular spectator sport in the world (after soccer), with some 2.5 billion fans. That astounding figure is largely due to its prevalence in the densely populated Indian subcontinent, but it’s also enjoyed in England, Asia and Australia. It also has a growing audience in other countries, thanks in part to the recent introduction of a new, shorter match format of three hours.
It was included on the original program for the first modern Games in 1896 but taken out due to lack of entrants.
4. Cue Sports (Billiards, Snooker)
Snooker, and probably Billiards too, has recognition from the IOC as a sport, but has never been included in the Olympics. I don’t know why, though I strongly suspect that lack of infrastructure is not a reason.
cue sports, especially snooker. If you look at every major snooker championship where do 90% of the players come from? The UK. There are a handful from China, Thailand and Australia but it’s basically all British. A sport needs to be played at the highest level in a large number of countries before the IOC will include it. This is the reason why this sport is not in the Olympics.
1. Chess : Mind sports, of that mature, are not allowed”
As with bowling, many people may view chess as a game or recreation rather than a full-fledged sport. But not the IOC, which officially recognized chess as a sport back in the 1920s. It was originally intended for inclusion in the 1924 Games in Paris but didn’t make it due to difficulties in distinguishing between amateur and professional players.
In the meantime, chess has its own Olympiad—the World Chess Olympiad, which boasts more participating countries than the Winter Olympics. In 2012, about 160 nations will participate in Istanbul, Turkey; the youngest competitor is 10 years old.
Hope you like this listing. Now this one is for cricket lovers. Let’s see how many of these unknown cricket terms you know.
