The 2024 Summer Olympics were one of the best ever. Great competition, energy, and memes. Spectacular camera work & production. And a fascinating variety of sports.
Most importantly the 2024 Olympics delivered some truly top-tier memes — none more viral than Aussie breakdancer Raygun, who broke the Internet.
Unfortunately, I’ve got some bad news – Raygun won’t be at the LA 2028 Olympics. After debuting this year, Breakdancing will be dropped by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which Raygun wasn’t
That was possibly a little premature…Breaking is clearly athletic, it requires a whole level of dedication across a number of different aspects. It’s really bringing a new level of excitement. I wonder if they’re kicking themselves now? – Raygun
In its place, LA will see the return of cricket — a sport whose investment potential we’ve been studying long before it was cool.
It’s also a sport which, despite having billions of fans, hasn’t appeared in the Olympics since 1900!
This raises some good questions:
- What determines a sport that’s worthy of the Olympics?
- Who gets to decide?
- And what are some of the wackiest alternative sports that have ever been featured on the global stage?
Today I’ve got a short, fun follow-up to my last issue on Alternative Sports which people seemed to love.
Let’s go 👇
Table of Contents
How does a sport get to the Olympics?
Who decides to introduce things like breakdancing to the 2024 Olympics – only to take it away from Los Angeles?
From the viewer’s perspective, the Olympics are a fun fortnight of the best athletes in the world going at it. But behind closed doors, the system is shockingly bureaucratic.
There are several hoops (get it?) a sport must hop through to attain Olympic status. The first step is to be recognized as an “official” sport by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Not every official sport is represented at every Games.
The current full list includes things stuff you never see:
- Cheerleading
- Korfball (an interesting 360° basketball derivative)
- Squash & Racquetball (but not padel. And definitely not pickleball)
- Netball (like basketball without dribbling. ugh, so boring)
- Muay Thai Boxing
- Orienteering (Navigation)
- Bowling
- Lacrosse
- Life-Saving (The International Life Saving Federation is lobbying to get this included in the Brisbane 2032 Games)
From here, each sport’s foundational body must plead its case to the IOC.
In their application, they have to tick the following boxes:
- The sport must be played in at least 75 countries, across at least four continents
- It must improve the value and appeal of the modern Olympic Games (this is the most subjective rule).
- “Mind sports” aren’t allowed anymore. So esports and chess fans will be waiting a while for representation.
If all the criteria are met, the sport can be added to the Olympics. It’s then up to the host city — so, Los Angeles for 2028 — to propose new events for their Games.
Each city has its own infrastructure, and this dynamic heavily dictates what sports are added and dropped.
For example, you can’t easily play baseball on a soccer field. And there is just one international cricket field in all of California!
The IOC receives the proposals and deliberates on adding each new event. Current regulations mean that adding a new sport requires dropping another. So the city suggests which events to abolish.
Ultimately, the IOC has the final say, usually via an anonymous vote among its 111 members.
The strangest sports ever featured at the Olympics
Alternative sports at the Olympics are nothing new! The Olympics have a long history of experimentation, and the past 128 years have seen some ridiculous sports come and go.
The Plunge for Distance 🏊
1904’s St Louis Olympic games were the first to feature this unique water sport.
Divers line up and jump into a pool. The goal is to see how you can, uhh, “waft” underwater before surfacing.
The sport gained popularity in the US and England in the 1800s, because I guess it was better than doing nothing? No idea.
Spectators called it the dullest Olympic sport of all time.
For what it’s worth, the US dominated. William Dickey was a natural – drifting 62.5 feet in under a minute and winning the gold at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis. (America’s first time hosting the Olympics, and also one of the weirdest)
Shockingly, plunge for distance rapidly lost popularity in the 1920s and was forever stricken from the Olympics due to a total lack of appeal.
Live Pigeon Shooting 🐦
I’m personally pretty glad we’ve seen the end of this one.
As the name suggests, participants in the 1900 Paris Olympics would literally roam around, killing as many pigeons as possible. If they missed two birds in a row, they’d be eliminated.
The event resulted in the death of 300+ pigeons.
Perhaps because the 1900 Olympics was a bit of an experiment, or because the organizing committee is now ashamed of the sport, results for Live Pigeon Shooting aren’t even listed in the official medal records.
Leon de Lunden from Belgium took home “gold”, relieving 21 pigeons of their lives. RIP.
Pistol Dueling 🎯
The 1908 London Olympics featured pistol dueling. Fortunately (or unfortunately), it didn’t involve two gentlemen taking a bow, walking back to a mark, and firing at one another.
Instead, athletes shot wax bullets at dummies wearing frock coats.
Pistol dueling was basically a demonstration sport, a showcase rather than a serious competition. It was almost exclusively played in France.
The British public wasn’t interested, the Swedes didn’t adopt it for the 1912 Olympics, and dueling never appeared again.
Sharpshooting, however, isn’t going away — especially after this year.
The sport, which is governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation, arguably earned a medal at this year’s “Meme Olympics,” and has benefitted from advanced technology:
High-end sharpshooter glasses (like these from Pilla) and optical sights are becoming essential for Olympic shooters.
Sights provide clear magnification and precise reticles, helping athletes aim with extreme accuracy.
Some Olympic shooters use diopters (rear sight devices with adjustable apertures) in combination with front sights to further refine their aim.
Poodle Clipping ✂️
Alright, this one is truly unhinged.
The Paris 1900 Olympics hosted a trial of perhaps the strangest “sport” of all time — poodle clipping.
Each hairdresser had two hours to trim the fur off as many poodles as possible.
This French “sport” was naturally dominated by Paris locals (even though French Poodles actually originated in Germany)
The gold medal winner from the Paris 1900 Olympics, Avril Lafoule, smashed out 17 poodle cuts – averaging one full haircut every seven minutes.
Hot Air Ballooning 🎈
Yet another bizarre sport debuted at the Paris 1900 Games – hot air ballooning.
There were several events related to the hot air balloons, the most exciting being the long-distance race.
The most impressive feat was that of French ballooner Henri de la Vaulx, who flew 768 miles — from France all the way to Russia.
As you can probably tell, the Paris 1900 Olympics were considered an experimental, disorganized mess.
The French tried to combine the Olympics with the World’s Fair. It didn’t really work.
Case in point:
- Swimming events were held in the Seine River, decades before the invention of disinfectant.
- Organizers didn’t allow enough room for throwing events. Hungarian discus thrower Rudolf Bauer threw directly into the crowd three times — and he still won gold!
What are the newest Olympic sports?
The above events haven’t stood the test of time for obvious reasons.
But you need to remember the Olympics is constantly adding and removing sports from its roster.
The 2024 Paris Olympics hosted several first-timers – like breakdancing, as we discussed earlier.
Kayak cross (Canoeing slalom) was another new entry, and a pretty cool one too. There were already a few canoeing events – but cross is the first one where the vessels actually race against each other.
Looking ahead, Los Angeles 2024 is slated to host several new events.
Cricket
The biggest name by far is cricket, a sport that’s been around since the 17th century, has immense popularity and hasn’t been in the Olympics since — you guessed it — the Paris 1900 Games.
A Commonwealth sport, cricket has been finding its way into the North American market. The US just hosted the T20 Cricket World Cup and as you may have heard, actually beat Pakistan!
Cricket clearly deserves a place in the Olympics — and having it in LA will certainly help spread the sport’s appeal beyond a handful of nations.
Squash
Surprisingly, squash has never featured at an Olympics before. The sport, developed in the 1800s by UK prisoners – who’d hit a ball against their jail cells – is played by over 20 million people.
The World Squash Federation (WSF) has been trying to get squash included in the Olympic Games for decades. Each time, it narrowly misses out to other sports.
But its professional circuit has become impossible to ignore, with prestigious tournaments like the PSA World Championships.
Flag Football
Flag football is also a first-timer. The game is very similar to American Football, just without the tackling. The sport isn’t super popular globally, but 7 million play in the USA.
The impact and brutality of the NFL might be missed, but it’s a great way for LA to introduce the sport to nations that play other styles, such as Rugby (which you know we have invested in), Gaelic Football, or my favorite, Aussie Rules Football.
Obstacle Course Racing
Okay, I think this is the most under-discussed new event coming in 2028.
Yes, LA is introducing obstacle course racing. And it could be awesome.
When they announced the new sport, the IOC said they’re going for an “American Ninja Warrior” vibe.
Closing thoughts
People perceive the Olympics to be deep-rooted in tradition and history — which it certainly is.
But at the same time, the IOC has a long history of inclusion and experimentation. Haters need to understand that trying new “weird” sports is nothing new. It goes back over a hundred years.
The difference today is that the streaming era means these oddball sports are more “in your face” than before.
In the past, NBC focused all their coverage on the big draws: gymnastics, track, swimming, etc. Today, you can get exposure to everything.
And I think that’s a great thing.
Looking forward to 2028! 🤾♂️
That’s all for today.
Reply to this email with comments. We read everything.
See you next time,
Ben
Disclosures and holdings
- This issue was written by Ben Knight and edited by Stefan von Imhof.
- This issue was sponsored by Atombeam
- We have invested in what we hope will become the National Rugby League’s 18th team in New Zealand. (Reply if you’re interested in investing as well.)
- Altea has no holdings in any companies mentioned in this issue
- Stefan is long cricket and short pickleball
