The sports of yesteryear

By The Economist online

The list of discontinued Olympic events throws up some archaic delights

WENLOCK, one of the cyclopean mascots of the London Olympics, takes his name from a town in Shropshire that is the inspiration for the modern games. It was after visiting Much Wenlock, where he observed the annual games run by the Wenlock Olympian Society, that Pierre de Coubertin pursued the idea of reviving the ancient Greek Olympics. The games that followed in Athens in 1896 had just nine sports, covering 43 events, and all the competitors were men. Fast-forward 116 years and London is showing 26 sports comprising 302 events for both men and women. Over the years the roll-call of disciplines has changed substantially, and discontinued men’s events since 1896 outnumber men’s events at the 2012 games by 194 to 163. Below we show a selection of events that have, unsurprisingly, failed to survive the test of time. Live-pigeon shooting, which made its one appearance in the 1900 games, might have been welcomed by some of London’s residents, however.