10 Weirdest Events of the 2016 Olympics and How to Keep Track of Them
The Olympic Games have always been home to some of the world’s most popular sporting events, but there are usually a few dizzying ones as well. Maybe you have no idea how a particular sport works, or maybe you cannot understand why it even appears in the Olympics at all. Be that as it may, here are some of the weirdest events of Summer 2016 Games, how they work and when to watch them .
Here is a video summarizing all these strange sports and their origins. If you can’t watch, read on.
Race walking
Race walking is the greatest race in the world and is not like a race, but more like a group of people trying to beat each other in the bathroom. It has competed in the Olympics since 1904, starting with a half-mile walk that has since evolved into a 20-kilometer race for men and women, and a 50-kilometer race for men only. The sport itselfevolved from the pedestrian , a British sport walking that was popular in the mid to late 19th century.
So what separates race walking from long distance running? Athletes must touch the ground with one foot at all times and judges monitor competitors during competition to ensure that no one interrupts jogging. You can watch the men’s 20km walk on Friday, August 12th and see the women’s 20km walk and the men’s 50km walk on Friday, August 19th .
Equestrian dressage
According to the fact, dressage – a dancing horse. But make no mistake, the event requires the same training and athleticism as any other Olympic-level competition – for both horse and rider (those who say otherwise have probably never ridden a horse). In French, dressage literally means “training” and it is something that is really put to the test in competition. In the words of the International Equestrian Federation , dressage is “the ultimate expression of horse training.”
During the dressage program, the judges monitor how smoothly the horse can perform the prescribed tests or movements and observe the rider to ensure that he appears relaxed. Basically, the goal is to give the horse the impression that it does everything on its own because you trained it so well. Regardless of the moves assigned, competitors can receive a score from zero to ten from each judge. Pro Tip: Getting all sixes is actually pretty good, and competitors with those marks tend to advance to the next round. Nines mean the program was exceptional.
If you want to see beautifully dressed people riding a dancing horse (you know they are), you can do dressage on August 10, 11 and 12, and then watch the finale on Monday, August 15 .
Modern pentathlon
Modern pentathlon is the quirkiest and most intense of all Olympic competitions and has been around since 1912. It consists of five different competitions, which are already Olympic events in themselves: fencing, swimming 200m freestyle, equestrian show jumping, running 3200m, etc. and pistol shooting. This year, all of these events take place over three days, but in the past they were all held in one day. According to Baron Pierre de Coubertin , founder of the modern Olympic Games, the pentathlon is modeled on the skills that a 19th century cavalry soldier would need behind enemy lines.
Although all athletes compete at the same time, they do not directly compete with each other in every type of competition. Instead, each athlete earns points based on their performance in each sport throughout the day, and then sums them up at the end to determine the overall winner. Fencing ( epee, not foil or saber ) is of course an exception, because you have to fence against someone. And the pistol shooting and the 3200 meter run have been a combined biathlon- style event at the Winter Olympics since 2009.
It will take you a few days to see how this all unfolds, but you can see for yourself the glory of modern pentathlon from Thursday 18 August through Saturday 20 August .
Running with obstacles
Why run on a boring old track when you can add crazy obstacles like fences and pools to the mix? Enter the run with obstacles . It originated in Ireland as a horse race , with horsemen moving from the spire of one city to the next, jumping over the streams and stone walls that usually divided estates at the time. Over the years, people grew tired of letting horses entertain themselves, and it has become a sporting event held at the Olympics since its modern conception in 1896 .
The length of the run is 3000 meters, and it has 28 obstacles to jump over, seven of which are knee-deep puddles. Participants’ shoes become wet and slippery, people stumble over obstacles, and it is not uncommon to see someone resting their face against a pool of water. Knowing this makes it a lot of fun to watch the race. This year it will take place on August 13, 15 and 17 .
Trampoline jumping
Jumping on a trampoline is partly acrobatics and partly jumping on a trampoline. In adulthood, watching trampolines at the Olympics is like watching an older kid next door with a trampoline do crazy somersaults. He looks amazing and makes him want to jump on the trampoline too. The sport was added to the Olympic gymnastics competition at the 2000 Games and has remained there ever since.
In competition, trampoline jumping programs contain turns, spins, shapes (the shapes that the body takes when hovering in the air) and landing positions. Athletes can land on their feet, seat, front or back during the exercise, but the exercise must always start and end at the feet. Once a competitor appears before the judges, they have 60 seconds to jump and gain momentum before they must begin their exercises. At the end of the exercise, they receive one “bounce” to regain control before they have to stick to the landing, holding still until the trampoline bed stops moving, and for at least three seconds.
If you want to see athletes reach new heights in trampoline jumping, you can watch the women’s competition on Friday, August 12th , and the men’s competition on Saturday, August 13th .
Handball
Handball is n’t all that strange in most of the world, and has been in the Olympics since 1972, but its unpopularity in the US makes it a mystery to Americans. It is a team sport in which two teams of seven players pass the ball with their hands and try to shoot the ball into the other team’s goal. The simplest explanation is “hand football” and this is the closest thing to Olympic Quidditch without brooms.
As the International Handball Association explained, each team has a goalkeeper and six outfield players who play on a 131 x 66 foot court. The goalkeeper is in the area next to the goal, where no one is allowed to enter. Unless, of course, the field player wants to jump outside this zone into the goal to score. Otherwise, points are more often gained by passing and throwing the ball into the goal. Once a player receives the ball, they can either pass it to another teammate, take up to three steps to move, or dribble like a basketball to move on. Matches are made up of two periods of 30 minutes each, and the winner is the one who scores the most goals. Best of all, skin-to-skin contact is allowed, so it’s a lot of fun to watch. Players cannot deliberately direct their contact towards an opponent (such as pushing, hitting or stumbling), but almost any contact following the ball from the front of an opponent is allowed and it gets pretty messy.
If you want to watch the best sport that you probably don’t know about, at this year’s games it happens almost every day. Both men’s and women’s handball have kicked off, but the games will take place every day until the end of the Olympic Games on August 21st .
Water polo
Water polo is very similar to handball, but it’s in the water and players can wear cool hats. As in handball, two teams of seven – one goalkeeper and six field players – try to score points by throwing the ball (which flies) into the opponent’s goal. The games are made up of four quarters and are held in pools nearly six feet deep. While no one can say for sure, the game is believed to have originated in Scotland around the end of the 19th century as a form of “water rugby”. Like handball, water polo is a contact sport, so it can be quite physical. To get around, players need to swim and stay afloat by beating eggs, and players can only use one hand to do all of the throwing and catching.
Water polo continues until August 20 , and like handball, you can find a game almost every day.
Canoe / kayak slalom
Formerly known as rough water slalom, canoe / kayak slalom involves crossing the rapids as quickly as possible. As in the winter ski slalom competition, while rowing, competitors must pass through a designated gate suspended from a wire stretched across the river. The event has been part of the Olympic Games since 1992.
Each trail has 18 to 25 gates, and some of them must be upstream gates or gates that can only be traversed by going to a “whirlpool” where the water is flat or moves slightly upstream. The green gate is downstream and the red gate is upstream. If a competitor’s boat, paddle or body touches the gate, they receive a penalty of two seconds added to their run. If the competitor actually made a mistake, for example, went through the gate backwards or missed completely, he receives a penalty of 50 seconds. Most runs are about two minutes long, assuming no penalties, and each competitor is given two runs to try and get the best time.
Canoe / kayak slalom is an intense process that is fun to watch. This competition has already started, but you can qualify for the finals of the men’s canoeing competition today and the rest of the kayaking and canoeing competition until Thursday 11 August .
Throw hammer
Do you know what sounds like fun? Grab something heavy and see who throws it the farthest. Hammer throw is weird, dangerous, and a lot of fun to watch. Originally a sport dating back to the 15th century, it was swallowed up by the super-hardcore games of the Scottish Highlands , and it is one of the oldest official Olympic events that exists, debuting in 1900.
The hammers that athletes throw are actually kettlebells: the male hammer is 16 pounds and the female hammer is almost nine pounds. To throw the hammer, participants swing the kettlebell on a rope twice while stationary, then make four or five rotations with their whole body before releasing the kettlebell into the air. Strength is important in hammer throwing, but the speed that an athlete can gain while spinning is equally important when it comes to reaching distance. Winning is simple and straightforward: the one who throws the ball farthest wins.
You can see the women’s hammer throw competition on Friday 12 August and Monday 15 August . You can watch the men’s competition on Wednesday 17 August and Friday 19 August .
Synchronized swimming
You’ve heard of synchronized swimming before – from past Olympics or from pop culture jokes – but chances are you don’t know how it works. To the untrained eye, synchronized swimming looks like people are circling in a pool. Dancing, or “synchronizing” exercise with music, is certainly part of it (the sport was originally called “aquatic ballet”), but it is also a mixture of complex swimming and gymnastic maneuvers that require athletes to be in top shape and hold their breath underwater. for a long time. Most importantly, swimmers can never use the bottom of the pool for support and must use paired moves and kicks to stay afloat even as they kick or kick teammates out of the water.
According to the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) , the governing body of the competition, the competition consists of a technical and a free program, each lasting from two and a half to five minutes each. The technical program contains predefined elements that each team must execute in a specific order. The free program is where teams can choreograph their movements and be more creative. Each exercise is graded on a 100-point scale and graded on their technical skills, difficulty, patterns, artistic impression, execution and of course timing.
Synchronized swimming can be performed in teams or solo, but solo synchronized swimming was the only Olympic sport from 1984 to 1992 . In this Olympiad, you can enter the women’s duo competition from August 14-16 and the women’s team competition on August 18 and 19 .