Olympic sports

Olympic sports are games played in the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. The 2024 Summer Olympics had 32 sports, and the 2022 Winter Olympics had seven sports. Each sport has a special group that helps organize it, called an International Federation.

In the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, four new sports joined in: karate, skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing. Breakdancing started in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, and ski mountaineering will begin in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. Flag football and squash will join in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and cricket and lacrosse will come back after a long time.

Early history and scope

Starting in the 18th century, people began to study traditional games to learn about different cultures. The modern Olympic Games were started by Pierre de Coubertin with the idea that all countries should join in. At the 1904 Summer Olympics, he created "Anthropological Days" where athletes from Asia, Africa, and South America could show their traditional games. But the organizers did not focus much on this idea, and it stopped after a few years. After that, mostly Western sports were played in the Olympics.

Olympic sports definitions

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says an Olympic sport includes all activities managed by an international sports federation. For example, aquatics is a summer sport with six parts: swimming, artistic swimming, diving, water polo, open water swimming, and high diving. These are all managed worldwide by World Aquatics. In winter sports, skating is managed by the International Skating Union and includes figure skating, speed skating, Short-track speed skating, and synchronized skating.

Skiing has the most parts in the Olympics, with six: alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined, snowboarding, and freestyle skiing. Other sports with many parts include gymnastics, cycling, volleyball, wrestling, canoeing, and bobsleigh. Each of these sports has several different ways to compete in the Olympics.

An event is a contest where medals are given out. For example, aquatics has 46 events: 32 in swimming, eight in diving, and two each in artistic swimming, water polo, and open water swimming. The number of events in each sport can be as few as two or as many as 47 in athletics.

Criteria for inclusion and thresholds

To be part of the Olympic Games, a sport must have an international governing body that the IOC Session recognizes. The group organizing each Olympic Games can suggest adding new sports, but the final decision is made by the IOC.

In the past, some rules about which sports could be included were changed. Today, there are limits on how many athletes and events can be part of the Olympics. For the Summer Olympics, there can be about 10,500 athletes and 310 events. For the Winter Olympics, there can be around 2,900 athletes and 100 events. These numbers might be gone over for the 2028 Summer Olympics, but leaders hope to keep the growth small.

Earlier, sports that used machines, like car racing, were not allowed in the Olympics. This rule was dropped in 2016. Now, groups that control car racing, motorcycle racing, air sports, and powerboating are recognized by the International Olympic Committee. This means they could possibly be included in future Olympic Games.

Changes in Olympic sports

The list of sports in the Olympic Games has changed a lot over time. The International Olympic Committee decides which sports to include at least seven years before the Games.

Some sports have always been part of the Olympics. In summer, athletics, swimming, cycling, fencing, and gymnastics (artistic gymnastics) have never been left out. For winter sports, skiing (nordic skiing), skating (figure skating and speed skating), and ice hockey have always been included.

Early Olympics had some unusual sports that are no longer included, like basque pelota and croquet. Some sports left and then came back later, such as archery, tennis, and golf.

Women first joined the Olympics in 1900 and now can compete in almost every sport. Recently, new sports like skateboarding, surfing, and sport climbing have been added to keep the Games exciting.

Summer Olympics

At the first Olympic Games, ten sports were contested. Since then, the number of sports in the Summer Olympic Games has grown to thirty-six for the 2028 Games.

The 2024 Summer Olympics included 32 sports, and eight of these sports have multiple disciplines.

Art competitions were held between 1912 and 1948, with medals awarded. In 1952, art competition medals were no longer counted toward national medal totals. The Olympics have also awarded medals for alpinism and aeronautics.

Between 1924 and 1992, the IOC allowed host countries to show demonstration sports during the Games. Some of these sports later became official Olympic events.

Some sports were held at the Olympics before 1924 but were not officially recognized by the IOC. These include events like bowling in 1988 and many events at the 1900 and 1904 Games.

Winter Olympics

Before 1924, ice sports like figure skating and ice hockey were part of the Summer Olympic Games. They first appeared in the 1908 Summer Olympics and the 1920 Summer Olympics, but in 1924, they moved to the first edition of the Winter Olympic Games and became regular parts of the Winter Olympics from then on.

The 1924 International Winter Sports Week, later called the first Olympic Winter Games, included nine different events in six sports. For a sport to be part of the Winter Olympics, it must be played on snow or ice.

The current Winter Olympic Games include several sports, listed in alphabetical order by the International Olympic Committee. Some sports have multiple events within them.

Demonstration winter sports

Further information: Demonstration sport § Winter Olympics

These sports were shown as demonstration events at the Winter Olympic Games but were never official medal events:

• Bandy (1952)
• Ice stock sport (1936, 1964)
• Skijoring (1928)
• Sled-dog racing (1932)
• Speed skiing (1992)
• _pictogram.svg) Winter pentathlon (1948)

Ski ballet, a part of freestyle skiing, was a demonstration event in 1988 and 1992.

Unofficial winter sports

• _pictogram.svg)Disabled skiing (1984, 1988)

Sports frequency

Recognized international federations

Many sports have groups that manage them and are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), but they are not played in the Olympic Games.

If these sports meet certain rules, they can ask to be part of future Olympic Games. This needs approval from the IOC Olympic Programme Commission, the IOC Executive Board, and a vote by the IOC Session. Sometimes, sports are first tried out as demonstration sports before becoming official Olympic sports.

Each sport has an International Federation (IF) that makes sure the sport follows the Olympic rules. When a sport is recognized by the IOC, its IF becomes an official Olympic sport federation and joins one of three groups: the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations for summer sports, the Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations for winter sports, or the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations for sports not in the Olympics.

Some of these recognized sports are part of the World Games, a big event for many sports that is held under the support of the IOC. Since 1981, 16 sports that started in the World Games have later been added to the Olympic Games. These include badminton, baseball, beach volleyball, softball, taekwondo, trampoline, triathlon, women’s water polo, women’s weightlifting, rugby sevens, karate, sport climbing, breakdancing, flag football, lacrosse sixes, and squash.

The IOC recognizes the governing bodies of many sports that are not in the Olympics, such as:

• Air sports¹
• Auto racing
• Bandy
• Billiard sports¹
• Boules¹
• Bowling
• Bridge
• Cheerleading¹
• Chess
• Dancesport^1,2
• Floorball¹
• Flying disc¹
• Ice stock sport
• Karate^1,2
• Kickboxing¹
• Korfball¹
• Lifesaving¹
• Motorcycle racing
• Mountaineering and climbing
• Muaythai¹
• Netball
• Orienteering¹
• Pelota vasca²
• Polo²
• Powerboating^1,2
• Racquetball¹
• Sambo
• Sumo
• Tug of war^1,2
• Underwater sports¹
• Water skiing and wakeboarding^1,3
• Wushu¹

¹ Official sport at the World Games.
² Discontinued Olympic sport.
³ Water skiing and wakeboarding share the same governing body.

A sport can be in the Olympics even if not all of its parts are. For example, roller sports are in the Olympics only as skateboarding, while other types like inline skating or roller skating are not yet included.

The International Paralympic Committee, which runs the Paralympic Games after the Olympics, is also recognized by the IOC, even though it is not a sports federation.