Obscure Olympic classic sports that should be brought back

[Renew Deal]

TUG-OF-WAR

THE ARTS

HOT AIR BALLOONING

ROPE CLIMBING

DUELING PISTOL SHOOTING

PIGEON SHOOTING

Olympians shot at pigeons at the 1900 Olympics in Paris. We can assume that the person who killed the most won. Hooray for death!

Why bring it back? Some people really don’t like pigeons.

Why not bring it back? According to sports historian Andrew Strunk: "The idea to use live birds for the pigeon shooting turned out to be a rather unpleasant choice. Maimed birds were writhing on the ground, blood and feathers were swirling in the air and women with parasols were weeping in the chairs set up nearby." Any other stupid questions?

But would the United States be good at it? It’s not happening. Let it go.

How could it be tweaked? Force the Olympians to shoot rubber bands. Also, give the pigeons lasers.

SOLO SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING

BASQUE PELOTA

BASEBALL

This weird, niche sport uses a small ball with seams, wooden bats and leather gloves and has endless and illogical rules. It was played officially from 1992 to 2008, but as early as 1912 as a demonstration sport.

Why bring it back? Beats me.

Why not bring it back? See the next category.

But would the United States be good at it? No. An international tournament called the World Baseball Classic was contested in 2006 and 2009 and Japan won both times. The Japanese must have invented the sport or something.

How could it be tweaked? Play American football instead. The United States would do pretty well at that.

http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/fandom/post/_/id/8292/gallo-looks-back-at-obscure-olympic-sports

[phantom power]

1. Pigeons. With lasers. On their heads.

[Harry Monroe]

11. That's "frickin" laser beams on their heads to you, bubba!!

[liberal N proud]

2. Hot air ballooning and pigeon shooting should be at the same venue simultaneously.

Maybe my brother would qualify.

[tclambert]

3. THE ARTS? How does that work?

Competitive painting? Caricatures of spectators? Speed-sculpting?

[hifiguy]

4. They could add Irish hurling

which often results in someone getting seriously brained by the fearsome looking sticks used to play the game. It was apparently a trial sport back in the 1910s.

And there's always the MAD Magazine classic, 43-man Squamish. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/43-Man_Squamish

[Ready4Change]

8. Or Irish Road Bowling. (Also called Road Bullets.)

Although it could only be played in Olympics hosted by countries with roads connecting at least 2 pubs.

[chknltl]

5. Surely they must have had Olympic Mudwrestling!

[LiberalLovinLug]

6. Laser Cats!

[Ready4Change]

7. Dodgeball.

.

[awoke_in_2003]

9. you need low grade beaver tranquilizer for that. nt

[UnrepentantLiberal]

10. Log throwing