May 28, 2005

Prospective Olympic Sports Test Their Medal: The World Games are an every-four-year event that features several dozen sports that haven't made it to the Summer Olympics yet, including fin swimming, korfball, sumo wrestling, and tug of war. This year's event begins July 14 in Duisburg, Germany. Nine of its competitions have become Olympic sports since the event was founded in 1980.

posted by rcade to general at 08:18 AM - 2 comments

Out of all of the obscure sports, the most unusual may be korfball, a co-ed sport in which players throw a soccer-like ball into an 11.5-foot high basket and aren't allowed to dribble, run with the ball, or guard a player of the opposite sex. A competition video shows how the sport works (warning: contains hazardous levels of throbbing Eurodisco music), and it appears to value the set shot that once ruled the game of basketball. Only two colleges field teams in the U.S.

posted by rcade at 09:28 AM on May 28, 2005

Tug of war has too made it to the Summer Olympics. It's just not there any longer, along with cricket, golf, and a dozen or so others. My favorite of the proposed sports is canoe polo (called kayak polo in the US, where we call kayaks kayaks and canoes canoes). Imagine water polo in boats, with the other team knocking you upside down. It's huge fun.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:40 PM on May 28, 2005

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