5 Unusual Sports That Were Once Part of the Olympic Games

The modern-day Olympics feature a total of 43 sports, excluding disciplines, across winter and summer events. Athletes must follow numerous rules, along with guidelines and codes that determine which sports are eligible for admission in the Olympic Games. However, these rules have not always been the same.

In past Olympics, events focused on hair trimming, art, and even the demise of living creatures; activities that would leave modern viewers in 2026 stunned and presumably changing the channel. As rules and society evolved, these events were discontinued, but the names of medalists remain etched in history. 

From shooting live pigeons to clipping dog fur, here are 5 Olympic sports that you'll find hard to believe people competed in. 

1. POODLE CLIPPING
2. PISTOL DUELING
3. ARTWORK
4. LIVE PIGEON SHOOTING
5. SOLO SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING

POODLE CLIPPING

Over 100 people allegedly competed in clipping dog fur at an Olympic level in Paris in 1900. While this event "existed" only as a test and never actually made it as an official Olympic sport, people supposedly lined up in the Bois De Boulogne park to quickly clip fur off poodles in front of a crowd of 6,000 spectators for approximately two hours. So the story goes, a gold medalist, Avril Lafoule, was crowned after clipping the fur off of 17 poodles. 

There is a debate whether this event actually took place, or if it was an April Fool's joke written during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. If you take time to pronounce the name of the presumed "gold medalist," it sounds a lot like "April Fool’s." 

PISTOL DUELING

In the early 20th century, men were permitted to carry weapons to compete in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden. World-renowned marksmen would line up and fire at mannequins dressed in coats with targets painted on their chests. This event, known as "pistol dueling," was removed from the roster shortly after the onset of World War I because committee members felt it "simulated combat." Although made of wax, ricocheting bullets still posed a risk to spectators who lacked proper protection. Pistol dueling only occurred at two Olympic Games.

A few Olympic events, such as Women's Rifle Shooting, still involve the use of firearms, but they are now conducted in a much safer and more controlled manner.

ARTWORK

Athletes have pushed their bodies to physical extremes to compete in the Olympic Games for centuries, but what about competitions of the mind? Sure, mentality plays a role in physically demanding sports, but in past lineups, some events focused exclusively on showcasing creativity. Art was featured in several Olympic Games from 1912 to 1948, and competitors received gold, silver, and bronze medals for their achievements. One major rule applied to the competitors: their submissions had to be works of art, such as paintings, literature, sculptures, music, or architecture, inspired by sports.

The judging process was notably disorganized, with some judges so unimpressed by the artwork in certain categories that they chose not to award any medals. Reflecting this chaotic approach, many disciplines were divided into subcategories; literature, for instance, was split into lyrics, dramatics, and epics before eventually being consolidated into a single category years later. 

These creative events were discontinued by 1954 because the International Olympic Committee felt art did not fit well with what the Games sought to represent or achieve. 

LIVE PIGEON SHOOTING

Before there was skeet shooting, Olympic competitors shot at live pigeons. The objective: wound or kill as many pigeons as possible. Athletes who shot and missed two consecutive pigeons were eliminated. The event, held only once in the history of the Games, saw the slaughter of over 300 pigeons, with the winner, Leon de Lunden from Belgium, shooting 21 in a row. 

Much has changed since 1900. Today, competitors shoot at "pigeons" only in the form of clay discs, a sport known as Skeet Shooting. The rules have evolved: athletes are no longer eliminated after a few misses, but instead earn points for each successful hit and must follow a specific shooting sequence. 

SOLO SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING

According to Merriam-Webster, "synchronized" means "to happen at the same time." Today, we picture synchronized swimming as teams of athletes performing routines with perfectly matched movements. However, this was not always the case. In 1984, 1988, and 1992, the Olympics featured solo synchronized swimming events. These athletes didn’t have to worry about falling out of sync with others; the only person they needed to synchronize with was themselves!

While they didn’t need to match movements with a group, solo competitors still had to stay perfectly in time with the music to win gold, silver, or bronze.