When the first revived Olympic Games took place in Athens in 1896, athletes competed for awards in just nine sports. They were: athletics and weightlifting, wrestling, cycling, swimming, fencing, gymnastics, shooting and tennis. It was these sports that were destined to become the first in the list of Olympic ones.
As the Olympic Games of our time gained more and more popularity, they attracted more and more participants, their program also expanded. The number of Olympic sports has steadily increased. Already at the second Games, held in 1900 in Paris, athletes fought for awards in 20 sports. True, among them there were even such exotic species (from the point of view of today) as cricket, croquet and tug of war.
This process went on continuously. Some new types were added to the Olympic program, some, on the contrary, were excluded from it. This decision is made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), based on many factors: the prevalence of this sport, the degree of its popularity in a particular country, the ability to attract a television audience, interest from advertisers, etc. At present, the program of the Summer Olympic Games includes 28 kinds of sports, the program of the winter - 7 (15 disciplines).
Summer Olympic sports include water sports - swimming, synchronized swimming, diving, rowing, kayaking and canoeing, rowing slalom, sailing. There are martial arts - boxing, judo, taekwondo, freestyle wrestling, classical (Greco-Roman) wrestling. There is cycling - road racing, track racing, mountain bike (mountbiting). There are sports team games: basketball, volleyball, beach volleyball, handball, football, golf. Etc. Winter Olympic types, as you can easily understand from the name itself, are those that can be practiced on the snow or on ice. The first group includes: cross-country skiing, alpine skiing, Nordic combined, ski jumping, snowboarding, freestyle and biathlon. The second group includes: curling, speed skating, figure skating, hockey, short track, luge, bobsleigh, skeleton.
Of course, this list is not final, it will also change depending on the circumstances.
