Until 1920 tug of war was an Olympic event
people genuinely won Olympic medals in tug of war
and it wasn't the only strange event
for a while ballooning was an event too
as was poodle trimming
with the latter it was a simple game of numbers
whoever could trim the most poodles
in 2 hours won
it was only held once
at the 1900 Olympics
with the winner grooming 17 poodles
rope climbing was more successful
being held 4 times
my favorite of the old events is pistol dueling
the bullets are made of wax
but it was still pretty dangerous
but these are all former events
and there are still some really dumb events in the Olympics today
in my opinion the dumbest Olympic event of all is race walking
you might not even know it's an Olympic sport
because let's be honest it shouldn't be
because race walkers are not allowed to run or jump
they developed a ridiculous way to make walking more efficient
Now I should find that impressive
it's ingenious
but there's something about it that annoys me
when I see them speed walk I hate it
and I hate them
I just wish they'd pick a side
either walk or run
you can't do both
it's the sport of a coward
but not everyone agrees with me
the thing that surprises me is they have people
commentating the races
and to be a commentator for a sport you need
some in depth knowledge of it
but who has in depth knowledge of speed walking
why would they
I feel like to be a fan of speed walking you have to be
some kind of predator
you also have to wonder what the long term effects of walking like that are
it can't be good
race walking has been part of the Olympics since 1908
amazingly the country with the most
medals in it is the Soviet Union
with 9
and tied for second place is another country that
no longer exists
East Germany a vassal state of the Soviet Union
so apparently the Soviets really cared about race walking
and that's dumb
I like to think most people agree with me
that humanity can unite in our disgust of race walking
although I will admit it is kind of mesmerizing to watch
another dumb Olympic sport is the steeplechase
I really don't know what's going on here
but the water is a nice touch
I'm pretty sure it doesn't affect the race much
it's more just a minor inconvenience for the athletes
steeplechase is like the a worse version of
the hurdle race
but much longer
in fact it's the longest Olympic race with obstacles
it's crazy to me people dedicate their lives
to such a specific event
for other sports it makes sense
if you're an Olympic champion boxer
you can then go professional
if you're an Olympic champion sprinter
at least you get some fame
but if you're just a steeplechase runner
you're just a crazy person
the Soviets were never too into this event
but they loved basketball
which brings us to another dumb Olympic sport
3 on 3 basketball
it's only been an Olympic sport since 2021
and to be honest I'm not sure what the point of it is
basketball is already a part of the Olympics
so it's almost like they decided to go with a
worse version of the same sport
if you ask me they should have just brought back
an old event
like shooting
and when I say shooting I mean when they
shot live pigeons
introduced in the same year as tug of war
it remains the only Olympic event where
animals were killed on purpose
like dog grooming it was a numbers game
whoever shot dead the most pigeons won
there were 54 competitors
who collectively shot around 300 birds
so it was a bit of a weird day
and even back then it caused outrage
so live animal shooting was never again
held at the Olympics
which depending on who you ask
is broadly a good thing