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Some of the sports that are no longer included on the list of Olympic sports are so unusual it is hard to imagine how they got included in the first place. In the case of the Tug of War however it was included in the Olympics as early as 500BC.

Tug of War
Try to picture what the competition in "Tug of War" would have looked like. In the modern Olympics, the tug-of-war was between two teams of eight men. One team had to pull the other six feet in order to win. If after 5 minutes no team had done this, the team which had pulled the most was declared the winner. Tug of War was included in the Olympics from 1900-1920, it was part of the track and field event. The good news is that the US did win the gold in 1904. Even more interesting is the reason that it was dropped as an Olympic Sport. It seem the US and British Team had a disagreement about the type of foot geer allowed, the word cleets was bantered about. At the end of the day the Americans refused to compete and the sport was eventually dropped.

Golf
The fact that a sport as popular as golf isn't in the Olympics is a bigger surprise then the fact that it actually was in twice in 1900 and 1904. With the growth in popularity of golf among both man and women and in over 100 nations around the world, it won't be surprising to see it returning to the Olympic games in the near future.

Lacrosse

Lacrosse was a medal sport in two Olympic 1904 and 1908. In 1928, 32 and 48 it was at the Olympics but as a demonstration sport only. Lacrosse suffered the fate of other sports in that it was not universally popular. In order to remain as an Olympic sport there have to be enough countries with contestant to compete.

Jeu de paume
What exactly is Jeu de paume? The literal translation of the French means playing with your hands. It was the forerunner of lawn tennis where a the players hit the ball with their bare hands. Later gloves were added. It would seem that tennis has replaced Jeu de paume as an Olympic sport.

Sports come and sports go and almost every Olympics we see some competition that we have never seen before. It is what keeps the games exciting.

Learn more about this author, Belle Starr.
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