All the Weird Olympic Sports
Nobody can understand each Olympic sport in the entirety of a game, or match; but having a relative understanding of these events will widen your viewing options and enhance your television-viewing experience.
Athletes who commit their entire lives to a sport are given the opportunity to represent their country in the Olympic games. You already know about the swimmers, gymnasts, soccer and basketball players, but there are athletes who don’t get the same kind of coverage because the sports in which they participate are less glamorous and unrecognized in the United States.
Fencing, archery, handball and field hockey, to name a few, are among those that don’t get the same attention as Michael Phelps swimming to and fro. These athletes deserve to be noticed as they represent our country and don the same colors as Phelps.
Modern Pentathlon
An event that resembles a triathlon, the pentathlon has five legs, as you could have guessed. But it doesn’t simply comprise of two more events than our swimming, cycling and running; the pentathlon is different entirely.
It was designed to showcase the skills of a good soldier.
Olympic.org mentions that Baron de Coubertin brought the event to the Stockholm Games in 1912 and believed it tested “a man’s moral qualities as much as his physical resources and skills, producing thereby a complete athlete.”
Featuring fencing, swimming, horse-back riding, shooting and running, the pentathlon measured a man’s physical necessities like no other olympic game.
Army Sgt. Nathan Schrimsher, who is ranked number 40 in the world will represent the United States in the modern pentathlon in Rio.
Each fifth of the modern pentathlon is its own event, but fencing is most notable.
Fencing
Fencers use light, flexible swords called foils and face off against their opponent. To get a point, a fencer much touch (stab) their opponent in the torso, neck, groin or back with their foil.
It’s the closest thing to international competitive sword fighting I’ve ever seen.
In the course of three rounds, the first player to 15 touches wins. Watch it. It’s fun.
If fencing is not enough action but you’re tired of soccer, watch something you’ve always wanted to try.
Canoe Slalom
Not many things sound more fun than riding down a man-made white water river in an awesome canoe.
Similar to ski slalom, participants weave through markers down a course and the person with the fastest time wins gold.
Because posts standing in the water would be dangerous and difficult to maneuver around, the markers are hanging from wire and paddlers are required to get at least their entire head inside of the upside-down posts.
Green checkmarks mean downstream and the paddler can go through on the way down, but red means they have to turn around and go upstream through the marker.
Strength is a requirement.
No matter the sport, athletes have trained their entire lives to be on TV representing their country.
Look for the people who wear red, white and blue and support them as they compete not as individuals, but as one nation.
