Non-Olympic sports - why are they so called?

What do you think that can combine swimming with track and field, and football and basketball - with rhythmic gymnastics and biathlon? Correctly - all these sports are considered Olympic. This means that they relate to one of the two programs of the Olympic Games - either to winter or to summer.

Non-Olympic sports - what's the concept?

But in reality there are twice as many sports in the world as those listed in the Olympic program. Than only people do not! And rugby, and sambo, and hockey with the ball, and many, many others. All this - non-Olympic sports, the list of which looks very impressive. Why do some of its types are Olympic, and others - not?

There are many reasons for this. Let's say rugby - how is this sport bad? Not too popular? In Russia, yes. But, for example, in England rugby matches consistently collect whole stadiums of fans. And also in many other countries.

In this case, the reason is not this. As you know, the Olympic Games last for no more than 15 days. To draw the Olympic Championships, for example in rugby, time is required much more. The fact that rugby refers to contact sports. It is very time-consuming, and players are laid out completely and completely. After each match, they need more time to recover, more than, for example, players.

And this is also a sport

Another reason - many games can be attributed to sports with a serious stretch. Do you personally know that bowling and billiards are also considered a sport? Most people in everyday life consider these activities to be only a merry leisure, it never occurs to them that these are also non-Olympic sports. The list of them includes chess - and after all the overwhelming majority treats them only as a highly intelligent game that develops the brain, but in no way to a sporting activity. And this is provided that chess, like billiards and all the same bowling in our country, have their own federations, that is, they are officially considered to be sports.

These species have tried to include repeatedly in the program of the Olympics in different years. Perhaps in the future this will happen. But while they are not. Apparently, not enough spectacular. After all, the Olympic Games refer primarily to mass events. It's hard to imagine how a full stadium of spectators will, with bated breath, watch the match between two chess players.

Of course, all these criteria are rather subjective. For example, curling was recognized as an Olympic sport in 1998. Ordinary viewers do not understand what curling is better or more spectacular than the same bowling?

Fight and not give up

Representatives of the Federation of non-Olympic sports do not want to put up with the status of those and continue to struggle hard to be included in the program of the Olympics. But it's quite difficult to do this. And to "put" in the program of any kind of sport, you have to exclude something else.

If the program of the first Olympic Games included only 9 sports, then over time it grew to such an extent that it was necessary to limit such diversity and even to exclude something. Thus, from the program, such nowadays non-Olympic sports as tug-of-war, cricket and croquet, polo, present in it in the first half of the last century were thrown out. In the current century, baseball and softball were excluded from the program, on the verge of exception - boxing.

Non-Olympic sports that do not want to be such

Most actively fighting for the status of the Olympic representatives of various martial arts. They have made it possible to include in boxing, judo, and taekwondo programs. Regular applications of the IOC are bombarded by federations of karate, wushu, sambo, kickboxing and other kinds of wrestling. But they have not achieved the result yet.

Despite the popularity of certain forceful species, their representatives are not yet able to achieve the abolition of the status of "non-Olympic sports". So, unsuccessfully fight for this status kettlebell lifting, powerlifting and arm wrestling. The Federation of Sports Dances - a spectacular and very dynamic sport - is constantly submitting applications to the IOC, and is also constantly disappointed. And after all sports dances in any way you will not name less beautiful or entertaining, than figure skating which "is registered" in the program of Olympic games a long time ago.

Are there any lucky ones?

The same aforementioned intellectual sports like checkers, chess, billiards also have few chances to get into the number of participants in the Olympiads. There is an opinion that the IOC prefers competitions that involve real physical activity.

And yet, despite the fact that the program of the olympiads is filled to the eyeballs, some sports still manage to break into the number of lucky ones. So, relatively recently the summer Olympic program has been replenished with golf, the winter one with snowboarding.

Most parents tend to identify a child from a small age in some kind of sports section. In this case, non-Olympic Russian sports are not often preferred. Choosing the kind of physical activity for the son or daughter, most often stop at the one that is included in the cherished program. What is the reason for this? The main advantage is state financing, which allows young sportsmen to build a sports career in the future.

A look into the past

If you turn to history, you can remember that the first Olympic Games started in the territory of Ancient Greece in ancient times. Then only men participated in them, and they dedicated their competitions to the numerous pagan gods. Games always started with chariot races, later various martial arts, horse racing, pentathlon were included. In addition, in the olympiads of those times there were competitions of heralds and trumpeters. Individual nominations, such as running, have not lost popularity to this day.

Now there are many kinds of sports known all over the world, prestigious, fashionable, besides having official structure of competitions and own international associations. These are non-Olympic sports recognized by the IOC, but not yet included in the Olympic program.

Some of them did not become so only because of limited popularity (in some countries). An example can serve American football, some types of sailing, all the same cricket and various extreme novelties.