The Olympic Games are an opportunity for little-known sports to get the big spotlight.
Here are five sports you may not realize athletes will be competing in at this summer’s Paris Games.
Breaking or Breakdancing
That’s right, breakdancing will get its Olympic debut in Paris this summer.
The competition will be divided by gender and scored similar to gymnastics with judges watching and awarding points to the best routines.
CBS News spoke to and got a demonstration from, one of the athletes representing Team USA.
Breakdancing, rooted in New York’s hip hop culture, debuts at this year’s Paris Summer Olympics. Luke Burbank talks with Victor Montalvo (a.k.a. B-Boy Victor), who will be competing for Olympic gold. pic.twitter.com/sLDrl9uO17
— CBS Sunday Morning (@CBSSunday) July 3, 2024
Handball
While popular in Europe, handball does not get much attention in the United States — likely because Team USA hasn’t qualified in the event since 1996.
But the tournament itself is fascinating to watch. The rules are similar to soccer except, you guessed it, you can use your hands.
The games are played on hardwood floors and feature acrobatic goals like those from the Tokyo Games.
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) April 17, 2024
Surfing
Olympic surfing made its debut during the Tokyo Games in 2021 and will return this summer — just not physically in Paris.
The surfing events will instead be held in Tahiti — the main island of the Pacific nation of French Polynesia.
Some fans may have caught professional surfing competitions on television but newbies rest assured, the rules are simple. The bigger the wave and the more intricate the tricks are, the higher one’s score is from the judges.
Ahead of the Paris Games, environmental activists protested the plan to hold the surfing events in Tahiti because organizers built the judges’ watch tower on top of a coral reef just offshore.
Trampoline
While it’s a separate sport, trampoline is technically part of the gymnastics program.
Like other gymnastics events, judges score an athlete’s routine based on difficulty and execution.
The U.S. is sending two trampoline athletes, Alexi Shostak and Jessica Stevens, looking to earn America’s first medal in the event since its introduction in 2000.
— USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) June 27, 2024
Sport Climbing
Another event to make its debut in Tokyo, sport climbing is split by gender and features two categories — Boulder & Lead and Speed Climbing.
The Boulder & Lead competition is where athletes have a set time period to navigate obstacles on an uneven wall and tally points per obstacle cleared.
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) June 23, 2024
Speed Climbing is just as it sounds, the fastest athlete to climb to the top of the wall wins.
The Paris Games will have plenty of unique sports to watch, leaving fans no shortage of action to enjoy and learn from.
Source : YardBarker