Guest Post: Strange Olympic Events

Hello there! This week’s guest post comes to you from Precious of Riding Giraffes in Stilettos. It’s all part of a blog swap with the theme of Summer. Full details on that at the end, but first enjoy the post!

---

Strange Summer Olympic Events

Originally I had agreed to guest blog about what I love about summer. But as I am South African, and this is the first June / July I have spent in Scotland, I am having a really hard time getting excited about the UK "summer". Apologies to all Dan's UK readers, but to me, it looks a lot like winter - maybe just 5 degrees warmer! Oh, and with more rain. So instead, let's talk about the Summer Olympics, which kick off in London on the 27th July (like, real soon).

I don't know if you've heard but Harry Potter fans have been trying to get the mythical sport "Quidditch" added to the Olympic Games. While it is still just an idea at this stage, many fans believe they can get it added to future Games. In fact, the International Quidditch Association is insisting that the sport is worthy of inclusion as there are a lot more ridiculous sports in the Olympics.

So, what are these more ridiculous sports that have been (or still are) Olympic events, you may ask? Well, in no particular order:

1. Solo Synchronized Swimming - Um, how do you judge synchronized swimming if there is only one contestant?! Apparently the swimmer had to synchronize to the music. No-one quite figured it out and fortunately this was scrapped after Barcelona in 1992.

2. Plunge for Distance Diving - You know how when you were, like, a tween and you and your friends would stand at the deep end of the pool and have a competition to see who could dive the furthest? That was once an Olympic event. I kid you not. It consisted of swimmers diving into the pool and staying motionless in the water for one minute. The divers weren't allowed to propel themselves while in the water and whomever went the furthest got the gold medal. This must be one of the least exciting competitions to watch, EVER. Not surprising, this never made it past the 1904 Summer Olympics.

3. Race Walking - this made its Olympic debut in 1904 and lives on as one of the oddest Olympic events to this day. It's hilarious to view - try watching and successfully resisting the urge to yell "RUNNNN" at the participants!

4. Poodle Clipping - this made its debut at the 1900 Paris Olympics and was a race to see who could trim the most poodles' fur in a two hour window. Unfortunately, poodle clipping failed to get the votes to become an official Olympic sport, and was never seen again. *sad times*

Sticking with the silliness, here are 3 things that I wish were actual sports (and not just because they would make me an athlete):

1. Karaoke. Judged purely on enthusiasm and entertainment value (even if you make someone's ears bleed). Bonus points for dress-up. Negative points for hogging the mic.

2. Running at pace in stilettos carrying coffee / a laptop / very important documents. Bonus points if you do it while carrying Option D - all of the aforementioned.

3. Creative cooking. "You've got leftover olives, spaghetti, half a tomato, something that loosely resembles spinach (but could also be rocket), and chocolate. You have 4 mouths to feed and 30 minutes. ... On your marks, get set, MAKE DINNER"

So, what would you like to see as an Olympic sport?

Written by Precious

Blog

Twitter

---

So this is all part of a blog swap which works in a loop, or at least it will do once everyone has posted. Starting here, the loop should hopefully work like this:

• The Tattooed Type (Where my post will be posted soon, hopefully)
• Joyful Calamity (Where the Tattooed Type’s post will hopefully be posted)
• Inkspot Stories
• Threetimesf
• Dad to Libbs
• Riding Giraffes in Stilettos (Where a post from Dad to Libbs will hopefully be posted)

I’ll keep this updated and hopefully we’ll get to a point where the loop works properly!

I’ve got all sorts of great posts coming over the next week, including another blog swap, the Official 20SB one! So stay tuned and don’t forget to go and visit Precious’ blog!