There will be 32 sports at the Paris Summer Olympics (July 26th to August 11th). Although some events – such as fencing, swimming and tennis – date back to the original Olympics in 1896, there are some more recent events, such as breaking, skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing.
TIME looks back at some of the craziest sports to appear at past Olympics, whether as official sports or as part of demonstrations. They may not be Olympic sports, but some still have dedicated followers. For example, in March, the Associated Press profiled America’s prime minister ski competitionwhich has taken place every year in Colorado since 1949.
Below are five of the most unusual sports to take place at the Olympics over the past century, as featured in total olympics, the book of curiosities by sports journalist Jeremy Fuchs.
Dive into the distance
At the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, divers were judged by how far they floated without moving for 60 seconds. American swimmer William Paul Dickey won the competition, boasting a swim of 62 feet, six inches. Like New York Times summarized the general criticisms of the sport at that time: “mere mountains of fat that fall into the water with more or less success and depend on inertia to get their points”.
Live pigeon shooting
During this stupid event at the 1900 games in Paris, live pigeons were released into the air and competitors had to kill as many as possible to win. It was like shooting traps with live animals. Belgian Leon de Lunden won the gold medal and around 300 pigeons were killed that day. That was the last time live animals were used in an Olympic sporting event, but there will be other shooting events at the Olympics.
Ski
In this Norwegian sport, a horse, dog or snowmobile drags a skier down a snowy oval track. For a demonstration at the 1928 winter games in St. Moritz, Switzerland, horses pulled competitors across a frozen lake. The Swiss dominated. Although the founder of the Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, thought the sport was particularly cool, it never appeared in the Olympics again.
Fire fighting
The hottest event of the 1900 Olympics was a demonstration in which a fire was started and competitors had to put it out. The Portuguese volunteer firefighters won the gold medal in the amateur competition and the Kansas City firefighters won the gold medal in the professional competition.
Deer running
In this event that debuted at the 1908 London Olympics, cardboard cutouts of deer covered a distance of 75 feet in four seconds, and competitors were given one or two chances to shoot it. The main competitor was Oscar Swahn, who won three gold, one silver and two bronze medals in this event. He was also the oldest athlete to win Olympic gold and won his last medal at the age of 72 at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. The last deer racing event took place during the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
