Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: How many different sports are currently played in the Summer Olympics?
Olympic sports are contested in the Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games. The 2016 Summer Olympics included 28 sports, with five additional sports due to be added to the 2020 Summer Olympics program; the 2014 Winter Olympics included seven sports.[1] The number and types of events may change slightly from one Olympiad to another. Each Olympic sport is represented by an international governing body, namely an International Federation (IF).[2] The International Olympic Committee (IOC) establishes a hierarchy of sports, disciplines, and events.[2] According to this hierarchy, each Olympic sport can be subdivided into multiple disciplines, which are often mistaken as distinct sports. Examples include swimming and water polo, which are in fact disciplines of the sport of aquatics (represented by the International Swimming Federation),[3] and figure skating and speed skating, which are both disciplines of the sport of ice skating (represented by the International Skating Union).[4] In turn, disciplines are subdivided into events, for which Olympic medals are awarded.[2] A sport or discipline is included in the Olympic program if the IOC determines it to be widely practised around the world, that is, the popularity of a given sport or discipline is indicated by the number of countries that compete in it. The IOC's requirements also reflect participation in the Olympic Games – more stringent conditions are applied to men's sports/disciplines (as men are represented at the Games in higher numbers than women) and to summer sports/disciplines (as more nations compete in the Summer Olympics than in the Winter Olympics).
The Olympic Games programme consists of 35 sports, 30 disciplines and 408 events. For example, wrestling is a Summer Olympic sport, comprising two disciplines: Greco-Roman and Freestyle. It is further broken down into fourteen events for men and four events for women, each representing a different weight class. The Summer Olympics programme includes 26 sports, while the Winter Olympics programme features 15 sports. Athletics, swimming, fencing, and artistic gymnastics are the only summer sports that have never been absent from the Olympic programme. Cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and speed skating have been featured at every Winter Olympics programme since its inception in 1924. Current Olympic sports, like badminton, basketball, and volleyball, first appeared on the programme as demonstration sports, and were later promoted to full Olympic sports. Some sports that were featured in earlier Games were later dropped from the programme.
Seven team sports are currently on the program of the Summer Olympics. Cricket's inclusion in the 2024 Summer Olympics depends on the decision of the International Cricket Council and its members. A cricket tournament formed part of the Summer Olympics in 1900, although only one match was played, between teams representing Great Britain and France. However, the British team was effectively a club touring side and the French players were drawn partly from expatriates living in Paris.
The National Olympic Committee of Turkmenistan sent a team of nine athletes, four men and five women, to compete in five different sports at the Games. This was also the youngest delegation in Turkmenistan's Olympic history, with more than half of the team under the age of 25, and many of them were expected to reach their peak in time for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
The ancient Greeks pioneered athletics thousands of years ago, with trial and error as their only method for gaining knowledge. With pure reason, men like Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Plato developed such advanced ideas that the modern world has been able to make only some significant advancements. These ancient Greek philosophers postulated many ideas on how to train that are now the basis of many modern athletic events. Trainers also made many advancements such as their discovery that meat was beneficial for building muscle. Not only did the ancient Greeks develop the theory of how to train, but they founded the prestigious Olympic Games. The ancient Olympic Games were ended in 393 CE by Theodosius I while trying to make Christianity the state religion (Craig 87). Today the Olympic Games have been restored with over 12,000 athletes who compete at the Summer and Winter Olympics in 31 different sports and nearly 400 events (Craig 102).
Badminton was one of two demonstration sports at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. It was the first time that the sport was part of the Olympic program, and it would become an official Olympic sport 20 years later at the 1992 Summer Olympics.
25 participants from 11 countries took part in four events. Several entries in the doubles events were mixed teams of players from different nations, a practice not allowed in official medal events at the Olympic Games since 1904. All competition took place on September 4.
Indonesian badminton athletes have played in various international badminton tournaments in Indonesia, China, Korea, Denmark, Malaysia, Japan, England and many other tournaments, including Summer Olympics ever since the sport was introduced as a demonstration sport in the 1972 Summer Olympics and its official introduction in the 1992 Summer Olympics. Rudy Hartono is an Indonesian legendary badminton player, who has succeeded to win All England titles seven times in a row.
A long-term goal of the IFAF is for American football to be accepted by the International Olympic Committee as an Olympic sport. The only time that the sport was played was at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, but as a demonstration sport. Among the various problems the IFAF has to solve in order to be accepted by the IOC are building a competitive women's division, expanding the sport into Africa, and overcoming the current worldwide competitive imbalance that is in favor of American teams.
Greece has risen to prominence in a number of sporting areas in recent decades. Football in particular has seen a rapid transformation, with the Greek national football team winning the 2004 UEFA European Football Championship. Many Greek athletes have also achieved significant success and have won world and olympic titles in numerous sports during the years, such as basketball, wrestling, water polo, athletics, weightlifting, with many of them becoming international stars inside their sports. The successful organisation of the Athens 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games led also to the further development of many sports and has led to the creation of many world class sport venues all over Greece and especially in Athens. Greek athletes have won a total 146 medals for Greece in 15 different Olympic sports at the Summer Olympic Games, including the Intercalated Games, an achievement which makes Greece one of the top nations globally, in the world's rankings of medals per capital.
Baseball at the Summer Olympics unofficially debuted at the 1904 Summer Olympics, and became an official Olympic sport at the 1992 Summer Olympics. The event was last played in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing with South Korea taking the gold; the sport was dropped from the Summer Olympic programme, but will be revived as part of the programme for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Handball at the Summer Olympics refers to two different sports. Field handball was introduced for men at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, but dropped after that. At the 1952 Olympics, field handball was a demonstration sport. (Indoor) handball was introduced for men at the 1972 Summer Olympics, also on German territory. Women's handball competition was introduced at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
These criteria are only a threshold for consideration as Olympic sport. In order to be admitted to the Olympic program, the IOC Session has to approve its inclusion. There are many sports that easily make the required numbers but are not recognized as Olympic sports, mainly because the IOC has decided to put a limit on the number of sports, as well as events and athletes, in the Summer Olympics in order not to increase them from the 28 sports, 300 events, and 10,000 athletes of the 2000 Summer Olympics.
At the 1900 Summer Olympics, five equestrian events were contested. Three of these had been considered "Olympic" by the International Olympic Committee in the past. The IOC website currently has affirmed a total of 95 medal events, after accepting, as it appears, the recommendation of Olympic historian Bill Mallon for events that should be considered "Olympic". These additional events include the other two equestrian events. It is not certain how many competitors there were, but it is likely that there were between 37 and 64. Calculation of number of competitors is complicated by the fact that a rider might enter an event multiple times on different horses. Five nations competed in the Olympic jumping events, with three more (Germany, Spain, and Austria) in the other two competitions. There were two female riders: Elvira Guerra, who competed in the hacks and hunter combined event, as well as a Frenchwoman "Moulin", whose first name is not known.
Basketball at the 1960 Summer Olympics was the fifth appearance of the sport in Olympic competition. 16 nations were admitted into the Olympic tournament, with many others being eliminated in a pre-Olympic tournament held earlier in the year from 13 to 20 August 1960 at the Land Rover Arena at Bologna. 64 games of basketball were played in the Olympic tournament that was held at the Palazzetto dello Sport and PalaLottomatica, both in Rome.
Shortly after its foundation, the committee drafted the first athletes to participate under the Bosnian flag in the Olympic games for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.National Federations of Bosnia and Herzegovina are the organizations that coordinate all aspects of their individual sports. They are responsible for training, competition and development of their sports. There are currently 24 Olympic Summer and 6 Winter Sport Federations and six Non-Olympic Sports Federations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to Dyer in 1982, exclusion of netball from the Summer Olympics is part of the historical pattern of the slow growth and gradual acceptance of women's sports. Women first competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics in only three sports: tennis, croquet and golf. Women's cycling was excluded for many years despite having world championships organised by 1958. Field hockey, a sport included for men as early as 1908, was not open to competition by women until 1980. By the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, there were 159 medal events for men, but only 86 for women, and 12 for both men and women, and as late as 1996, 26 countries sent no women to the Olympics. There were still sports that excluded women at the 2000 Summer Olympics, such as boxing, wrestling and baseball. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, every country but Nauru did, and both men and women competed in 34 sports.
Emil Milev (; born 2 May 1968) is a former Bulgarian sport shooter, and currently a sport shooter for the United States, who competed in the 1992 Summer Olympics, in the 1996 Summer Olympics, in the 2000 Summer Olympics, and in the 2004 Summer Olympics. At the 2012 Summer Olympics he, competed for the US, finishing in 13th place.
The following sports (or disciplines of a sport) make up the current and discontinued Summer Olympic Games official program and are listed alphabetically according to the name used by the IOC. The discontinued sports were previously part of the Summer Olympic Games program as official sports, but are no longer on the current program. The figures in each cell indicate the number of events for each sport contested at the respective Games; a bullet (•) denotes that the sport was contested as a demonstration sport.
Syrian Olympic Committee sent a team of seven athletes, four men and three women, to compete in five different sports at the Games, matching the nation's roster size with Beijing 2008 and Atlanta 1996. This was also the youngest delegation in Syria's Olympic history, with about half the team under the age of 25, and many of them were expected to reach their peak in time for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Among the sports represented by the athletes, Syria made its Olympic debut in table tennis, as well as its return to judo after a twelve-year absence.
Baseball was first played at the Summer Olympics as a demonstration sport at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis. It was then played as a Demonstration sport at the Summer Olympics in 1912, 1936, 1956, 1964, 1984 and 1988. At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Baseball made its debut as an official medal sport. It was then present at each Summer Olympic Game until the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing where it was last played at the Olympic Games.
The playing surface of the court varies between Olympic Games. It has been on hard court for every game since 1984 except for the 1992 Olympics (which was on a clay court) and the 2012 Olympics (which was played on a grass court). The changing playing surface gives certain players different advantages and disadvantages not seen in most other Olympic sports.
Norway competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. This was the nation's twenty-fourth appearance at the Summer Olympics, except for the sparsely attended 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, and the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, because of the United States boycott. With the absence of women's football and handball teams, Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports sent the nation's smallest delegation to the Games since the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. A total of 53 athletes, 36 men and 17 women, competed only in 12 different sports. There was only a single competitor in badminton, swimming, taekwondo, weightlifting, and wrestling.
Dubravko Šimenc's father Zlatko was a water polo player who won the silver medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics playing for Yugoslavia, and also a professor at the Faculty of Kinesiology. Šimenc's mother was a volleyball player. As a boy, Šimenc played many different sports. He started to play water polo in 1975.
Tennis was part of the Summer Olympic Games program from the inaugural 1896 Summer Olympics, but was dropped after the 1924 Summer Olympics due to disputes between the International Lawn Tennis Federation and the International Olympic Committee over how to define amateur players. After two appearances as a demonstration sport in 1968 and 1984, it returned as a full medal sport at the 1988 Summer Olympics and has been played at every edition of the Games since then.
Breen has announced in 5 Olympic Games during his career, 1 Winter Olympics and 4 Summer Olympics. At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Breen called basketball, handling play-by-play for both the men and the women. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Breen called ski jumping. Breen served as a play-by-play announcer for NBC Sports coverage of men's and women's Basketball at the 2008 Summer Olympics.