The 24th Winter Olympic Games will kick off in Beijing on February 4, 2022.
The 21st Winter Olympics 100 Questions | What unpopular projects have appeared in the history of the Winter Olympics?
From the first Winter Olympics in 1924 to the upcoming 24th Beijing Winter Olympics, the competition items of each competition are almost different. With the continuous development of winter sports, the competition items of the Winter Olympics are constantly being updated. In the process, some projects slowly withdrew from the stage of the Winter Olympics.
Figure skating is called “ballet on ice”. But many ice fans did not know that there was a project in the past Winter Olympics called synchronized skiing.
In the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics and the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics, synchronized skiing appeared as a performance item. On the field, athletes must complete a series of jumps and dance moves with music. The referees scored based on the players’ technical completion and artistic level. However, this event ultimately failed to become an official event of the Winter Olympics.
Speaking of dog sledding, many people would think that it was once a means of transportation in the Northeast. But at the 1932 Lake Placid Winter Olympics, dog sledding was a performance event at that time.
According to the rules of the competition, the athletes have to sit on the sled, and six sled dogs are hauling the sled to complete the 40-kilometer-long track. If a dog is injured during the race, the athlete can hold the injured dog on the sled to the finish line. At that Olympics, a Canadian named Emile Saint Goddard won the championship. He is also the only dog sledding athlete to enter the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.
Biathlon is now an official event at the Winter Olympics. It is a combination of cross-country skiing and shooting with two different characteristics. What everyone doesn’t know is that the predecessor of the biathlon was a military patrol.
Military patrols were once the official competition of the first Winter Olympics. However, in the 1928, 1936 and 1948 Winter Olympics, military patrols have all appeared as performance items.
The content of military patrols is also divided into cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is a group project, and each “patrol” consists of four people, including an officer. Participants dressed in military uniforms, stepped on skis, and carried a 24 kg backpack to complete the 25-kilometer race as a team. Then proceed to the shooting project.
The steel framed snowmobile is also a relatively niche project at the Winter Olympics. In the 2nd Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland in 1928, it was included in the official competition. However, because of the high risk factor, the steel-framed snowmobile was removed from the Winter Olympics for a period of time. Until the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the steel-framed snowmobile rejoined the Olympic family. (Xing Rui)
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