The Paris 2024 Olympic Games featured a unique mix of traditional and modern sports, with several exciting additions that brought a fresh perspective to the competition. These additions, often referred to as ‘fringe disciplines,’ reflected the evolving landscape of sports and the increasing popularity of urban and action-oriented activities.
Skateboarding:
Making its debut at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, skateboarding continued to captivate audiences in Paris. The sport offered two distinct disciplines: park and street. In park skateboarding, athletes navigate a course featuring bowls and bends, performing gravity-defying tricks mid-air. The street competition, on the other hand, takes place on a ‘street-like’ course with obstacles such as stairs and handrails, mimicking the urban environments where skateboarding originated. Both disciplines showcase the agility, creativity, and technical prowess of these athletes.
Surfing:
The picturesque surfing spot of Teahupo’o in Tahiti hosted the surfing competition, a sport that made its Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020 and returned to Paris. Surfers execute a variety of maneuvers and tricks on the waves, judged by five judges based on the difficulty, variety, and execution of their moves. Speed, power, and flow, the seamless transition between maneuvers, are also crucial elements in the scoring. Shortboards, known for their speed and maneuverability, are the preferred choice for Olympic surfers.
Mountain Biking:
Introduced at the Atlanta 1996 Olympics, mountain biking has become a staple of the Summer Games. The sport features cross-country races for both men and women, where riders navigate challenging terrain, showcasing their endurance, technical skills, and stamina. Races typically involve multiple laps around a mountainous course filled with twists and turns, testing riders’ limits over several kilometers.
Sport Climbing:
Sport climbing, a combination of three disciplines—bouldering, speed, and lead—made its Olympic debut in Tokyo and continued in Paris. Bouldering involves athletes climbing a 4.5-meter wall without ropes in the shortest time and with the fewest attempts. In lead climbing, competitors scale a 15-meter wall in six minutes, reaching as high as possible in a single attempt. Speed climbing, as its name suggests, is a race against the clock, where climbers ascend a 15-meter wall with a five-degree incline.
3×3 Basketball:
This urban sport, with its roots in street basketball, has experienced a meteoric rise in popularity. Played on half a basketball court, 3×3 basketball features two teams of three players competing for a single hoop. The game is fast-paced and dynamic, with teams scoring points by making shots inside the three-point line (one point) or outside (two points). The first team to reach 21 points or the team with the highest score after 10 minutes wins.
