We all love the Olympics because there is nothing quite like screaming passionate instructions at the TV about a sport we learned existed exactly five minutes ago. But we need to address the elephant in the stadium: some of these events are purely unhinged.
There are actual humans out there voluntarily flinging themselves off ice cliffs or doing backflips with knives attached to their feet. Who authorized this? Why is “life-threatening sliding” a hobby? And why is the Winter Olympics a million times more unhinged than its summer big sister? We have more questions than answers, so let’s swan dive into Olympic sports that prove humanity has absolutely zero chill.
#1 Ski Ballet
We need a moment of silence for the greatest loss in Olympic history. Ski Ballet was a demonstration sport in the late 80s and early 90s, and it was exactly as majestic as it sounds. Imagine figure skating, but instead of skates, you have 6-foot-long planks attached to your feet, and instead of grace, you have a perm and a neon windbreaker.
Athletes would perform 90-second routines to synth-pop music, doing spins, flips, and a move called the “pole flip” where they used their ski poles to vault themselves into the air. It was essentially “Jazzercise on Ice.” It was never brought back after 1992 because the Olympic Committee apparently hates joy (and probably because snowboarding became the “cool” new kid), but the footage of skiers doing dramatic pirouettes with puffy sleeves remains the peak of human athletic achievement.
Image source: Chris Cole
#2 Breaking
Breaking (do not call it “Breakdancing” unless you want to be roasted by a teenager in a beanie) had a brief, glorious, and confusing moment in the sun at Paris 2024. It is the only Olympic sport where “vibes” and “style” are technical metrics, and where you can win a medal by spinning on your head while wearing oversized cargo pants.
The competition is a 1-on-1 battle where athletes take turns “serving” each other, which mostly consists of aggressive hand gestures and freezing in positions that defy orthopedic science. Unlike figure skaters who rehearse their routines to the same song 5,000 times, Breakers have no idea what music the DJ is going to play. They have to improvise their entire routine on the spot. It is essentially an athletic panic attack set to a hip-hop beat.
#3 Luge
Luge is just a Slip ‘N Slide designed by a psychopath. You voluntarily lie down on your back, feet-first, on a tiny fiberglass tray and rocket down an ice chute at 90 mph. There are no brakes. I repeat: there are no brakes.
The only way to steer is by subtly flexing your calves, which feels less like a sport and more like a panic response. The race begins with the athletes frantically paddling the ice with spiked gloves like a cat trying to escape a bathtub, before they lay back and accept their fate.
Image source: Richard Heathcote
The Ancient Greeks definitely didn’t have the Winter Games because doing bare wrestling in sub-zero temperatures causes shrinkage, not glory. It wasn’t until 1924 in Chamonix, France, that the IOC finally said, “Hey, you know all those sports where you can be ended by hypothermia? Let’s give them medals!” Before that, figure skating was actually part of the Summer Olympics, which makes no sense.
In the early days, the Winter Games were mostly for wealthy European aristocrats who had “chalet money” and nothing better to do than slide down hills on wooden planks. There were no spandex bodysuits or aerodynamic helmets; just wool sweaters, flat caps, and a cigarette hanging out of the mouth for warmth. It was all about who could survive a week in the Alps without being eaten by a yeti.
Fast forward to today, and the Winter Olympics have morphed into a showcase of gravity-defying insanity and high-tech gear that costs more than a car. It’s the rebellious younger sibling of the Summer Games, the one that chugs energy drinks and dyes its hair blue, proving that humans will turn literally anything into a competitive hazard.
#4 Flag Football
Flag Football is making its debut in LA 2028, and it is a massive victory for anyone who peaked in 4th-grade gym class. It is essentially American Football, but without the protective gear, the tackling, or the looming threat of medical bankruptcy. Instead of smashing into your opponent like a human battering ram, you have to delicately snatch a velcro strip off their waist.
The NFL players are reportedly desperate to play, which means we might see Patrick Mahomes throwing dimes against a team from a country that literally learned what a “touchdown” is three weeks ago. In this version, you aren’t allowed to use your hands to protect your flags. If you try to stiff-arm a defender to stop them from grabbing your waist, you get penalized. You basically have to run for your life while keeping your hands up like you’re being arrested.
Image source: Jupiterimages
#5 Skeleton
Skeleton is for people who looked at Luge and thought, “This is great, but I wish I could see the wall I’m about to smash into.” While Luge is feet-first, Skeleton requires you to sprint bent over, dive head-first onto your sled, and hurtle down the track with your chin hovering approximately one millimeter above the ice. It is essentially competitive face-planting at 80 mph.
There is no steering wheel; you steer by dragging your toes and shifting your weight, which is the equivalent of trying to drive a Ferrari using only your thoughts. Also, the sport was allegedly named “Skeleton” because the original metal sled looked like a bony frame, but it just feels more like subtle foreshadowing.
Image source: Mohamed Nohassi, Richard Heathcote
#6 Golf
Golf at the Olympics feels a bit like your dad crashing a college rave. While everyone else is doing backflips and sprinting until they throw up, these guys are aggressively walking in khakis. It was absent from the Games for 112 years (presumably because nobody could stay awake long enough to hand out the medals), but it’s back in full swing.
Not many sports see the crowd being actively threatened into silence. Volunteers hold up “QUIET PLEASE” paddles, and if you sneeze during a putt, a millionaire will glare at you like you just insulted his ancestors. And yes, this is also where you will find the richest “athletes” in the entire Olympic lineup.
Image source: Nathan Anderson
The Summer Olympics are the original spectacle, dating back to 776 BC when the Greeks decided the best way to honor Zeus was to run around unclothed and throw heavy rocks. There were no participation trophies or corporate sponsorships back then. You either won a laurel wreath or you brought eternal shame upon your entire city-state.
Modern Summer Games are a logistical nightmare that takes over a major city for two weeks, turning traffic into a parking lot and forcing locals to rent their closets on Airbnb for $500 a night. We have thousands of athletes competing in everything from “running really fast” to “hitting a shuttlecock,” all while the rest of the world watches from the couch, eating potato chips.
While the Winter Games are about surviving the elements, the Summer Games are about surviving the sheer volume of events. There are over 300 medal events, meaning you can watch someone lift a car-sized weight in the morning, and someone else perform a ribbon dance in the afternoon. It is a glorious, sweaty buffet of sports that we will never dare to try.
#7 Curling
Ever think your sweeping skills can land you a gold medal? Then curling might be for you! One person slides a 44-pound granite rock down the ice, while two teammates frantically scrub the floor in front of it with brooms like they just spilled red wine on their mother-in-law’s white carpet.
The goal is to get the rock into a target called the “house,” and the main strategy involves screaming “HARD!” at an inanimate object until it obeys the laws of physics. It is silly in all the best ways and is slowly becoming a cult classic with almost 2.5 million people sweeping to their heart. Move over pickleball, there is a new obsession in town!
Image source: Justin Setterfield
#8 Race Walking
Race Walking is the sport for anyone who has ever been late for a flight but refused to run because they were wearing sensible slacks. Let’s call it “competitive urgency.” The athletes walk 20 kilometers while wiggling their hips with unmatched aggressive violence. In this Olympic event, looking cool is explicitly against the rules.
The “loss of contact” rule is the most important. The judges stare at the athletes’ feet like hawks to ensure one foot is touching the ground at all times. If you levitate for even a nanosecond (i.e., if you actually start running), they hold up a yellow paddle to shame you. Also, watching a slow-motion replay of a race walker’s face as they endure 20km of hip-shattering agony is pure cinema. Kubrick could never.
Image source: Hannah Peters
#9 Biathlon
The Biathlon is a Scandinavian feverdream. It combines cross-country skiing with rifle shooting, because why not? You ski until your heart rate is approximately 180 beats per minute, then you have to stop, steady your shaking hands, and shoot a target the size of a golf ball from 50 meters away.
If you miss a shot, you don’t just lose points; you are forced to ski the “Penalty Loop.” It’s a literal circle of shame off to the side of the track where you have to ski in a tiny circle to think about your failure while your opponents zoom past you. Emotional damage included!
Image source: Alexander Hassenstein
If you think modern sports like Breakdancing are controversial, you clearly haven’t looked at the Olympic archives from the early 20th century. The 1900 Paris Games were essentially a chaotic free-for-all where the organizers just shrugged and said, “Sure, that looks like a sport.” It was a lawless era where safety regulations didn’t exist, and the rules were made up on the fly.
Before the IOC got strict about “standardization” and “not ending people,” the Olympics were a beautiful mess of trial and error. They threw spaghetti at the wall to see what stuck, and unfortunately, a lot of what stuck involved live ammunition and tug-of-war. These events were often held alongside the World’s Fair, meaning the line between “elite athletic competition” and “carnival sideshow” was blurry at best.
#10 Live Pigeon Shooting
This is not a drill. This actually happened. In 1900, the Olympic Committee went through a brief “supervillain” phase and decided that the best way to celebrate human excellence was unintentional mass avian extermination. Competitors stood in a line while live pigeons were released from boxes, and the goal was simply to blast as many as possible out of the sky.
If you missed two birds, you were eliminated. By the end of the day, over 300 birds left the land of the living, and the field was a horror show of feathers and gore. The winner, Belgian Leon de Lunden, managed 21 birds to take home the prize. Thankfully, they switched to clay targets (“skeet”) immediately after this, presumably because the janitorial staff refused to clean up a bird massacre ever again. Zero stars. Would not recommend.
Image source: Levi Meir Clancy
#11 Nordic Combined
Nordic Combined is the sport for people who couldn’t decide between being a bird and a marathon runner, so they just chose “both” and hoped for the best. It combines ski jumping with cross-country skiing. It is a physiological paradox.
The race format, known as the “Gundersen Method,” is also delightfully unfair to the casual observer. The winner of the ski jump gets to start the cross-country race first, while everyone else chases them with a time penalty based on how “bad” their jump was. Imagine running a marathon, but the guy in first place gets a two-minute head start because he looked prettier while stretching. Good luck catching him!
Image source: Alex Pantling
#12 Tug-O-War
Yes, the sport that currently decides which 3rd-grade class gets to go to lunch first was once a legitimate Olympic event (1900–1920). It was less about aerobic fitness and more about which country had the heaviest, burliest men who could dig their heels into the mud and lean backward.
In a move that feels very “local tavern league,” countries could enter multiple clubs, meaning the Gold Medal match was often something like “The City of London Police” vs. “The Milwaukee Athletic Club.” The 1908 Olympics featured the “Great Boot Scandal” when the American team accused the Liverpool Police team of wearing illegal boots with massive steel cleats that essentially bolted them to the ground. The British judges inspected the boots, shrugged, and said they were just “standard police issue.” The Americans were so mad they stormed off and quit. We need this level of petty drama back immediately.
Image source: Curated Lifestyle
These discontinued events show us that while we have evolved as a species, we used to be incredibly bored and dangerously creative. So keep up your weird hobby, because one year your random obsession might just become an Olympic event!
What has been your favorite drama from the 2026 Winter Olympics? Share your highlights in the comments!
#13 Bobsleigh
If a luger ever thought, “This is terrifying, but I refuse to perish alone,” bobsled might be the answer. Teams of two or four giants in spandex sprint alongside a bathtub on skates like they are trying to jump-start a 1998 Honda Civic, then leap inside with practiced synchronization.
Once inside, if you aren’t the driver, your job description is humiliating: you are “meat.” You tuck your head between your knees in the fetal position and let physics rattle your brain for 60 seconds. There is a very strict weight limit for the combined crew and sled. If the athletes are too skinny (unlikely, since they are massive), they bolt metal plates into the sled. If they are too heavy, they have to lose weight. Imagine training for four years only to lose Gold because your brakeman had a second helping of lasagna.
#14 Artistic Swimming
It used to be called Synchronized Swimming, but they rebranded, presumably because “Competitive Drowning with a Smile” was too wordy. This sport is terrifying. Eight people in nose plugs and waterproof makeup thick enough to caulk a bathtub perform a water ballet while holding their breath for half the routine.
Above the water, they are smiling like flight attendants; below the water, their legs are churning in a violent “eggbeater” kick that could power a small speedboat. They boost teammates into the air like human dolphins, and if they mess up, they just sink. Their hair stays perfect because they plaster it down with Knox unflavored gelatin. Yes, the food ingredient. It turns their hair into a helmet that requires hot water and a chisel to remove. Also, if they touch the bottom of the pool? Major penalty. The floor is lava, but wet.
Image source: Yong Teck Lim
#15 Ski Mountaineering
Ski Mountaineering (or “Skimo” if you’re cool/pretentious) is a new addition to the Olympics, and it is built on a fundamental misunderstanding of how skiing works. The entire point of skiing is that gravity does the heavy lifting. We invented chairlifts for a reason!
These masochists just said, “No thanks, I hate comfort.” The race involves slapping sticky carpets called “skins” onto the bottom of your skis to trudge up a vertical slope, then ripping them off to ski down, and sometimes strapping the skis to a backpack to run up a cliff on foot. It is essentially a high-altitude panic attack. The “transitions” are iconic, though. Watching an athlete violently rip the skins off their skis with shaking hands while hyperventilating is everything we signed up for during the Winter Olympics.
Image source: Getty Images
#16 Dressage
Dressage, aka “Horse Dancing,” is the most aristocratic thing humans have ever invented. A rider wearing a literal tailcoat sits on a 1,200-pound beast and forces it to perform ballet moves to a generic techno beat. The goal is for the rider to move as little as possible. If you can see them steering, they are failing. They are basically controlling a massive animal using only their buttocks and telepathy.
The highlight is the “piaffe,” a move where the horse trots energetically in place without moving forward. The “Error of Course” happens if the rider forgets the pattern (which is just riding in circles in a sandbox), the head judge rings a literal bell to stop them. You have to trot over to the judge’s booth like a naughty schoolchild to be told you turned left instead of right. Humiliation level: 100.
Image source: Elisa Pitkänen
#17 Short-Track Speed Skating
If regular skating is a graceful ballet, short-track is a bar fight on blades. Imagine Mario Kart, but everyone has knives strapped to their feet and there are no brakes. A pack of skaters is crammed onto a tiny hockey rink, zooming around at 30 mph while leaning so far over they are practically licking the ice.
The “strategy” here seems to be 50% skill and 50% praying you don’t get taken out by a rival who tripped on a molecule of air. You can be leading the entire race, looking majestic, and then—BAM—one guy falls three spots behind you and takes out the entire pack like human bowling pins. Oh, and the relay race? The official way to exchange skaters is to forcefully shove your teammate’s tushy to launch them into traffic. It is pure chaos, and we are obsessed.
Image source: Getty Images
#18 Hot Air Ballooning
Because nothing screams “peak athletic performance” quite like standing motionless in a wicker basket for three hours while wearing a top hat. Included in the chaotic fever dream that was the 1900 Paris Games, this event was nothing more than competitive floating.
There is no running, no jumping, and definitely no sweating. The only muscle you need to flex is the one that pulls the “fire” cord. The “athletes” were judged on distance, duration, and elevation, but we all know you can’t steer a hot air balloon. You just go up and hope the wind doesn’t blow you into Belgium. The winner was a French count (obviously), because who else has the time and money to own a decorative sky-bucket?
Image source: Brett Sayles
#19 Trampoline
Remember what you were doing in your backyard in 1999? But instead of landing on a rusty spring and needing a tetanus shot, these people launch themselves 30 feet into the stratosphere with sheer precision. The athletes spin and twist so fast they are nothing but a blur to the untrained eye.
It’s genuinely terrifying because one wrong move and you aren’t just losing points, you’re exiting the venue through the roof. There are “Spotters” surrounding the trampoline, who are coaches holding big red mats, looking like they are waiting to catch a falling piano. Their entire job is to throw a cushion under the athlete if they go rogue and fly off the side. It’s the only sport where the safety equipment is “Gary with a foam mattress.”
Image source: Jamie Squire
