Heres a video rundown of all of these strange sports and where they came from.
If you cant watch, read on below.
So what makes it race walking and not just long distance running?
Equestrian Dressage
Dressageis, in essence, horse dancing.
In French, dressage literally means training, and thats whats truly being tested during the competition.
As theInternational Federation of Equestrian Sports puts it, dressage is the highest expression of horse training.
Scoring nines means the routine was exceptional.
Knowing that makes watching the race a lot fun.
This year it takes place onAugust 13th, 15th, and 17th.
Trampolining
Trampoliningis part acrobatics and part, well, jumping on a trampoline.
Its awesome looking, and it makes you want to jump on a trampoline too.
The sport was added to the Olympic gymnastics events in the 2000 games and has stuck around ever since.
The goalkeeper resides in a zone near the goal where nobody else is allowed to enter.
Otherwise points are more often scored by passing the ball around and throwing the ball into the goal.
Matches have two periods of 30 minutes, and whoever scores the most goals wins.
Best of all, body contact is allowed, so its a lot of fun to watch.
Like handball, water polo is a contact sport, so things can get pretty physical.
The event has been part of the Olympics since 1992.
Green gates are downstream gates, and red are upstream.
Canoe/kayak slalom is intense and a lot of fun to watch.
Hammer Throw
You know what sounds fun?
Grabbing something heavy and seeing who can throw it the farthest.
Thehammer throwis odd-looking, dangerous, and super fun to watch.
Winning is plain and simple: whoever throws it the farthest wins.
To the untrained eye, synchronized swimming just looks like people twirling around in a pool.
The technical routine contains predetermined elements that every team must perform in a specific order.
The free routine is where teams get to choreograph their own moves and be more creative.
Illustration by Sam Woolley.
