The weirdest Olympic events – horse long jump, town planning and pigeon shooting
- British swimmer tells Games to forget gimmicks, but Olympic history is full of bizarre events such as duelling pistols
- Paris 1900 was a high point with its swimming obstacle course and hot air ballooning but recent Games have proved just as odd
Other swimmers might think British breaststroker Adam Peaty is from the future. He is undefeated in the 100m in the last five years and has swum the 14 fastest times in history.
Peaty is also the only man to have broken the 58-second and 57-second mark for the event. He is often a second or two ahead of his competitors as if he has been sent back in time to kill their dreams of victory.
For a man who is pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved, he has an old fashioned view of what should be in the Olympics, telling The Sun newspaper that he wants to see the number of events cut back rather than expanded – Tokyo 2020 will feature climbing, surfing and skateboarding for the first time, while Paris 2024 is set to include breakdancing.
“It’s not just swimming, it’s athletics, too. No disrespect to the other sports but we’re adding more sports at an unparalleled pace and that just dilutes the Olympics.
“We need to go back to the heritage of the main Olympic sports instead of trying to find something else that could be an Olympic sport.”
But what would happen if we went back to the heritage of the Games? Peaty and others might be surprised to see what have passed for Olympic events in years past.