A pre-Olympic minipost
Early on rope climbing, tug-of-war, and shooting live pigeons were Olympic events. Over time there's been both churn and growth as audiences have changed and grown. The International Olympic Committee recognizes a number of sports federations which government Olympic sports, potential Olympic sports and sports that would never be candidates (non-physical sports like chess and bridge and sports like auto racing and aerobatics that motors). Getting a new sport into the Olympics involves politics and the television target market of the games. The IOC has been worried about attracting a younger viewership so we have several Winter sports, BMX biking, skate boarding, sport climbing and surfing appear in recent years.
Many of the new events are interesting from an amateur science point of view. I was going to write about surfing, but there are a couple of key points that are better communicated visually. This video does an excellent job covering the basics of why it is possible to surf including how you can travel faster than the wave.
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