The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro will feature 306 distinct medal events, in sports from aquatics to wrestling. However, only a fraction of those will be shown during NBC's primetime coverage, which means if you're not paying attention you'll miss some of the oddities of worldwide sport—like handball, racewalking, or synchronized footbag. (OK, not that last one.) That's where we come in: with a few new sports, some relics from Ye Olde Olympics, and some criminally overlooked but still thrilling events, your Summer Games are about to get a whole lot more interesting.
The fútbol tournament is one of the few instances where competition takes place far away from the host city—and, in this case, will reuse several stadiums built for the Brazil-hosted 2014 World Cup. The US Women’s national team is looking dominant as it chases its fourth consecutive gold medal, so the more dramatic narrative comes on the men’s side: Brazil will be seeking redemption on home soil after getting absolutely shellacked by Germany in the semifinals of the 2014 Cup. With the country’s most exciting player, Neymar, acting as captain, *Canarinho *will be under the microscope—which will make for some exciting competition.
The last time Rugby was an Olympic event was 1924, when the United States defeated France for gold in the Paris games. The sport has finally been revived in Rio, but not as the 15-a-side version seen in the early 20th century. Now it’s called Rugby Sevens, named for the number of players on each team at a given time, though it still takes place on a standard-size rugby field. Because it requires fewer players and fosters a more open playing style, the game has taken root in more countries around the world, making it more widely competitive than the larger version. Get acquainted now, before the Rugby Sevens World Cup comes to the Bay Area in 2018.
Every time the Winter Olympics come around, there are always stories about curling, a.k.a. Giant Ice Shuffleboard. If you’re looking for a summer sport that's similarly unknown/misunderstood in the States, look no further than Handball. It's a combo of indoor soccer, basketball, and water polo—and is without question the most exciting sport American audiences don’t pay enough attention to. France is on the quest for a third consecutive gold in the men’s event, while Norway looks for the same on the women’s side, but at least things promise to be more competitive than mudhole-stompings that are the basketball events.
Olympic table tennis is sneakily one of the best televised events at the games. Points rarely take as long as rallies in tennis or badminton, but the spin action players put on the ball is gorgeous to behold—either in slow motion, or in breakneck real-time. As with badminton, Asian nations dominate the table tennis medal table, with China garnering 24 of the 28 total gold medals given out in the sport since its introduction in 1988. The Gold Medal game for men and women has been an all-China match for the last two Olympics, but that doesn't make what that tiny plastic ball does any less crazy.
Four years ago, the only thing mainstream viewers knew about equestrian was that Mitt Romney’s wife Ann co-owned one of the horses competing in the dainty, dancy dressage. But that’s not the right equestrian event to focus on. Three-day eventing, which has individual and team competitions, is basically the horse equivalent of gymnastics all-around. It includes show jumping and cross country—the latter of which, with its obstacle and water jumps, is deceptively exciting.
Bored at the thought of an Olympic tennis tournament without Roger Federer? Think table tennis is just too damn small? Then try badminton, the just-right oatmeal of the racquet sport family. Most people think of badminton as a relaxing, leisurely garden activity. (Think of that one scene in Disney’s Robin Hood.) But at the Olympics, it's a parade of lightning-quick volley shots over the net and booming overhead slams. Only 10 nations have medaled in badminton at the Olympics since it became a regular event in 1992, but half of those are Asian countries. China has dominated, but South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, and India all have medals as well.
Look, I didn't even want to include this one here; race walking is a patently ridiculous sport. (Ed.—mwahahahahaha) It's like running, except you have to have one foot touching the ground at all times. It is by far the silliest looking event in the entire Olympics, and that includes the ones where a rider makes a horse dance and gymnasts flick ribbons around while pseudo-tumbling. The best thing I can say about race walking is that it helped inspire one of the best episodes of Malcolm In The Middle. There are 20 and 50 kilometer events, but the men's 2ok takes just over an hour, long enough to watch the whole race and not get bored with how utterly absurd it all looks.
Much like snowboard events have become the equal of traditional skiing events at the Winter games, BMX has become the newest mainstay of cycling, a discipline that has been a part of every single Summer Olympics since the modern games were revived. It’s not the X Games, but at least the Olympics have opened up to the point where men’s and women’s BMX racing takes place alongside the longer, traditional cycling events—which are a total snoozefest for a television audience. (Sorry, roadies.) It’s like short-track speed skating or snowboard cross, but with dirt bikes—chances for wipeouts and spectacular crashes is high as riders jostle for position over the course of a heat. BMX only awards two medals, but don’t miss either.
Fencing, shooting, running, swimming, show jumping—all in the same day. That’s the concept behind Modern Pentathlon, the strangest hodgepodge of competition anywhere in the Olympics. "Modern" is a bit of a misnomer: the events were selected by Olympics founder Pierre de Coubertin to test for the ideal cavalry soldier at the end of the 19th century. It's also somewhat of a zombie event, popular almost nowhere in the world; it only exists because it was devised specifically for the Olympics. Still, the bizarre all-day one-shot makes for one of the oddest viewing experiences possible.
