MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
OK, so there's been a lot of coverage of breaking or breakdancing, which, of course, made its Olympic debut this year in Paris.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
That's right. But, you know, that made me wonder, Mary Louise - what sports and events have they taken out of the Olympics over the years? So I did some digging to find out.
KELLY: Excellent question. What did you find?
CHANG: Well, up first, hot-air ballooning - it was at the 1900 Olympics.
KELLY: Really? That was a sport?
CHANG: It was. I mean, I didn't compete in it, but basically...
KELLY: (Laughter).
CHANG: ...The participants had to fly their balloons as close as possible to a target and then drop a weighted marker as close as they could to that target.
KELLY: Fair enough. All right, what else did you find?
CHANG: Well, did you know, Mary Louise, that there used to be arts competitions?
KELLY: I did not. Art, like painting art?
CHANG: Well, more than that. Competitors could win an Olympic medal for architecture, literature, music, painting and sculpture. At the 1948 games, there were even medals given out for poetry.
KELLY: Finally, an event I could compete in.
CHANG: (Laughter).
KELLY: OK, what else?
CHANG: Well, we know they still have shooting competitions, but they used to have pistol dueling way back at the 1908 games.
KELLY: Pistol dueling?
CHANG: Yeah (laughter).
KELLY: I'm frightened to ask how you win.
(LAUGHTER)
CHANG: OK, well, it wasn't an actual duel, like in the old Western movies. Instead, competitors fired wax bullets at human-shaped dummies with a bullseye on the chest area.
KELLY: (Laughter).
CHANG: So it's kind of safe.
KELLY: OK. Any others to land this for us?
CHANG: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. OK, the last one - and I think they could actually bring this back - it is the classic tug-of-war.
KELLY: What - how did they ever get rid of that?
CHANG: (Laughter).
KELLY: That sounds perfect.
CHANG: I know, right? From 1900 to 1920s, when this event happened, eight players on each team, with a marker in the middle of the rope - both teams pull until the marker reaches their side.
KELLY: Now, that I could get behind watching.
CHANG: Me too.
(SOUNDBITE OF NEAL FRANCIS SONG, "DON'T CALL ME NO MORE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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