subject: Ioc: Defining Sports [print this page] The London Olympic 2012 will be inaugurated on the July 27, 2012; also called the Summer Olympics and there will be 26 sports categories in all. Whereas the 2014 Winter Olympics will in all include 7 sports. As informed by the International Olympic Association, two more sports are expected to be added in the 2016 Olympics. The sporting events tend to undergo slight changes every four years with some modifications and alterations with the changing times. All the Olympic sports are represented by an International Federation which is the International governing body of that particular sport. The changes in the sports are mostly effected by the federation.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has defined a hierarchy and classification for all the sports. The classification is further divided into multiple disciplines, and each discipline is a sport in itself. The sport or discipline is further subdivided into events for which actual medals are awarded. For example: Swimming, synchronised swimming, diving, water polo and open water swimming are all internationally governed by the International Swimming Federation. It is the authority of the ISF to bring about the necessary modifications and technological up gradation necessary for the sport. All the disciplines of swimming come under the banner of Aquatic sport. You can buy Olympic images of all the aquatic events that are included in the London Olympic Games. In all there are 46 events in the Olympics dedicated t aquatic sports. Similarly Skating, ice dancing, speed skating, figure skating, synchronised skating and short track speed skating are internationally governed by the International Skating Federation.
Skiing being a winter sport has the largest number of disciplines in the Olympic Games. There are in all six disciplines such as cross country skiing, alpine skiing, Nordic combined, snowboarding, ski jumping and freestyle skiing. Gymnastic is another multi-discipline sport with disciplines such as artistic, trampoline and rhythmic. Cycling has four disciplines such as track, road, mountain and BMX. It is possible to buy content having the details of all the disciplines and events that are part of the Olympics Games. Gymnastics, swimming, fencing and athletics are amongst those sports which have never been excluded from the programme sheet of Olympic Games.
International Olympic Committee has been pro women in order to live up to its vision and mission of promoting women sports. There are several disciplines only for women, such as synchronised swimming and rhythmic gymnastics. There are also several sporting events in which women cannot take part and are dedicated for men only. Which sport to include and which sport to exclude is decided by the IOC, and many times the decision is made by simply seeing the interest of the sport amongst the masses. Polo and Tug of War had been on the programme sheet of the Olympic Games, but with time were excluded. Whereas archery and tennis were also discontinued for a period of time, but its increasing fans following helped regain this event its lost status.
The two new games that are planned to be included in the Summer Olympics of 2016 are Golf and Rugby. Curling was the last winter sport added to the Olympic Games in the year 1998. You can buy new articles in order to update yourself with the sporting events recently added and the ones with pending decisions. There are several other sports which need to be included and are pending decision with the International Olympic Committee, but since the IOC has decided to cap the number of events to 28, all the athletes and fans of these events have to wait for some more time.
