AJ-3-The-categorization-of-sport-branches

3) THE CATEGORIZATION OF SPORT BRANCHES

The simplest and most used approach is viewing sports as Olympic and non-Olympic sports. People with variol physical or mental impairments compete in Paralympic sports. There is a list of so-called recognised sports, which means sports recognised by the IOC. When focusing on particular cultures, nations, regions or countries, we can mention national sports. There is an increasing number of sports that are called extreme sports

OLYMPIC SPORTS

The Olympic sport is defined by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as follows:
An Olympic sport must be widely practised by men in at least 75 countries and on four continents, and by women in at least 40 countries and on three continents.

A discipline is a branch of an Olympic sport including one or more events. For example, Aquatics is an Olympic sport comprising four Olympic disciplines: swimming, diving, water polo, and synchronised swimming. One of swimming events is 100m breaststroke.

The events programme for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games held in Beijing (China) will list 28 sports (35 Olympic disciplines), and the Olympics will stage 302 events (165 men’s events, 127 women’s events, and 10 mixed events), which is one more than in Athens 2004. Nine new events will be held (e.g. two events from the new cycling discipline of BMX, women will compete in 3000m steeplechase, both men and women will compete in swimming marathon over 10km), some former events will be removed and some replaced or alternated.

The 2006 Winter Olympics held in Turin (Italy) featured 84 medal events in 15 disciplines grouped over 7 sports. Events that made Olympic debut in Turin included Mass start biathlon, Team sprint cross-country skiing, Snowboard cross and Team pursuit speed skating.

So called demonstration sports or events, which used to be introduced at the Olympics in the past, have not been held at any Olympics since 1992.

The Summer Paralympic Games currently stage 20 sports including four unique sports designed only for the disabled.

The Winter Paralympics include 4 sports. Some rules of common sports are modified and adjusted for the needs of athletes with disabilities.

THE LIST OF OLYMPIC SPORTS HELD AT THE 2008 SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

(the number of events to be contested in each sport is indicated in brackets)

• Aquatics (46): Diving (8), Swimming (34), Synchronised swimming (2), Water polo (2)

• Archery (4)

• Athletics (track and field) (47)

• Badminton (5)

• Baseball (1)

• Basketball (2)

• Boxing (11)

• Canoeing (16) (Whitewater Canoeing and Kayaking, Flat Water Canoeing and Kayaking)

• Cycling (18) (Road Cycling, Track Cycling, Mountain Biking, BMX Cycling)

• Equestrian (6) (Show Jumping, Military Equestrian, Dressage)

• Fencing (10)

• Football (Soccer) (2)

• Gymnastics (18) (Artistic Gymnastics, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline)

• Handball (2)

• Hockey (field) (2)

• Judo (14)

• Modern Pentathlon (2)

• Rowing (14) (Rowing and Sculling)

• Sailing (11)

• Shooting (15)

• Softball (1)

• Table Tennis (4)

• Taekwondo (8)

• Tennis (4)

• Triathlon (2)

• Volleyball (4) (Volleyball, Beach Volleyball)

• Weightlifting (15)

• Wrestling (18) (Greco-Roman Wrestling)