Four years have passed since the marvelous opening ceremonies at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
This time around the summer Olympics are set in London, England — one of the biggest and most prominent cites in the world.
The world has been waiting with anticipation for the Olympic performances of athletes like Michael Phelps in swimming and Usain Bolt in Track.
As well as the drama that always comes with women’s gymnastics. And of course, who could forget about the American Men’s basketball team going for the repeat?
The Olympics are always fun to watch, to cheer on your country in some incredible sports. Some that we are familiar with and some that, well, we aren’t.
Everyone is familiar with swimming, gymnastics, and track and field being sports at the Olympics.
And some might find it as a surprise that sports such as tennis, soccer, and boxing are Olympic sports as well. The general public is familiar with these sports, but has never realized that they were also in the Olympics.
But those aren’t even the surprising ones. There are some sports in the Olympics that I am almost certain most of the general public has either never heard of or at least did not realize were a part of the Olympics.
So I put together a list of the top five Summer Olympic Sports that made me say, “What?”
5. Badminton: Yes, the sport you probably played in high school during weight training after you were done working out. It’s an Olympic sport, who knew.
Keep up the hard work and you can make your way from the gymnasiums of Apalachee and Winder-Barrow High School to winning an Olympic gold medal for your country.
4. Sailing: Sail boats are no longer just for relaxing days on the water. Now they are also used for extremely competitive competition between rival nations fighting it out for glory and control of the seas.
I was aware of rowing being an Olympic sport, but had no idea that sailing was apart of the Olympics as well.
3. Fencing: Mom always said to never play with knives when we were kids, unless of course, you plan on competing in the Olympics in fencing.
Fencing has been a popular sport for the upper class of the world for centuries, but I had no idea that highly-sophisticated sword fighting was an Olympic sport.
2. Table Tennis: Just a fancy word for ping pong, although, on a whole different level.
The same game you play after school when you get home with your best friend from down the street is also an Olympic sport.
Though, there is a considerable difference between playing ping pong in your garage and competing in the Olympics.
1. Handball: And coming in at number one is Handball. Yes, Handball.
So what’s Handball? Up until now, I never knew that there was a legit game called Handball. I simply thought that it was a game that changed from playground to playground with everybody having different rules and regulations on how to play.
Come to find that there actually is a certain way to play and it has rules that you must follow, incredible. A sport that you can never play the same way twice when with your friends is actually an Olympic sport.
So, those are the most surprising sports from this summer’s Olympics, what an exciting summer we have set for us in London.
Only thing left to ask is, how much longer before Billiards and Ultimate Frisbee become Olympic sports?
Tyler Rollason is a Winder-Barrow High School graduate and mass communications major at the University of West Georgia. You can e-mail comments about this column to tyrollason@yahoo.com.
