Philip Barker: Breaking the latest chapter in the evolution of the Olympic sports programme – Insidethegames.biz

Last week, the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) announcement that breaking would be part of the 2024 Games in Paris was the latest chapter in the evolution of the sports programme over 125 years.

As with many recent additions, the sport was first seen under an Olympic umbrella at the Youth Olympic Games.

The competitors use sobriquets instead of their real names when they dance, and there is the obvious attraction of a potential Olympic champion called "Bumblebee" or "Yell" - two of the names used at Buenos Aires 2018.

Breaking will form part of what the IOC have described as an "urban concept showcasing youth-focused events that are inclusive, engaging and can be practised outside conventional arenas".

When IOC President Thomas Bach's Agenda 2020 was approved in 2014, host cities were given the opportunity to propose suitable sports for their Games.

Thus, baseball/softball is included for Tokyo 2020 where the sports enjoy great popularity.

In addition, 3x3 basketball, skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing are all set for a debut at the rescheduled Games in July.

There will be 32 sports at Paris 2024, including the nine which were included when the Olympic Games were relaunched for the modern era in 1896.

Back then, however, there were only 176 competitors and all were male.

The decision to revive the Games was made in June 1894 during a Congress at the Paris Sorbonne, organised by the French aristocrat Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

Athens was chosen as the first host city for 1896 and distinguished Greek man of letters Demetrios Vikelas became the first President of the International Committee for the Olympic Games, an organisation soon to become the IOC.

Coubertin became general secretary. Time was short and there was much work to be done, and the provisional sports programme was high on the list of priorities.

Records of the Congress show that this question was discussed. Boxing, ice skating and polo were all mentioned but did not make the final cut.

Then, in November 1894, some 29 distinguished Greek personalities gathered for a preliminary meeting in Athens.

The results of this gathering were published in the third edition of the new bulletin of the International Committee of the Olympic Games, and featured a list of sports for inclusion at the 1896 Games in the Greek capital.

These included a footrace to be called a "marathon", to be contested over a distance of 48 kilometres from Marathon to Athens. Michel Breal, a member of the Institut de France, offered a gold cup as a prize.

There was also a list of athletics events to be held in the stadium.

In those days there was no international governing body for athletics, so track events were to be run according to the regulations of the "Union des Socits franaises de Sports Athltiques".

The field events were to be under the rules drawn up by the Amateur Athletic Association in England.

At the Congress, it had been suggested that a "general athletics championship should be introduced under the name of pentathlon".

This did not happen in 1896, but an all around contest of ten events was introduced later.

Gymnastics and wrestling were also held in the stadium.

So was weightlifting, the focus of such scrutiny by the IOC Executive Board in 2020.

It was not listed on the original provisional programme but did take place in the stadium in 1896. The format was rather different back then, with medals awarded for one handed and two handed lifts.

Fencing, with regulations drawn up by the "Socit dencouragement de lEscrime" in Paris, was held at the Zappeion, an impressive building a few metres away from the main stadium.

Although pe was listed in the originally projected programme, the other events lasted longer than expected and so competitions were not held.

Nautical sports were also planned. This included swimming, held from a pontoon out in the bay. The sea water in March 1896 was, unsurprisingly, said to be icy cold.

Rowing had also been planned, with races conducted according to the rules of the "Rowing Club Italiano".

The regatta was to be held at the Bay of Phaleron but the weather on the appointed day took a distinct turn for the worse.

At first, organisers postponed racing until later in the day, but as the lavish official report of the Games records "unluckily the bad weather turned into a real storm".

"The elements continued to rage with such fury that every idea of a boat race had to be given up," the report adds.

Sailing was also cancelled "since we had no proper boats for this, nor did any foreign ones occur for the contest".

Equestrian events were also originally included in the plans for the Games.

They had been mentioned at the Congress in Paris and were also included in the list published in the bulletin. The official report explained why no events took place.

"Greece had no horsebreed of her own and Athens no racecourse," wrote Timoleon Philemon, secretary general to the Organising Committee.

"To lay out a course in so short a time was quite out of the question and the heavy expenses of such an undertaking had also to be taken into account."

The 1896 organisers listed athletic "games" which were not to be confused with athletic "sports". Cricket was mentioned and this would be played "according to the laws of the Marylebone Cricket Club".

Despite Coubertin's fondness for the sport, there were to be no "flannelled fools" in Athens, although a match was played in 1900 and a tournament was initially in the plans for the 1908 Games.

USA Cricket have made its inclusion at Los Angeles 2028 a target, although much will depend on the attitude of the powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India, which is set to debate the matter on Christmas Eve.

Tennis was the other "athletic game" to be listed.

In 1896, men's singles and doubles were the only events contested, although the pairings in the latter event permitted a mix of nationalities.

This is a concept which has been tried in various sports at the Youth Olympics, although not yet restored to the Games themselves.

Tennis, indoor and out, was ever-present right up until 1924, after which it was taken off the programme after disagreements over the definition of amateur status.

It did not return for another 64 years, when its reappearance, perhaps more than any other sport, was emblematic of the new open Olympic era.

Paris last hosted the Games in 1924, and gold in the men's individual cross country was won by the peerless Paavo Nurmi after a race held in intense heat.

Although Nurmi appeared unaffected, other runners suffered, notably at a wall obstacle. One report described how Sweden's Edvin Wide "climbed to the top and then fell down".

With "glassy eye" and "feeble limbs", he again scrambled to the top but again "fell back".

It was a negative image for the sport and it has not been contested on the Olympic programme since.

Many had hoped that it might make a comeback for Paris 2024. Like breaking, cross country was included at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games, but the IOC decided not to include it in France.

The decision came much to the chagrin of World Athletics which declared themselves "clearly disappointed it will not feature at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, even more so given the heritage of cross country in France at the Paris 1924 Olympic Games".

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