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Canoe sprint is a flat-water racing discipline in which athletes paddle single or multi-person kayaks and canoes over straight sprint courses, relying on explosive power, technique and endurance to cross the finish line first. It is one of the oldest paddling disciplines on the Olympic programme and the direct sighted counterpart to para canoe. Origin […]

Breaking, widely known as breakdancing, is a highly athletic style of street dance built around dynamic footwork, freezes, power moves and acrobatic floorwork, performed competitively in head-to-head battles judged on creativity, technique, musicality and execution. It made history in 2024 as the newest sport added to the Olympic programme. Origin and history Breaking emerged in

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and Olympic combat sport characterised by fast, high kicks, dynamic footwork and full-contact sparring, in which points are scored by striking an opponent’s torso or head with the feet and hands under strict target and technique rules. Origin and history Taekwondo developed in Korea in the mid-twentieth century, drawing

Padel is a racket sport played in doubles on an enclosed court roughly a third the size of a tennis court, where the surrounding glass and mesh walls stay in play, allowing the ball to be returned off a bounce off the walls. Combining elements of tennis and squash, it has become one of the

Teqball is a football-based sport played on a curved table, in which two players or teams use only their feet, thighs, chest and head to send a football back and forth over the table’s raised centre, combining football touch skills with a table-tennis-like format. Invented in Hungary in 2014, it is one of the fastest-growing

Slap fighting is a combat sport in which two competitors take turns striking each other across the face with an open hand, standing still with no blocking or dodging allowed, until one is knocked down, incapacitated or unable to continue. Stripped of nearly all technical complexity found in conventional combat sports, it has become one

Cheese rolling is an English folk tradition in which competitors chase a round wheel of cheese down a dangerously steep hill, with the winner being whoever crosses the finish line first — or, in practice, whoever survives the fall closest to the front. Held annually at Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire, it is one of the

Para canoe is the Paralympic adaptation of sprint canoeing, in which athletes with physical impairments race single kayaks or va’a (outrigger canoes) over sprint distances on flat water. It pairs the technical demands of elite paddling with equipment and classification systems designed to keep competition fair across a wide range of impairments. Origin and history

Goalball is a team sport created specifically for athletes with visual impairments, in which players use hearing and touch rather than sight to defend their goal against a ball fitted with internal bells. It is one of the few sports developed exclusively for blind and visually impaired athletes rather than adapted from an existing sighted

Sepak takraw is a team sport native to Southeast Asia in which players use their feet, knees, chest and head — never their hands — to keep a small woven ball airborne and send it over a net into the opponent’s court. Often described as “kick volleyball,” it combines the tactics of volleyball with the