30 greatest one-time sports in Summer Olympics history

20. Roller Hockey
1992 Barcelona Olympics

Roller hockey gained popularity in the 1980s and 90s, so the Olympic committee considered adding it to the Summer Olympic program. Ice hockey is obviously one of the premium events for the Winter Olympics, but could that popularity be replicated for summer? Clearly, it wasn’t to be. Roller hockey was a demonstration sport in 1992, but medals were awarded to the winners.

Back then, roller hockey was actually called “rink hockey.” Roller skates, or quad skates, were used instead of roller blades like it’s played today. Twelve countries took part in the competition, with Argentina winning the gold medal. 

The competition used the 1991 Rink Hockey World Championships to seed the teams. It worked similarly to football, where teams are placed in groups and the best teams of each group advance to another group-style competition to select the top two teams. In this case, six of the 12 teams advanced to that group stage, and then Argentina and Spain won that group to make it to the championship, which Argentina won on Spain’s home rink.

Unfortunately, there apparently wasn’t enough backing to bring roller hockey back to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and we haven’t heard it mentioned as a possibility since. Roller hockey has lost popularity in the 21st century, so we don’t expect it to be played outside elementary school gyms.