30 greatest one-time sports in Summer Olympics history

12. Vocal
1948 London Olympics

For some of these events, it’s really hard to find information. Since these sports not only were discontinued before digital history could be recorded but since these events were one-off, the Olympics often want them to be forgotten. The art competitions are prime among them, but in the final year of art competitions, they tried to include more music before ultimately getting rid of art altogether. 

That includes a vocal competition for the first time, but there’s very little record of it besides one medal given to Gabriele Bianchi. He sang "Inno Olimpionico,” which is an Olympic anthem. With more research, we found many of the art competitions had to have a sports theme to it, which explains why Bianchi chose the song.

What we don’t know is why he was the only vocalist listed, and why he was only given a bronze medal. It’s likely this was more of a formal medal, as he wrote the song in 1947. So it’s possible this wasn’t an official “event’ and more of a medal honor. Bianchi was already an Olympic “athlete,” performing in the orchestra section of the 1936 Games.

It would have been nice if this was some sort of competition like The Voice where singers from around the world sang for judges and won medals based on their prowess. Do you think there were swinging chairs in the 1940s?