30 greatest one-time sports in Summer Olympics history

11. Two-hand Shot Put
1912 Stockholm Olympics

The shot put is one of the oldest track and field events, but they only tried this particular event once. The two-handed shot put is not like it sounds. It’s not an event where athletes use both hands to throw the shot put. Instead, the event would allow athletes to throw the shot put three times with each hand. Then, judges would take the best score with each hand and figure out the winner. 

Only seven people competed in the event, representing five different countries. The best of the best in this competition ended up being the same as the single-hand shot put event. That might be a huge reason why this only lasted one year. If it’s not doing a good job of discerning itself from the more popular event, it will eventually be rendered useless. While the finish was in a different order, the same athletes were involved. 

The competition was incredibly exciting. It came down to Ralph Rose of the U.S., Pat McDonald of the U.S., and Elmer Niklander of Finland. Niklander had an amazing off-hand throw to lead him to the finals. There, the three men’s throws with their off-hand, which ultimately found a winner, were within .04 meters of each other. 

Rose ended up winning the competition, beating McDonald by .02 meters. He was the world record holder for shot put at the time, so he walked in as the favorite. Niklander’s performance in the preliminary round had some thinking an upset was on the horizon, but it wasn’t meant to be. McDonald did upset Rose in the single hand, with Niklander finishing fourth.