30 greatest one-time sports in Summer Olympics history

1. Cricket
1900 Paris Olympics

Speaking of future iterations, cricket is the only sport on this list that we know for a fact is on this list for the last time. Cricket will officially join the ranks as an Olympic sport in 2028 when athletes head to Los Angeles. Cricket is one of the world’s most popular sport, with huge regions of Asia and the Middle East putting together dominant teams. However, teams out of Europe and the Americas can still compete, as the U.S. proved when they beat Pakistan.

In 2028, it’s going to look completely different than it did in 1900. In this version, there were only two competing teams. Great Britain took on France, winning the national competition. Britain won the match, which was held over two days, by 158 runs.

Funnily enough, cricket was supposed to be the only team sport held at the very first Olympics in 1896. It was expected to be a welcome back to this international competition, but they didn’t receive enough interest from across the globe to include it. Then, four years later, the Olympic Committee could only get two teams involved. 

The Olympics did not want to give up on cricket, putting it up to be played at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, but again a lack of entries caused the competition to be cancelled. Despite some pushback from cricket leaders across the world, many eventually relented and cricket will once again see a national stage after failing to draw interest a century ago. We feel it will be the right time and the right place.