30 greatest one-time sports in Summer Olympics history

24. Underwater Swimming
1900 Paris Olympics

What makes underwater swimming different from regular swimming? Pretty much everything. Underwater swimming is not a race, but it has a straightforward points system that prioritizes distance and time. Swimmers are given two points for every meter swim and another point for every second they are underwater. It honestly sounds like a pretty interesting sport.

Here’s one big issue with the sport and the reason it’s probably not on the Olympic program after 1900, spectators in the arena cannot see the swimmers. There was no intrigue because it was basically guess work for everyone who wasn’t a judge. You don’t really know where the swimmer is until they finish their run. It just didn’t equate to an exciting experience.

The winner of the event was Charles DeVandeville of France. He basically had as close to a perfect heat as one could. He swam the maximum 60 meters, giving himself 120 points. He did it in 68 seconds. Andre Six, who secured the silver medal, also did the full 60 meters, but he did it faster than DeVandeville, so he lost. Wait… what? 

There were clearly flaws with the current rules of the sport, but it seemed like it had something there. We’re surprised they went the route of just canceling the event entirely instead of making tweaks to prioritize greatness and find the best possible swimmers.