史上最奇怪的奥运项目

在奥运会发展初期，人们想方设法丰富奥运项目，将各种成熟或不成熟的运动引进奥运会。这些项目有的长期保留了下来，有的却如昙花一现。被淘汰的这些项目里不乏一些奇怪的运动，着实让人惊讶不已，甚至忍俊不禁。

Tug-of-War

拔河

Tug-of-War, which is now pretty much reserved for church picnics, summer camp color wars2) and "Real World/Road Rules Challenge3)" events, was an actual Olympic sport in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1920.

Olympic tug-of-war was eight-on-eight, and would be won when one team pulled the rope six feet. In the five Olympics, Great Britain won the most tug-of-war medals (two gold, two silver, one bronze) and the U.S. won the second most (one of each medal).

One more note: Back then, a lot of Olympic athletes were just regular dudes4) who happened to show up to the right place on the right day. So the Olympic tug-of-war squads5) weren''''t handpicked teams of athletes groomed6) from birth like our Olympians today. No, the U.S.''''s 1904 gold medal winning tug team was the tug-of-war team from the Milwaukee Athletic Club. In 1908, the gold went to the London police force''''s team.

拔河这一项目现在一般只在教堂野餐、夏令营颜色大战以及《真实世界/公路竞技版》中才会出现。而事实上，拔河曾是一项奥运赛事，在1900、1904、1908、1912和1920年的奥运会上都举行过。

奥运会的拔河比赛双方各8人，以最先将绳子拉过河界6英尺(译注：约合1.8米)为胜。在这5届奥运会中，英国在拔河比赛中获得的奖牌最多(2金、2银、1铜)，美国次之(1金、1银、1铜)。

再补充一下：在那个年代，许多奥运选手都只是普通的人，他们不过是在正确的时间(比赛当天)出现在正确的地点(比赛场地)罢了。也就是说，和现在从一出生就开始受训的奥运选手不同，当时的奥运会拔河队并不是由精心挑选出来的队员所组成的。噢，不对，在1904年那届奥运会上夺冠的美国拔河队来自密尔沃基体育俱乐部，而1908年的金牌则由伦敦警察组成的拔河队摘得。

Plunge for Distance

水上跳远

OK, you know how when you were, like, six, you and your friends all stood at the edge of a pool to see who could jump in the furthest? That was once an Olympic event.

At the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, there was an event called plunge for distance. A diver would stand stationary7) on the edge of a pool, then, from that stand still, jump as far as possible. Once they got underwater, they could glide8) forward for up to 60 seconds ... or as long as they could keep their head below the surface. Only five people competed and all of them were from the U.S. The winner was William Dickey, who made it 62.5 feet. That doesn''''t seem like that far.

Like most of the events on this list, plunge for distance was a one-and-done event, never appearing again.

嗯，你应该还记得，在你差不多6岁的时候，和小伙伴一起站在游泳池边往下跳看谁跳得最远的经历吧？这种跳水方式曾是一项奥运赛事呢。

1904年圣路易斯奥运会有一项比赛叫做“水上跳远”。潜水者先是一动不动地站在游泳池边，接着便以这种静止站立的姿势尽力向远跳。入水后，运动员可以继续向前滑行60秒钟(编注：运动员被禁止用手或脚划水推动身体向前)……或直到自己坚持不住把头伸出水面为止。当时仅有5人参加了此项比赛，都是美国人。威廉·迪基以62.5英尺(译注：约合18.75米)的成绩夺得金牌。看起来也不是很远么。

正如这张名单所列举的很多其他项目一样，水上跳远也不过是昙花一现，以后再也没有举行过。

Live Pigeon Shooting

活鸽射击比赛

There''''s only been one Olympic event in history where animals were (intentionally) harmed. And that was live pigeon shooting in 1900 Paris Olympics. The goal of the event was to stand there with your gun and kill as many pigeons as possible. For the event, more than 300 pigeons were shot and killed. Leon de Lunden of Belgium won the event with 21 kills. It was the first and last time animals were killed for an Olympic event.

历史上动物受到蓄意伤害的奥运项目仅有一次，那就是1900年在巴黎奥运会上举行的活鸽射击比赛。这项比赛的目标是，运动员持枪站定，尽可能多地射杀活鸽。三百多只活鸽在该届奥运会上被射死，来自比利时的莱昂·德伦登以射中21只活鸽的成绩夺得金牌。动物在奥运会上被杀，这是历史上的第一次，也是最后一次。

Swimming Obstacle Race

障碍泳

Now this sounds really cool ... and sounds like another thing little kids do in a pool. This is another 1900 Paris event, and took place in the Seine9).

First, competitors had to swim to a pole, then climb up it, then slide down it. Then they''''d swim toward some boats, which they had to climb over. After that, more swimming to more boats ... but this time, they had to go under. Overall, they''''d swim 200 meters with a lot of climbing in between.

Frederick Lane of Australia won the swimming obstacle race, doing it in 2:38.4. Turns out he also won the 200-meter freestyle, swimming that in 2:25. In other words, all the pole and boat climbing only slowed him down by 13 seconds.

现在提到的这项比赛真的很酷，听起来像小孩们在游泳池里玩的又一个游戏。这也是1900年巴黎奥运会上的一项赛事，比赛地点是塞纳河。

首先，选手们得游向一根标杆，爬至杆顶后再滑下去。接着，他们要向几艘小船游去，并从船上一一爬过。此后，他们要向更多的小船游去……不过这次他们得从小船底下游过去。选手们总计需要游200米的距离，并在其间爬上爬下。

澳大利亚的弗雷德里克·莱恩以2分38秒4的成绩获得了此项比赛的冠军。同时，他还以2分25秒的成绩赢得了200米自由泳比赛。也就是说，水面中的标杆和小船只让他耽搁了13秒。

1. roster [?r?st?(r)] n. 花名册；项目单

2. color war: 颜色大战，一种常在夏令营、学校和某些社会组织中进行的游戏。该游戏参加者被分成若干组，每组分别代表一种颜色，通过竞技得分。常见游戏种类有拔河、躲球游戏、射箭、足球、篮球等。

3. Real World/Road Rules Challenge: 《真实世界/公路竞技版》。它是美国一档真人竞技电视节目。

4. dude [du?d] n. (男)人，家伙

5. squad [skw?d] n. 小队

6. groom [ɡru?m] vt. 训练

7. stationary [?ste???nri] adj. 静止的；停滞的

8. glide [ɡla?d] vi. 滑行；游动

9. Seine: 塞纳河。它是法国一条重要的大河，巴黎就是在该河的一些主要渡口上建立起来的。